Post a peek of yourself here...

"I can't imagine how you cope !
Does everything get gritty when this goes on for so long?
"
Re dust storm can't say I was any where near it. About 8oo km north in the city that boasts it's tourist attractions and the one further north sayes it's even better. :)
Must have been pretty awful. This is what happens when broad acre goes wrong and a drought sets in and there is nothing left to hold the soil. I found the video about Broken Hill pretty amazing it was black.
We have finaly got some very useful spring rain down here and water cachements are rising a little. \Still critical. but at least it is nice and green around here. Should be much better over the range as you go north as well.

Vic it would be a CM measure here. I can't remember the amount of top soil but it was some horrific amount per hour that was heading out into the ocean to NZ. That's probably why they have high mountains.!!!!!! all of out stuff is over there.

I am the little old lady I think probably by a few yrs. :)

Liz

 

Anyway - age is just a number. We are as young as we feel, I guess.


: )

 

Anyone ever heard of this KUDZU plant taking over America . It cost USA 500 million US$ per year to keep it under control ( they lost) it soon will hit Canadian Borders
It is Chinese/Asian and was brought in by THE MILITARY to grow over things to hide them fast it grows 1 foot per day NICE HEY ???
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=...n831CA&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image

 

Following on from the dust storm story. Early this year we had major flooding in the far north of Australia. The waters from these floods eventualy end up at lake Eyer in the north of Sth Australia.
It really is a land of contrast and this video is worth a look for ecological renewal.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/lake-eyre/return.htm

The main item is
Lake Eyre blossoms after decade long drought

Liz

 

Well Good Morning All,
When I signed up I guess I checked the notify of replies box as I see someone's post is always listed in my mail when I log on in the am. I'm sometimes not a great sleeper when the weather is restless.
This thread is delightful. Nice to learn so much so quickly about other people's gardens and from all over too, nice.
Vic, white flies: All I know about them is that they used to be a problem in the green house when I worked in them and I think it was a smoke bomb we used to eliminate them, wholly impractical for home gardeners.
I once used diatomaceous earth in a little tomato house I once had '86 where I think they were on the tomato plants. It is a gritty substance (too bad you can't borrow some of Australia's sand storm) which penetrates the insect's exterior and also a HUMAN"S LUNGS IN A BAD WAY<- so wear a mask if you ever use it.
That is a totally nontoxic substance.

Your garden looks fabulous! But you also have a partner! so I am not jealous.

I haven't had enough white fly to really bother anything a lot but it sounds as if you may have more of them. Gooogle or ask at a local nursery, what is the current best choice method of dealing with them. Perhaps a predator wasp? This was the alternative we finally chose in the hydroponic tomato house I worked in in Delta in the '70's, the first one out there.

Something else I see about your garden is that if any pest arrives it is very easy for it to spread (also the predators!). Like a forest of only one sort of tree, all suffer when there is a problem as there is no buffer zone of anything else growing to stop them.
Not saying you should change, just noting a risk factor of this style.
I love your very productive looking garden.

Normally the kales die away after seeding. I too have some kales that just never gave up from last year and chard also! I kept picking the flowers off as I need some at all times for a little dog who now lives with me and who is as happy to receive a leaf of kale as anything else.
For the first time last winter, I saw the tips of the kales die some and then come back. A few under the plum tree did best of all not having been exposed like the rest.

What I did about the kale this year is that I left just a few and took out the rest after gathering some seeds. Dunno if the varieties would mix. I have an unusual plant which looks like a cross between the kale and a collard. I'll post when found.
If we leave it all I think that is courting disaster in the way of disease and insects that never go away because their food source is always there, the kales weakening as the plant's food source is used up with constant growth. Sort of why we rotate in the first place is it not? So leaving them too long will be unhealthy tho do try a few for curiosity's sake.
I had some chard plants also over-summer ha ha, if I may say that! Like the kale they just did not die away after flowering but I did keep them picked as I like to freeze as much as I can for winter, in case it is too cold for picking like last year!

