Water, plants and Organics

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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Kind daddy started clearing a new sun area for us

What actually happened with the GPS ws that it was doing the right thing and directing me towards the Southern Expressway , the fastest way out of the Southern Suburbs. However, what it didn’t know was that that particular section of the Expressway was being upgraded and where the GPS was taking me was a construction site. Adding to the confusion was the fact that I had never been there before, had no knowledge of the area and was totally dependant on the GPS for directions. It was all very confusing but I survived, although I have to say that sometimes the GPS can be a real trial.

I hope to be able to get out to the Arid Lands Gardens sometime this week. At the weekend, I will be heading off to Adelaide again –  for a Conference.  I’ll be away for three days this time. That should be me until the last week in May when I will be away for a week – well almost. The conference will finish late Wednesday and I’ll stay over until Thursday.   I have not been out in the garden since I came back from Adelaide, I have just had so much that was set aside for three weeks that I now have to catch up on and things that I borrowed  and hired to be returned. However, I hope to get out later this morning. The area I am working on is not a big area but if it is  fixed out and some nice plants will take and grow, it could look nice. Even the local garden centre admits that the soil in this area is very thin and not all that good and I rather suspect that  there has been strong weed killer and possibly poison used by the previous owners. When we first bought this place and moved in I started to clear that particular area and planted roses – not one of them survived.  Sixteen rose bushes, bought from different places and all died – despite feeding, watering, mulch and rose food – not a one survived, and of the six additional roses I planted out front, only three are hanging on for dear life. So given that track record, I will do this area and plant the things I get from the Arid Lands Garden and see if they survive. If not, well I hear the  new season concrete is very nice this year  :o)

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Nasty little things

When I finally  moved the dogs I  covered the whole area with two bags of organic soil improver, dug that in and then used a wetting agent and watered the whole area. I think I have given it a fair chance, so, now all I need is some plants and a bit of cooperation from the dogs. Mind you, I tried to avoid anything that even had a whiff of Blood and Bone to keep the dogs from digging. We will see how things go.These nasty spiky things are growing outside. I have no idea what they are but I don’t like them and I think they could injure the dogs.

Motorways and a GPS

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Was at the doctor yesterday and the Warfarin is playing up and  the  doctor required that I take him for blood tests. I think it’s all that iced tea that he’s drinking. We get the results in the morning.  On  Thursday I head off back to Adelaide and should be on my way home Thursday afternoon. If I get the opportunity I would like to stop off at Bunnings and look for some additional fencing as well as a few other odds and ends. I may stay overnight ( actually I probably will) and spend some time in town before starting off for home. I have done it in the past and  I am not so keen these days to drive almost 900 klms  in a day. I have seen the day when we drove to Adelaide, went shopping and drove back in the evening, but  these days, a trip to Adelaide is an overnight stay.

I have been doing some work outside and an almost finished with the area clearing. It has been neglected for a long time, including by me. It’s not a big area but if I can regenerate it and use native plants to do it, it should be a nice  area. With Alan being here and being at a doctor or hospital every other day  – Monday, Tuesday and today –  I really don’t feel like doing anything after sitting in a doctor’s surgery or a hospital waiting room. His INR has shot up to 5.2 (should be between 1.8 – 3.0)  He will have to see his own doctor as soon as he is back in Adelaide. His carers are aware of this – I telephoned them this afternoon.

Friday:

On the way back home I stopped off at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. Not a great success. The place was busy and there was only one lady to look after the shop and the plants and the shop seemed to have taken precedence. I know next to nothing about native plants – actually I know next to nothing about plants period and my sole reason for buying things is that they look nice.  Sorry but there you are. Anyway, I really needed help between the book on local native plants I had bought (“Plant me instead”) and what was available and/or close to what I wanted. So, I thought it best to try another day and  came on home. Excellent weather on both days, although my GPS wanted to take me places I didn’t want to go – like onto a Motorway that is not completed yet – or onto a freeway that changes traffic direction depending on the time of day. I finally found a road that looked like it knew where it was going and took that. Fortunate in that it brought me to the Main South Road, which is where I did want to be. It’s a worry  :o)

They even had a Bear in the Air :o)

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The Feds and the military just want a little  piece of land – this little piece   and that little piece,  and that little piece and that little piece – you get the picture.  I am not in any way anti-military – we should always support our troops – I just don’t see why  a  medium size  (31,000 regular) military force such as ours, requires  an area of land that is bigger than Scotland, Ireland , Wales  or Virginia, to play their soldier games in. Actually, it’s bigger than two or more of these countries put together.

