But I still like plants and gardens,

Having said that earlier today about being a bit off gardening, I still like plants and helping people do the right thing with their gardens. I just can't be bothered about my own garden. I'm still quite happy to help people figure out what can go in and when, figure out pest and disease problems and improving their soil; I know that stuff, it's easy for me and I'm very happy to share it.
Until the mouse 'problem' in the garden is solved I'm not gonna bother with vegetables. Mmm, except those lettuce seedlings I got yesterday. Perhaps I'll grow them in tubs away from the rodent zone.
When our garden has brief visits from ring-neck parrots and New Holland honey-eaters I just want to plant more native shrubs for them but know that I should be growing more human food stuff.
Improving habitat helps with pest control so its good to combine the types of plants.

Planting natives.

For someone who is supposed to be a keen gardener I'm not very keen sometimes!
At the moment my vegetable growing efforts are being badly thwarted by mice which eat any seeds, parsley or broccoli I try and grow. It's a bit more difficult killing mice outdoors. I don't want to use a rodenticide as they cause secondary poisoning of birds that catch the poisoned mice while they are dying. Most baits cause internal hemorrhaging of the poisoned animal causing a slow death. When a raptor eats one they take in the poison too, slowly dying in a lot of pain.
Racumin is the only choice if I were to poison as it doesn't kill things that eat the poisoned rodents, but still, I'm just not into poisons! I may have to resort to Racumin though as I just noticed the mice are also eating the silverbeet which until this point had been untouched. Grrr.
I have just planted a Chorizema cordatum in the garden. It is a pretty understory plant from the forest here. I am hoping it will grow in the shady spot in the garden underneath an Acacia cyclops.
I am sometimes quite torn between the idea of growing food for myself or food for native fauna. We have a lot of legless lizards and fence skinks and the frogs but I love to see birds visit the garden and I also love insects. I want to grow food *and* create habitat. Most of the native plants are around the edges of the garden or out the front but the centre beds and other areas with more sun are best for food. Except the mice are putting paid to that. So just for today I'll just look at the locals and sus' out where to get some poxy Racumin and how to put the bait out in a safe way so my dogs can't get at it.
Edit: I bought some traps and put peanut butter on them. It's gross but necessary. I might put the 'humane' trap out too. We usually freeze the little beggars..it's meant to be one of the most humane ways to kill something.

Useful weeds discovery of the day.

Nettle, comfrey and nasturtium are a great combination of weeds to add to compost. Between them they access all the nutrients in the ground that plants need. They are all great plants in their own right and grow readily in the cooler seasons in this climate.

Nettles: good indicator of plenty of nitrogen in the ground. Highly nutritious edible leaves - after wearing gloves to pick them they are not prickly once cooked.

Comfrey - brilliant for compost and 'poo tea' for gardens. It has a long root system so it can bring up nutrients that are a bit below others range. The leaves can then be used for the above applications. It also has medicinal uses, which are controversial. It is also edible in small doses. Comfrey is probably a weed in some wetter areas than Perth.

Nasturtium: common nasturtium is quite rampant in the cooler rainy season but is easily controlled by pulling up. The flowers are edible and look good in salads. There are other varieties of nasturtium that behave a bit better and stay where you plant them. The Alaska nasturtium (pictured above) is a variegated variety that stays put.

Of course, always check before foraging for weeds that no one has sprayed or its not getting road run-off or some nastiness on it.

Mundaring Weir.

We were going to the hills to buy a cheap CRT monitor from some one as ours had died so thought we'd check out some bush nearby. Since the dog was with us we weren't allowed into Lake Lechenaultia, so stopped up the road a bit and found a spot he could run around. There were a few Hibbertias in flower and a pretty little Daviesia. There were flat sundew plants here and there.
From there we went to Mundaring Dam and had a ltttle walk across the top. It has been a long time since I visited there; I'm quite positive the water was much higher back then.

We can't ignore the trouble we're in.

I heard a not-so -hilarious comment the other night.."Kevin Rudd (our new Prime Minister) has made petrol prices go up. It's only happened since he came in." I know I'm a bit better educated than most, and care a lot more, about the environment, but it's not Kev's fault..it's Peak Oil and the fact that the previous government was keeping prices low through subsidies. Many goods are subsidised and petrol is one of them.
It's not one persons fault that the price of oil has finally started to go up. It's everybodies fault that lives in the modern world.
How long can we continue to ignore that we are deep in trouble with all the solutions possible but no direction being taken to start on the good road to living in a future that is not all food riots and starvation.
Living in ignorance is not going to save us. Pretending there is no climate change is not going to help. Alternative energy needs to be made more affordable. Emissions from industry need to be reduced.
We can't keep putting our heads in the sand. Unfortunately the modern person thinks its okay to spend huge amounts of money on useless crap that is polluting in its manufacture and used a few times before it goes to the tip and leaches its toxins into the groundwater.
Changing peoples behaviour is a hard thing to do. It will be forced on us.
Ugh...