In the last 30 days we have had 26 days of rain and of those 14 had over 5mm. To be completely honest with you I did round up two days from 4.8 to the nearest whole number. One day even had a whopping 50mm. All in all we had 206.6mm of rain in the 30 days I decided to do my 30 beds in 30 days challenge. And it wasn’t just the days it was raining that stopped me getting out there, but the days afterwards waiting for the earth to stop making that sucking noise as it pulled all the surface water back to its regular table. So all things considered – I did a grand job. I have cleared 14 and a half beds.
So I have decided to change the rules of my challenge and extend it by two weeks to make up for the torrential deluges. And of course in the interests of fairness – if it rains again in those two weeks then I would be obliged to shift the end goal once more. Well – you can’t work wet soil and I really don’t want to catch a cold. Although at this rate I will still be clearing beds at Christmas time as the next 10 days all have rain in pictures on the weather boffins website in varying degrees of intensity – but mostly really quite extreme. I am looking forward to the predicted 100km winds tomorrow – not! I hope they got this one so very wrong!
But it hasn’t all been staring longingly out the window. There was rain today – a bit of a splat in the morning and despite being dark and gloomy, it soon dawned on me that that was it – there wasn’t any more rain. So I seized the moment, grabbed a beany and a warm jacket and tried to have a productive day.
The first thing I did was mow the grass as a fresh cut makes it seem like a fresh start or in this case a restart. I started mowing three days ago and I broke the mower. The pull cord broke and it sucked back into its inner being without a trace. Conveniently a handy friend came over. This was a job too far for Hubby the Un-Gardener. There were pop rivets holding the doofery on that had sucked in the string. I was all for going out and buying a new one. I had one eye on the sky and I really wanted to finish the job. But our handy friend fixed it all like new – well not quite new as the poor wee thing has been brutalised and terrorised in the few short years we have had it. Its wheels have been welded back on – TWICE, it has dents and dings on the body. The screws that hold the handle from folding over on itself have long since disappeared and with the promise of buying new ones I wound the broken limbs with waterproof duct tape on a hot sunny day way too many months ago. The cover that hid all the mechanicky bits seems to have disappeared since its latest repair. We had one job… but it still works and so I figure it was just cosmetic anyway.
So with a restored mower and an absence of rain I returned to the garden only to find I couldn’t tell where I had been three days earlier. Seriously the grass has grown so much. It should have been an obvious delineation between mowed and unmowed, but I couldn’t see it. So I started all over again!
Spurred on by the burst of invigoration that mowing brings I prepared a bed to plant out my shallots and elephant garlic, I tightened some ties on a willow branch we had lobbed into the ground and are expecting to turn into a magnificent tree. And it was probably just as well considering tomorrows impending power breeze. I harvested some coriander before it disappeared into all that feathery foliage that is all fluff and no substance and next to impossible to harvest a descent amount to add zing to a meal. So I chopped it all up finely and flat packed it into a plastic bag and bunged it in the freezer. I should sow more. It seems like I did more than that and my body aches from the effort, but that was it.
Oh but I did write a list of all that needs doing – it isn’t that long under the circumstances – with it being winter and all. But if I leave winter chores to sneak into spring it will unleash all kinds of chaos, so I must carry on in the bits of day between the rain, wind and strange weather symbols that I don’t know what they are (I never did find out what that last one was as nothing strange happened.)
Come again soon – progress of sorts is being made.
Sarah the Gardener : o )
I think you have done brilliantly well, all things considered 😁
Thanks Elaine. Not only do we have impending rain for the next wee while – it coincides with the school holidays and so getting any done will be quite a challenge.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Perseverance wins the day! (Or the season, as it may be.)
Hi. I keep telling myself one foot in front of the other… otherwise the enormity of it all is quite overwhelming. But this whole thing is something I chose to do – so luckily I enjoy it – although not so much in the freezing cold!
Cheers Sarah : o )
You have been so busy, I get tired just reading about it. I guess I will have to actually get to work so I don’t feel quite so lazy. Glad you let us know what you have been up to.