Spy CamA few posts ago I said that the drive to Adelaide to pick up Alan was without  any drama, well, as it turns out that was not strictly true. In the preparations of the house and the car and myself to get down there I had forgotten one tiny little thing – just a tiny thing – the car Registration!! A letter arrived yesterday from the South Australia Police to inform me that I am to be fined for driving an unregistered car. I was picked up by the spy in the sky. Years of driving with a perfect record. It was due on the 21st March;  we left am on the 22nd and I was picked up by the spy in the sky on 2.43pm 0n the 23rd.  Well at least I don’t get demerit points.  Still,  it just proves the saying ” No good deed goes unpunished!”   :o

A week to ten days has turned into three weeks and I should be taking him back to Adelaide this weekend. He has no medication and no scripts to cover anything beyond this coming Friday and that really does not impress me much because it being the end of the school term, the roads out of Adelaide when I am returning on the Saturday, will 20130405_192159be packed.  However, all that aside I think it has been good for him to have been here these last few weeks. It has been a change for him and we have got him out and about, athough he does spend much of his time sitting watching daytime TV  ( which drives herself potty  :o) ) I haven’t been able to get much done outside – and the weather has been good for working outside.  If I do go to Adelaide this weekend then I will try and get away early Saturday morning and miss the traffic and perhaps go into the Arid Lands Gardens on the way home

Auctions, Munchies and Federal land grabs.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
flinderflowers
Springtime in the Flinders

I have not done the concrete work yet. I have blocked the area off and it is only the one area where the  properties abut. The problem is that the fence was raised from the ground level up, whereas it should have  been buried two or three inches into the ground. However, I will attend to this shortly.  Tomorrow (Thursday) I do have to attend at auction at the Tregalana Homestead. The family have owned this property for the best part of a century, but when the Feds want something they have the power of a Compulsory Purchase Order to see that they get it.  Quite a few properties have been lost this way and by the time it’s all over the area under control of the military in this region will increase from 500 square kilometres to 2300 Square Kilometres. This is over and above the 127,000 square kilometres of the Woomera Testing and Exercise Range  further north – which is the largest testing base in the world.  Tergalana will close this week and all the house property and farm equipment will be up for auction tomorrow. The Royal Flying Doctor  had been asked to do the catering for those attending the auction. It’s quite disconcerting to realise that as you drive along the road everything , as far as you can see on either side, belongs  to the  Military. At first we thought that moving the armoured brigades down here would be a boost to the local economy, but in the last year they have just taken control of more and more land and council concerns have been ignored. And yes, we have a Constitution – you can have it if you want it – we don’t use it.

Bummer about the Munchies!!! 

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More Flinders Flowers

We had a local pet supply and groomer who made her own dog munches and sold them for funds for the Dog Rescue. However, although the dogs liked them they didn’t keep and within a few days they were going hard – like build a wall hard. But it was too far to drive every other day just to pick up a handful of munchies. We do  give them a treat every morning and they are happy with that. Sometimes the little man is not the best so I will sit down with him and break the treat into small pieces and hand feed him.  She  who must be obeyed said that ‘ he has me well trained”. Hey, considering he has no teeth, he does pretty well. Took them out last night and had to carry him for a bit – time to get his second wind. As far as I am concerned this is all part of the job description.

PS. I thought some photographs of the spring flowers of the Flinders would have a calming effect.

Easter, rain and digging dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The covered in pergola
The covered in pergola

The rain stopped for a while last night and as it was not fully dark yet, I decided to take the dogs  for a walk.  It was so funny, Chienna – being the lady she is – delicately  jumps over the puddles whereas, Mannie, on the other hand, just walks right through them – no variation of the path he wants to go, just directly ahead, puddles and all.

