What's going on in your garden (2018-2022)?

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Wow, three of us posted the same thing at the same time. :laugh:

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CD
 
Wow, I didn't know that. But I'm not a flower person, although I love carnations which we have growing now.
Thanks for the lesson.

Russ
 
Just called it a day after showing the seeds for my tender veg. Loads of things planted including tomatoes, courgettes, 2 varieties of squash, cucumber, okra (those seeds were not at all what I expected), rockmelon, watermelon, peppers (not chili peppers but various heritage colored peppers), some chives (not an issue with hardiness just laziness!), aubergines, and a few others. I still need to plant stuff out directly into the soil on the veg plot as well, but my back and arthritis have called it a day. I've been out all morning pottering around, so 4 hrs is enough.

I was re-tuned yesterday (there's a medical implant in my back that's a Neuro stimulator that has 2 leads against my spinal cord). I was having problems with getting relief from chronic back pain and pins and needles feedback in my right leg, so I went in to be re-tuned! I won't know for a while how well it has worked, so it was a case of a little of this, then 10mins weeding, 20 minutes watering (its due to rain pretty much noisy of this weekend, next week and next weekend so i decided i could run some water off from the watery tank without worrying too much about if and when I could refill it), another 10 minutes weeding, some more planting seeds, and so on. If I break things up into small chunks and continually change what I'm doing I can manage to work for a while if it's not too hot out.

Next weekend once the rain has passed, I'll uncover the sofa and chair on the veranda. They've spent winter under a waterproof groundsheet or two. After I've washed the sheets that cover them, I'll have my outdoor lounge back!

But what I really want to know from all of the other gardeners is this. Why is it I can not grow grass in the lawn for the life of me (ok there are 2 areas where it does grow but one is the gravel driveway, the other we re-seeded re-deserve we first moved here) but it quite happily grows in all the areas I want and try to kill it (such as flowery beds, veg plots, herb patches, plant pots and so on? It is so annoying! Lol
 
And there goes the timer, I need to go and turn off the water. I always set a timer when I have it running so that I don't forget. The lemon tree will happily have more water, but I still need to be careful. Just in case this rain doesn't materialise. Yesterday's didn't at all. So far today I've been wearing a sun hat all morning, had the sun blinds down on the veranda where I've been working and the UV alert on the new weather sensor has reached 9. Bear in mind that the UK UV range only goes as far as 8 (it's the same range, but in Aus it maxes out at 15 or 16, the UK only went up to 7 until 5 years ago when it was extended to 8, so right now it is at 9, that's higher that at anytime in the UK and we're not actually in summer yet, just goes to show how badly the ozone layer had been affected in Australia.

Russ, what's the ozone layer like over NZ? how high does the UV range go in your part of the woods? (Being a redhead with very fair and exceptionally pale skin, (i go brown by my freckles joining up) it is something i have to pay attention to.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
And there goes the timer, I need to go and turn off the water. I always set a timer when I have it running so that I don't forget. The lemon tree will happily have more water, but I still need to be careful. Just in case this rain doesn't materialise. Yesterday's didn't at all. So far today I've been wearing a sun hat all morning, had the sun blinds down on the veranda where I've been working and the UV alert on the new weather sensor has reached 9. Bear in mind that the UK UV range only goes as far as 8 (it's the same range, but in Aus it maxes out at 15 or 16, the UK only went up to 7 until 5 years ago when it was extended to 8, so right now it is at 9, that's higher that at anytime in the UK and we're not actually in summer yet, just goes to show how badly the ozone layer had been affected in Australia.

Russ, what's the ozone layer like over NZ? how high does the UV range go in your part of the woods? (Being a redhead with very fair and exceptionally pale skin, (i go brown by my freckles joining up) it is something i have to pay attention to.
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I'm not big on ozones? I don't burn my skin is brown anyway as I'm in shorts and singlet 24/7. It does my wife's head in me in shorts on a cold day,lol. My daughter has to cover up or sun block. She's quite pail compared to me.my right arm is always darker than the left as I drive with my arm out the window. We don't have water restrictions here so the hose has been on about 3 hrs as I shift the sprinkler every half hr.

Russ

Russ
 
rascal said:
I'm not big on ozones? I don't burn my skin is brown anyway as I'm in shorts and singlet 24/7. It does my wife's head in me in shorts on a cold day,lol. My daughter has to cover up or sun block. She's quite pail compared to me.my right arm is always darker than the left as I drive with my arm out the window. We don't have water restrictions here so the hose has been on about 3 hrs as I shift the sprinkler every half hr.

Russ

Russ
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Red hair, fair skin, freckles are pretty much a northern thing I think. Short sleeves and no jumper or coat, or hat, or gloves etc was me throughout most of my life. It was only with my mountaineering and my cycling (in temps down as low as -15°C) that I was much more careful.
Moving to Australia has meant I've had to be very much more careful with the sun. I could and have burnt in winter in Scotland, so Australia is a foregone conclusion to put it mildly. But UV is the big skin cancer problem. It's the main cause (I think). Even in winter kids at school are not allowed out to play outside unless they have their hat. Right now, only half way through spring, and not yet clear of frosts, we are already setting amber alerts from 8am through to 5pm for UV. The system (I think I have this correct) is the lowest, nothing, then blue, then yellow then amber then red. There might be a green inbetween blue and yellow, I can't quite remember. We jumped very quickly from nothing to yellow and amber. Summer will be red from 7am (sometines earlier) through to 7pm in the evening. (It goes dark around 8:30pm at the height of summer).
Red alert is no longer than 20 minutes outside in the sun by law for all worker outside. They take protection very seriously here and for good reason.

Well that last hour was spent harvesting cleaning and cutting rhubarb. I have 2 × 5L pans of rhubarb stewing. Both are nearly full. That's the first real harvest of the rhubarb since we moved here 2 years ago. I'd only just got it through its first winter when we moved house and I brought it with me. Then I bought another plant that was locally grown and a different variety. They barely survived last summer and the drought, frequently getting dirty dish washing water just to keep the plant alive but this spring they have taken off after a good lot of dried chook manure and I've just had my first harvest! Mind you i actually removed more old leaves from the 2 plants than I actually harvested! I can smell it cooking!

Time to shower.

And then deal work the whole in the fence in the veg plot. Grrr.
 
This the the solar readings for this month from my weather station. The readings match those within a 100km radius of my home so I know it is accurate.

48954

I might have a nosey at one an hour's drive from here where I used to live. I know it has been running for years . It will be interesting to see what it maxed out at last summer .
 
rascal said:
Predicting 28 deg c here Sunday.

Russ
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Its cooling down here again mate. The front balcony gets the sun all day so you can add 5c. Downstairs we have a winter terrace for sitting and eatin out. In the summer its impossible until about 22.00. How are the mosquitoes there?
 
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