Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Blood oranges are delicious...

About a month ago.

Our little blood orange in a pot has been good to us, in return for us spoiling it rotten all summer, and now has 10 ripe fruit (nine, we just ate one).

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Water-repellency in Perth sands.

Here we are still hanging out for rain in Perth. It's on a promise .. "chance of a cloud" all week they reckon at the Bureau of Meteorology.
Even when it does rain, because surely it has to eventually, it will take some time before there is enough to soak into the ground and if we are really lucky some might even make its way to the dams or aquifers that are all parched too.

When the rain does come it also needs to be able to soak into the ground through our water resistant sands. I suspect there will be more problems with water-repellency this winter than previously. More soil has been allowed to dry out and have no vegetation on the surface so the organic bacterial and fungal compounds that are suspected of causing the problem have taken a stronger hold. Add to this the number of ants that are drying people's gardens out this desert year... we really need the rain!