Because of the rain and my feeling not quite the best, I have not been to the Arid Lands Garden, but I really must try and get over this week. I said before it is  150klm round trip but  it’s a good morning out and the prices in the Nursery are very reasonable. I am not in a great rush because I have not quite finished the area I want to put the new plants into, but if it stays dry tomorrow (Monday) I will see if I feel up to continuing with the cleaning and preparation. It should not take all that long.  Tomorrow is a public holiday so we can’t go anywhere anyway All-in-all, it has not been the best Easter we have had for a while.. I also have some concreting to do. Some dogs  (Two) on the far side of the property have started to dig under the fence. They are big dogs and they can’t possibly get through, but they have dug a hole big enough for my little ones to get through. It is only an area  9 feet long by about 14 inches wide so it should be fairly easy to do. I have just  closed one of the gates to keep the dogs out of that area for the moment. I could complain to the neighbours about their dogs but that could led to complications.  The House next to me is a State Government owned house and it is a police house – we never see them, which is probably a good thing.. Better I  just attend to the area and leave well alone.  I hope to be able to do this in the next day or so.

The “Dreaded Lurghi”  is starting to loose its grip and whilst it still hurts a bit when I cough, it’s not nearly as bad as it was. Still, I have to be thankful in that I have heard of some people being confined to bed and being really sick and it’s only just the start of the “Flu Season”.   I will just have to keep an eye of things and make sure that I don’t overdo things and allow myself to get run down.  I have to take Alan to the hospital again this morning and  see how the Warfarin  is behaving.

I don’t think I am going to be able to get over to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens until after I take Alan back to Adelaide. Given some of the things that has been happening I think it’s safer ( for  my peace of mind!) that I delay the trip for the moment. Anyway, colds and flu notwithstanding, I have enough to be going on with at the moment. I have to say that we are only a week or so into Autumn (Fall) and since it has been a hot and windy summer there are no further leaves to come down from the tree, so once I have cleaned up this present lot, that should be it for a while and I can retire the vac-blower for a bit.  I might even be able to sling mu hammock without getting it covered leaves.

Wheelchairs, native plants and a virus

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Samsung the noo 036
Me and my Teddy Bear!

The drive to Adelaide was fine until Port Wakefield then it rained all the way in for the last 150 klms. I had written about our trip and the problems we encountered but somehow or other it just didn’t save, and I don’t know why.  However, that aside, after some delays we brought Alan home and he has now been with us since late Saturday. He is quite frail and since he is on heavy doses of Warfarin ,this means that he has to go for blood tests every few days – something we were not told.  We were also not told that he can barely walk so I have managed to get a wheelchair for a while and that, at least, will allow me to take him out and about without worrying about his stability. However, he is family and he is here and we  will look after him and  try to keep him  as active as we can. I have to take him to the hospital tomorrow and then I am going to take him on a road trip over to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. I want some new plants for the new area I have prepared and  we can have lunch – if we get away from the hospital in time.

The eremophila are doing well (I think – well they are still alive) and I want to look at some native bushes. I do not know much about plant names but my Native Plant book calls them – ” Correa Reflexa” – Native Fuchsia / “Pomaderris  Obcordata” /  Wedge – leaved Pomaderris and I will take the book with me. They are Arid – low rainfall plants so they should be available in the Gardens. If they are not, I am certain they will have something similar. I did not get the opportunity to find out since  it has been raining for most of the day. If I had been on my own I would have gone through to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden, but the thought of pushing a wheelchair all the way from the car park to the shop and nursery in the rain did not really appeal to me. And the oddest thing is that the temperature climbed to 40c  in other areas and sparked off several bush fires, one in South Australia and one in Victoria.  After Easter, I will try and organise the trip to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden.

Quick update : I have influenza and  quite painful – but provided I don’t sneeze or cough, or talk too much I am fairly good. It’s sort of like the old comedian joke ” It only hurts when I laugh”. I feel like (and probably look like) an idiot wandering around with one of these medical face masks on and if you should go to my doctor’s surgery, he insists that you wear one – and no, he’s not Japanese. Modern trend I guess.

PS. It’s still raining.

