I’m always so late at getting this missive in the airways, but this time I have gone past late and into total fail…I shall try to remedy the situation by completing January in the very first week (or die in the attempt), which could be a record.
We had a pretty dandy December. Quite a bit of rain early in the month, so the Summer perennials got the necessary boost to be looking either fantastic now or poised to be. Sadly the heat wave has now hit and we are having day after day of 30 deg frizzle with lots of strong drying winds as an accompaniment. Pretty scary when its only January and the worst is yet to come. The Metservice have invented a new weather warning called “Significant Heat”. We have it every day at the moment, and believe me, it is really shit.
We are so lucky to have a great water supply. We invested in a second bore last Summer, as the old baby got a bit tired during the big droughts. The new bore is young and frisky! and pumps water out of the ground at a very satisfying rate.
Due to this phenomenon we have now invested in a sprinkler. and may get several more…they really do waste the water when compared to hand watering, but hey, you can get something else done at the same time! For instance , last night while I cooked dinner for the family, I watered the Hot Border! It’s such an innovation to me, as at Weiti we never had enough pressure to run sprinklers so I’ve just always lived without them. I’m a self confessed Luddite! Now I have an I phone anything is possible…
In the meantime the Summer produce is starting to trickle/pour in. The tomatoes are still at the trickling stage, but the cucurbits and beetroot are definitely flooding. On the fruit front its a very mixed bag this year. The stone fruit are very low…almost no apricots and the peaches are very thin. The plum crop is probably a quarter of normal (still way too many!) The pip fruit set has been fantastic, but the early cooking apple Red Gravenstein is shedding all its fruit. I think its having a hissy fit about the dry hot weather! The one tree I ever water is the Avocado, it is laden with babies and I don’t want them to fall!!!
At this stage I’m going to admit that already it is not the first week in January, its now well into the second, I am really bad at finishing blogs! I have a lot of trouble with the photo section…can’t decide what to put on or can’t get it to work or something or other! So what I’m going to do is download the last few photos I took on my phone and put them on regardless of what they are of! Wish me luck, and if you are local and want some really good plant bargains, come to our Open Day on the 23rd…it’s our SIZZLING SUMMER SELLOUT
