A Changing Landscape: The Lawn

I've been looking through my photo collection documenting progress on the house and garden and was struck by the evolution and changes over the last few years. We moved into the house in February 07 with all the major construction completed but a bit of the finishing still to be done, an ongoing process attended to as time and money permit.

 Landscaping at that stage had not really been started, apart from some rough shaping of the block, a small veggie patch and lots of plants in pots. Although there was no formal plan for the garden we did have an idea of what was needed. The garden had to be water-wise first and foremost, provide a climate for the house, a habitat for the birds and bees and other creepy-crawlies, a bit of stuff for us to eat and look nice enough to keep us on-side with the tidy- town folk.

I have lots of pic's of the progress on the house and garden, way too many for one post so I thought I would start with the lawn.

Since we don't have a lot of spare water to throw round and I'm not to keen on pushing a lawn mower or spending the money on fuel we only have a small one (about 60sq metres). Small it may be but it is particularly nice as lawns go. ;-)

I'm proud of my lawn, but it did take some work, lot's of digging. The soil we have on our block is mostly clay, hard as rock when it's dry and sticky as toffee when wet. To get a workable soil I scrounged around the neighbourhood collecting leaves and lawn clippings from anyone who had some spare. This was all dug in along with trailer loads of horse manure from the local stables. I dug and rotary hoed that patch about five times before I was happy with it. The first attempt at a lawn was a native grass that I thought would be drought tolerant and hardy but it became infested with couch and ended up a total failure. So it got rounded up and dug over again, more horse poo and a mulch crop to finish it off.

After a bit of research I settled on buffalo as a good prospect for our area and purchased a few rolls of turf from a local supplier. This was chopped into small squares and planted out willie nilly over the levelled area, anyone who asked about the planting system was told I was setting up for lawn chess.

So far it has been a total success, thick enough to suppress any weed growth it requires virtually no more water than it gets from the rain we get from time to time over the summer. I try to time my mowing runs to just before we get a rain event and always use a high setting so it' stays around 75mm deep all the time. Worked like that it retains good moisture at it's base and is soft and cool to walk on. Any visiting kids love it and spend ages laying and rolling around on it.

It goes dormant in the winter and requires no mowing until spring. That's when I give it a good scalping and hit it with a bit of dynamic lifter, work it over with a fork for aeration so it's good to go for the summer. Although I'm not a great fan of lawns I am happy enough with this one and the neighbors are impressed enough to keep requesting the runners I cut off from the garden edges.

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Pay it Forward

Following on from Molly's "Pay it Forward" today I have on offer the DVD I received from her and a couple of my own.
If you would like to enter, just leave a comment to let me know which of the DVDs you'd like (first, second and third preference) and I will add your name to the hat, first drawn gets their first pref and so on. I don't mind posting international so it's all in. I'll do the draw this coming Sunday 1st August 2010.

The first is “Victorian Farm”, this is a historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year. The team recreate everyday life on a small farm in Shropshire in the mid-19th century using authentic and replica equipment, clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques.

The second is “The Thin Green Line” a documentary film, made by Australian Park Ranger Sean Willmore. In 2004 Willmore travelled the world, across six continents and nineteen countries, interviewing and filming the lives and stories of park rangers, recounting their experiences and extreme difficulties. The Thin Green Line is also the name of the not for profit foundation set up by Sean Willmore in the wake of the documentary's success. The aim of the foundation is to support rangers on the frontline, including the International Ranger Dependency Fund which supports the families of committed rangers who have lost their lives, or rangers who have been severely injured in the line of duty.

And the last is “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil”. A very graphic presentation of how Cubans adapted to limited energy resources. This documentary explores the economic collapse and eventual recovery of Cuba following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The dramatic steps taken by both the Cuban government and its citizens who pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in spite of their decreased dependence on imported energy. The major themes include urban agriculture, energy dependence, and sustainability.

Remember, the deal is you get to watch them and then pass them on free of charge to others.

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Just because I feel like it

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The grass was always green

Something to think about for the people of a wide brown land.

"Will it ever happen, will the taps stop running? Will we become like the desert in Chile, where it hasn't rained for 300 years? I don't know. I sincerely hope not. Because if we think the shit is going to hit the fan when oil runs out, imagine what will happen if water runs out.
Oil has made life easier but without water we have no life."

Read the full post over at Nevyn's Place at the link below.
 http://nevynsworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/water.html

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Time for a change of strategy

Its been an up and down week and a bit since I last posted. We have had a bit of cooler weather and a good blast of hot. The garden has taken another pounding so bits of it are looking decidedly sad. On the good side the blackberries are doing OK in the shade structure I built for them, we have had a couple of good picks with a lot more to come. These are destined for the trading post as we already have a good supply in the fridge.

The beans I planted outside the shade areas have been dealt to by the hot wind and are not looking too perky but I think they will pick up if we get a bit of cooler weather. Those in the shade house garden are fine. I have given up on the first corn crop and planted another lot with a bit of wind protection, I think we will get them through to maturity before it gets to cold. The first plants did produce a few cobs but definitely not the best corn I have seen. I will pull them out and get the ground ready for a few tomatoes I hope to carry into winter. Last winter we had tomato plants growing well right through the winter. The tomatoes we got off those plants at the end of winter where some of the ugliest looking things you would ever see but they had a taste you wouldn't believe. It was the first time we have had tomatoes survive a winter outside. They stayed happy and healthy right through with very little damage from the unusually light frosts we got. This year I will try them in a polytunnel and see if we can have them fruiting in the winter, we get enough light so if I can keep them warm it could be a winner.