Thunderstorms, dogs and sleep!!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I think a lot of the problems we have here is that we lack imagination. Let me qualify that! When we leave Europe and come to the  far flung fringes of the Southern Hemisphere, we tend to bring our ideas of gardening with us. So, we plant the flowers we are used to, we plant good old European Lawns – in essence we seem to make every attempt to recreate the kind of garden we left behind – the kind that our parents lovingly tended and we, their children,  spent our youth in. So we plant our garden ,  watch things die and come to the conclusion that the problem is not enough water, so we water the plants and lawns with copious amounts of water  morning and afternoon. However, with the drought of recent years and water restrictions  the cost of continuing with this has become prohibitive. I have gotten rid of  lawns and replaced it with weed matting and treated coloured pine bark (red)  I have tried roses without much success and out of the dozens that I bought three are hanging on for dear life. I have planted  other pants and watch them burn up and die in the sun – despite watering mulching and soil treatment that didn’t work. So, native plants it is. I have started with two Sturt’s Desert Roses and two Sturt’s Desert Peas.  I have also planted four  silver leaf Eremophila – two out front and two  at the back. I will wait to see how these all survive before I do anything else. A neat European style garden and 40c heat just don’t go together.Not up in this little corner of the Commonwealth. And it’s only taken me 20 years to figure that out!

Chienna on her Futon.
Chienna on her Futon

Oh what a joy! We had a major thunderstorm last night. It started about 1:30 am and I was up and trying to comfort a dog who believed that the sky was falling. The vet had given me medication (ACP  10 mil.) to calm her down so I gave one  tablet to her. I also brought both dogs into my room so that herself would not be wakened. The little man curled up on my bed and went back to sleep. Chienna kept pacing up and down and stressing out. I really feel sorry for her and the combination of noise and pressure  really gets to her. The way she stresses out and the constant panting, I am surprised she doesn’t have a heart attack. But she doesn’t want to be comforted or reassured because when we try to hold her  she breaks free and continues her pacing and panting until the noise and the pressure stops- which it did around 4am but by then she had started to clam down.  She settled down at the foot of my bed and we all went to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30. I gave them their sticks, let them out and went back to bed for an hour.

Arid lands` and Isolation

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
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The upper area of the Spencer Gulf with the Flinders Ranges off to the left.

I enjoyed my visit to the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. It has a well stocked shop and a small, but interesting nursery with a good range of native plants – and the prices were very reasonable. And I became a member.  It’s a 150 klm round trip but it does have a nice dining area – it is a good morning out and a nice, peaceful drive.  I bought 4 small (1.5 metres) silver leafed Eremophila  and have planted two out front and the remaining two in large planter pots. We will see how they go. I think I have mentioned before that the term “Full Sun” really does not consider the  heat of this area. Two days of 40c and they are dead, irrespective of water and mulch.  So I thought it is time to go to the Eremophila and see what we can do.

Our inter-state visitors arrived yesterday afternoon and will be here for a few days before setting off further north, then into the Northern Territory and Alice Springs. At least it will be a lot cooler than a few weeks ago.

Mid spring is the best time of the year to  travel up into the Flinders Ranges – everything is still green and there is a massive abundance of wild flowers. Then summer comes and everything is burned off.  My problem over the last week has not been the heat but the wind, which has hardly let up for weeks. I have never known for it to be so breezy.  Provided it’s not a North Wind, it does have a cooling effect but the  disadvantage is that  around this place all you have to do is sneeze too hard and leaves come down by the bucket load. I left a fairly clean place and came back from Adelaide to find everything covered in leaves again. I mean I understood ; spring – leaves grow;  summer – leaves develop and flourish; Autumn – leaves start to die and fall; winter- leaves come down. Is there something wrong with this logic?

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Still in the middle of nowhere

Depending on how the Eremophila do I will go back to the Arid Lands Garden again – only next time I will take a camera with me. This could be as early as next week, but I doubt it – although I will be going down to Adelaide next week to  pick up my brother-in-law (my sister died two years ago) and bring him here. His carers are going away on holiday and since there is no one to look after him, he will be coming here. He has serious heart problems so John is coming down with me to help if we run into trouble. It will be a long, slow drive back. I will also be good to have John spell me on driving – it will be a 930 klm round trip. It  will depend on time if I get to the Gardens. If not I will try and get through in a few weeks. I hope the dogs behave for the ten days he is here!!! But then, the dogs live here – he does not  :o)

Oh and it’s not really in the “Middle of Nowhere” the photograph was taken from the pathway of the Botanic Gardens as was the one above but they do serve to illustrate the isolation of this area.