I look forward to enjoying kale after the frosts make it sweet, with some grated carrot and a little feta cheese. Kale is great in a Greek style salad.

Somehting I remember about the siskins in the chard is that there were no leaf miners while they were raiding it.

D

 

Liz,
Thanks, I'm getting a better idea of how things are for you. Glad you and parrots are not having to endure sand. I hate it in my fries at the beach!

I heard on the news yesterday that there were also sand storms not far from Los Vegas I think it was, in the US. Sheesh, shades of the '30's or what hey?

I hear recently that the latest drought in Australia is now said to be just how things are now and not that there is no hope of rain in the future? Is that erroneous? If you have 10 yr drought regularly then.......?
I live in what is said to be a Mediterranean-like climate due to our relationship to a local mountain and being on the inside of the straight on the island's east coast.
We are in a dryer than usual spell too after a winter that rained little and now a summer the same. We had to start watering very early in the Spring this year and it has been endless til now, when the nights have gotten cool.
It took me 20 yrs to learn to love the rain and I miss it when it fails to show. Locally people wish for rain so their wells will recover but this is a regular event tho I bet they ran dry earlier this year.
I too look forward to viewing pics from you. I am on slow dial-up and viewing videos on-line is not great.

D

 

And Rob from Hamilton,
Nice to see your smilin face too!
I see some posting their fave tunes.
I wonder if I would even know any of your faves. Maybe some. I just heard that Ninja Tunes is out of Montreal. I like the chill down tempo and some hiphop like 1 Giant Leap which is also very much a world mix with lots of eye candy if you can find the DVD to rent. 2 young fellows fro New Zealand I think, down under anyway, with some cool footage of a shaman, if that's the right term.
The fists Rob, do you box or do m/a?
I hope you manage to get out of Hamilton sometimes. I drove thru there only once on the way to somewhere, ha ha, about 40 yrs ago, gosh time flies Rob! Hamilton was mainly a heavily industrial steel town then. Is it still? I grew up in TO.
Great to see a diversity in the ages here.
Nice thread HBL :)

D

 

Oh well Dana you sure enjoy great. ON DIALUP. Dana please!! Don't they offer a better solution there for a reasonable price? You are missing the best of the Internet.
When I hear Mediterannean my eyes and ears get pointed :-) .. Where is that . Do you mean to say no snow in winter etc? Our last winter in Vancouver was horrible
75cm snow over one month and I am weary on how we will pay this wonderfull summer. Yes rain is not part of it and watering is imperative.
Partner and not being jaleous? I don't understand? You love solitude? Some do I know.
My partner does NOT help in the garden what so ever. But he enjoys the collecting harvesting (and I am not good at bending twisting my body to get these tomatoes hiding in the back somewhere:-) and when he comes in with that specially collected bunch of Kale its funnny .. He always make it look as only he can chose the most delicate leaves etc..
I actually found out having to grow them very tight due to not enough space they get very tall instead of wide as they are shooting for light.
So the stems are very long we cook, bake stirr fry the stems nearly like green asparagus and then add the leafy green at the end that collapses like spinach.
We eat Kale EVERY DAY believe it . I love my KALE pizzas or anything on a bed of KALE.. I have been "BeKaled" haha hey its THE wartime veggie.
So if I trust you Dana I will not touch my curly Kale even if it never flowers ohh I wish for KALE TREES I am trying to make on in 3D on my computer but its not easy.