Summer tomatoes have been almost a total failure this year, even the shade house ones have produced only a few small fruit. The hanging pots have kicked the bucket, another total failure. The pumpkins have suffered badly with only a few runners surviving. Today I pruned those back a bit and planted a few seedling pumpkins I had ready to go. I may have to work out some shelter for them to get them through the next month or so until it starts to cool a bit. Surprisingly some NZ yams I planted have made it through everything the summer has thrown at them. They are not a heat loving plant and usually turn their toes up if it gets over 35 degrees. I managed to get hold of a few seed yams last spring (even though they are rationed by most seed suppliers) and planted them in the shade house. As it warmed up I planted a row of dwarf beans on either side of them in the hope that cooling effect of the transpiration from the beans would help them. So far it's working and we may get a crop off them.

The Kumara are powering along under a rough shade cover and should provide us with a feed or two. The summer so far has been pretty tough and it looks like this is going to be the norm for the future. From here on it looks like we will have to start our summer crop at least a month early so they are well established by the time the heat gets at us. The shade cloth structures are going to be a permanent fixture around here, along with some wind breaks to keep the hot northerly winds from giving us the blast furnace treatment. It looks like we have to find new ways of doing stuff if we are to have any hope of an easy life on a Tough New Planet.

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This is so Seuss!

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Copenhagen

I hadn't intended to use this blog for climate change commentary but the political bastardry that was Copenhagen does deserve some mention. It demonstrated perfectly that our political leaders respond only to pressure put on them by their corporate paymasters. It clearly shows when it comes down to it that "we" will continue to be shafted. We the ordinary people lack the power and can therefore be safely ignored. Every politician at Copenhagen knew and had been told plainly by their scientific advisers that there was a bare minimum that needed to be done now if we are going to prevent the worst impacts of climate change; they all refused to do it.
So where does this leave us? At least we know now that scientific evidence and rationality are not going to be enough to persuade them. If they are not going to sort this out we need to make them.

Outside of the echo chambers of the denialist blogs, amongst the reasonably informed, there is a genuine anger for the shameful failure of these leaders to broker any meaningful agreement. Over the next few years as climate change bites harder, that anger will grow, until ordinary people refuse to tolerate it any more. If they haven't got some inkling yet of how pissed off most of the public are these clowns in power are about to find out. I think they are about to get the wake up call.

The cost of trashing the planet needs to be raised and they need to feel that cost.

This post about nails it.

And for your further reading pleasure: Circus time in Kopenhagen

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The trading post

Its where all the extra produce goes and is traded for stuff we don't have on our side of the fence. Our neighbour is also a keen gardener and despite growing mostly the same type of produce our gardens never seem to be quite in synch, so having the trading post means for the most part we both end up with the veg we need when we need it. There are also a few things we each have that the other doesn't, he has chocks, I don't, so eggs are in demand on our side. I like to try my luck with odd fruits and berries so any extra makes it's way to his place. And I've got lots of rhubarb, there's none on his side of the tin fence. Its not only garden produce that's traded, John (that's his name) is a dab hand at chutney and jams while I'm the master baker, although, I've had to put him on rations in the cinnamon scroll department after he beat me into second place in the chocolate cake event at the show this year. Anything that we can't handle eventually makes it's way to the wider community.

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A little history as a starter

As this is my first post on the blog it is probably a good idea to give a little history as a starter. About mid 2003 we started building a new home for ourselves in Hay, southwest NSW. The house we built was pretty much stock standard every day type construction (didn't want to scare the neighbors to much) with a bit of tweaking here and there to make it as much as possible passive solar. I stayed away from alternate building methods mainly for resale value and durability issues. But we did where possible use recycled bits and pieces in the construction. We moved into the house in February 2006 and finishing up has been an ongoing process attended to as time permits. For those interested in the building saga the link is in the side bar along with links to a few other sites of interest. So far the house is living up to all the things I expected of it and we are really happy with the way it has all worked out. This blog will also be a continuation of my house building web page so from time to time I will catch up on a few of the things I didn't get round to documenting there.

Hay is a small country town in the Riverina area of NSW. The Murrumbidgee River flows through the town, and is approximately 100 meters from the north boundary of our block. We have been in a drought for the last 10 years and river flows are reduced because of lack of water in the dams that supply this area. This has caused a dramatic drop in agricultural production in this area and most towns on the river are implementing water restrictions on their populations. Winters here are mild and temperatures rarely get below freezing, so this is our better growing season, although lack of rain in the last few years has caused us a few problems. Summers are hot, commonly in the mid 30's to mid 40s, and that makes summer gardening a challenge, the 2008 summer was particularly bad with a series of heat waves that destroyed most gardens around here. This year I will be ready for it and I will be doing some posts that will look at some of the ideas I am trialing to deal with it.

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