Eremophila and Arid Lands

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

20130313_115345In some things I kind of follow “dog rules” particularly the one that says ” never refuse the opportunity to go for a ride in the car”. Ok, I sort of draw the line at sticking my head out of the window. I believe the Attitude Adjustment Organisaton – commonly known as the Police – tend  to take a dim view of that sort of thing. Anyway, it is 5:30 am and I am about to go for a shower. My younger  son telephoned me yesterday and  said that  he and his partner (Trish/Patricia)  are going to Adelaide  and would I be interested in coming down with them. He’s a systems engineer and I always thought he had brains and  then he asks such a foolish question. Trish is going to a training course, Andrew is going into the Head Office, so they will drop me off in the city and pick me up later in the afternoon. That kind of works for me.

On Saturday  my older son and I are going to drive to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden. I want to look at some native plants – I don’t have a problem with native plants and shrubs,  only with Eucalyptus  trees in urban areas.  The above photograph was taken in front of the library and I asked what that silver plant was and all they could tell me was that it was a native shrub. I went to the Garden Center and they confirmed that it was a native but they didn’t have any. That  being so I decided to go through to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden, which is the  native arid plants center for this entire region. John and I will go through tomorrow and as an added inducement I promised to buy him lunch whilst we are there The Botanic Garden has a lovely cafeteria.

Had a good day in Adelaide and managed to get most of the things I wanted done. There were other things I would have liked to have got done but they will have to wait until another time when I  am down there with the car. We were back home by 9pm.  This morning (Saturday) John and I will drive through to the Botanic Gardens. Later this afternoon we have visitors from  inter-state who will be here for the next few days. Busy weekend.

Clay, Steps and Abandoned Dogs

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

The soil of this area is very shallow and beneath the shallow top layer of soil is heavy clay. This, I understand, is not conducive to trees with deep roots – so we end up with shallow rooted trees – i.e. Gum Trees. The bun fight  – native vs exotic  – has been lost and council will start planting  native trees.  They have, however, admitted that a lot of the planting in the past was inappropriate to an urban area (understatement!) and they have promised that they will be more selective. But that’s all well and good, but they are still messy and nothing will grow near them. There is too much oil in the bark and the litter and  all of that is toxic to anything that tries to grow near them. But anyway, the council will  plant native trees and accept the mess as part of the price of being environmentally  responsible. But here’s the thing, with all this mess and litter being carried into the drains and clogging them up, will the council accept responsibility for any flooding that occurs because of this?

20130313_092514I have tried to break things down and dug deep put in extra topsoil but still plants do not survive. Well some do, but most don’t and the slightest wind and everything is covered in leaves and by the time I get round to cleaning them out, it’s generally too late. In a week I can fill up most of a 6×4 trailer with leaves, bits of tree and assorted and associated  litter – and that’s just my back garden. Because of the high levels of heat and working, I have not  used the blower on the back garden for a couple of days, so I have leaves everywhere. I’l try and get them done ver the next couple of days. And yes, I have used large amounts of Gypsum to try and bread up the clay.

You may remember that I did say that I had ordered Dog Steps for the little man to get up on his bed. They arrived yesterday and I am very impressed. I thought – the description was not all that clear –  that they would be some kind of moulded foam, but not so. They are  moulded steps that I have to put together and then  cover them with a lambswool covering – pretty cool, I thought. And 70 pounds (31.7 kilo)

Was down at the shops yesterday and helped the manager with a distressed dog that had been abandoned outside the supermarket (again).  I looked after the  girl whilst he tried to contact the RSPCA – without success. We finally telephoned the council and the pound sent a van to collect the dog. Hopefully, it wont stay there too long before it is fostered out pending adoption.  However, the best thing would be for the owner to come forward and accept responsibility because it was not a young dog and she looks as she has had a few pups.  A very friendly and placid thing she was.