Hi Lucinda. Sometimes it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere at all, until you write a list of all you have done. Although the list of things I still have to do is about a mile long!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Reblogged this on Linda's wildlife garden and commented:
Awesome post thank you for sharing have a blessed day
I have just found your website and I love it. My coriander always goes straight to fluff and I never seem to get anything from it. The romanesco looks great – I have never managed to grow these, but perhaps one day… Hope the rain stops soon – claire
Hi Claire. I’m glad you enjoy my blog. Romanesco is one of my favourite brassicas – it has a almost sweeter, more mild taste than broccoli. It is worth giving it a go.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Excellent! I thought that I was going to have to shove my garlic into the ground and hide the fact but if you are doing it now as well, I can talk about it with impunity :). I am applauding your desire to exit the house, stage left, and actually head out into the garden. Me…not so much. Quite content to sit around in the warmth basking with cups of tea while the garden goes feral outside. We will be starting the dog compound extension next weekend and short of being good blog fodder, not much else will be going on aside from a gutter re-route to take advantage of the bit of rain we have been having lately and a lot of eating…got to keep up those calories when you hibernate you know! 😉
Hi Fran. I have carefully calculated the time to plant my onions and garlic as I really don’t want to be digging them up three days before Christmas on the shortest day. I have more pressing things to do that day. So I figured out when we would be back from the holidays and allowed a day or two for taking care of the mountain of dirty washing that holidays create and then counted back to when I should plant them for a more suitable harvest. Tomorrow is the day. The only problem is – my onion is too small still. Oh the best laid plans….
I have to say it does take every ounce of will to force myself out into the cold as I mostly want to sit by the fire and eat soup! But once I’m out there, I’m in to it!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I am sitting eating soup on a regular basis these days. Steve tries to ladle me from my soup eating chair and I start to grumble. Must be the bear in me complaining about being moved in my hibernation. I really can’t get over how organised you are about when to plant things and how long to wait etc. I guess that’s why you harvest food and I get powdery mildew, 4 spuds and a possum sucked silverbeet stalk? 😉
Your garden looks great. I love the goats!! Too cute! You have obviously been very busy. 🙂
Thanks so much. In the breaks in the weather it has been lovely to work in the garden. I really feel like I’m getting somewhere.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Congratulations on all those cleared beds, and well done, too, giving yourself a weather extension. I continue to lust over your rainy days, and unless our lot improves, I may have to give up my vegetable garden next year in the name of social responsibility. It really is feast or famine, as you don’t need all that extra rain either.
The goats are adorable! And again, I’m in awe of all that space. Beautiful, Sarah.
Hi Alys. It is actually quite pleasant to work out there when the sun is shining. When the wind stops blowing you can even detect the vaguest hint of spring in the air…. it is still a long way away – not not that far really.
It must be so hard living in a drought. We use water so freely as more seems to come out of the sky than ever comes out of the tap! Maybe you could give up something else in order to keep gardening… paper plates instead of washing dishes? — still environmentally friendly – you could recycle the dishes!
The goats are also VERY adorable when they escape and come to the front do to find us then run around wildly so we can’t catch them! We are going to build them a new fenced area to avoid this in the future.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Oh my goodness. The goats keep you on your toes. I hope you’ll catch a photo of them outside your door one day. Cuteness to the max.
I like the way you think, trading in one water use for another. I’ve been unable to convince my husband to remove the lawn, the thirstiest greenery of all, so I don’t know where else to cut. We had a water audit provided free by the city, and we’re already doing most things ‘right’ indoors: low-flow toilets, aerated faucets and only washing full loads of dishes and clothes. If someone doesn’t finish a glass of water, I give it to one of the house plants. If I rinse something, I try to catch the water and use that as well. I just read that one head of lettuce requires 16 gallons to grow. Who knew?
I’m feeling discouraged at the moment about all of it, but will come up with a plan and I’ll let you know.
Thanks for stopping by.
PS: our rain year ends September 30th. So far we’ve had 152 mm or 6 inches. 🙁
Gosh there was some towns north from here that had that much if not more) two days ago. Admittedly it has caused extensive flooding….
I’m sorry to hear about the flooding. It seems rampant this year, too. Many places with far too much water and flooding, others like us with nary a drop.