LIZ great picture but I not see a "video" but will further. Caravan camp sounds interesting.
Where is it in OZ where all the young and yuppee rich meet in the outback and drink themselves silly till the morning I recall seeing this on TV once it was
amazing seein woman men dragging each other through the dirt or driving in circle with 25drunken men and woman on the back of a pick up truck screaming
their heads off while cheering their beer bottles. Quite a scene ..haha the other side of OZ ..
Do you have loads of dangerous pest snakes etc ? Oz has so many critters everywhere. Blue bottle jelly fish on the most beautiful beaches in the high season of holiday WHAT A PAIN
going for a beach holiday and than have all these warning signes that tell you DON'T GO IN THE WATER its deadly :-).. MALUMBIMIBI my best Tirolean friend lives there not far from Byron Bay
but still LIZARD island 20+ years ago was the BEST.. and I walked the under water bridge with my granny at the REEF she was 88 we both had these glass bubbles over our head AMAZING
I wish we had the digital cameras then ...as its all in my mind only ...so sad ..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Vp_p1jr6U

Just wanted to share thes 4 minutes with a Whale Shark filmed by my Belgian friend
in one of his dives in Sham El Sheik Egypt... STUUUUUUNING ( beside the music:-) but the picture
breathtaking this is normal underwater camera not a professional movie and only like 250m from the beach
at the view of Mr everybody if looking for the unique.
Just do I want to go to Egypt ?? Been there done that before this beach resort existed and when
terrorism was not in as it is now .

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/vicarioustube

Wanna see MY FUNNY BEACH videos made in South Africa
if you want to see the Horro movies you can watch me SKI in Vancouver :-) haha

 

Dana 09
Our rain used to be a regular event too (been around for a while) but in the last 12 years very strange. I think the el-nino effect on the ocean is happening closer together and we are not getting a recovery period. We are now on permanent water restrictions so are adapting all sorts of gardening styles to cater for dry. They say build more dams. We can't even fill the ones we have with the river flows. They are actualy building a de-sal plant off the coast to help Melbourne. Perth and Adelaide also are at the mercy of weather. One of the big things that has happened is the return of the water tank in all its shapes and applications. This is also being included in large commercial buildings for use as toilet flushing etc.

There were some pics of the video on that site as well.

I often wonder what will happen when the world's currents become effected by weather change. For example the "Gulf stream drift"

Liz

 

Vic yes we have some lethal animals but I can honestly say I have not seen a snake for years or a bad spider for that matter.
We don't usually have the blue bottle problem down here at the beach. Occasional sharks. We certainly don't have some of the predators other countries have. Snakes normally nick off when they feel vibrations so one stomps along in good walking boots and never jumps over a log. It's like every where you learn to live with it.

Re video have a look on the page and it was center left under the title I gave. Otherwise the still pictures were at top. It is the Birdsville races you are thinking of.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/04/2676343.htm
Liz

 

Hi dana, nice to meet you. Not a boxer lol, but it must look that way from my picture. I'm jealous because you live in vancouver island, such a nice place. Hamilton has improved over the years, not as industrialized but still is a steel town. There are a few nice areas such as chedoke, ancaster and flamborough. I'm from stoney creek myself, 'kind of' like a suburb, nicer then hamilton, more quiet, lots of tim hortons on every corner, (hamilton is rediculous for this), and suprisingly green.

In a 10 KM radius from my postal code, on www.timhortons.ca, there are 75 tim hortons located, and thats the maximum number the search could display, so it's probably more -_-

HBL, i heard london is a very clean city, is that true? I haven't been :)

 

Not to me, it isn't, but some may say it's clean I suppose.

We are much like Hamilton, in that there's Tim Horton's everywhere. Americans don't even know what the heck Tim Horton's is!!! It's a coffee shop.


: )

 

Lol that's true, it's like their dunkin' donuts, actually they opened a few of them in manhatten recently.

 

I hope they make GOOD coffee not like Gloria Jean et.al.

We are very fond of our good coffee here :)

Liz

 

It must be good Liz, because some addicts here will stand in a 20 minute line-up just to get a cup!


: O

 

Thanks will do meanwhile ADMIRE this green construction
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kelsey-keith/designage/design-conscience

 

oK!
Vic,
I am jealous of u because u have someone to help with the other jobs!
I do all by myself which is why I often feel guilty in the garden, there is something I ought to be doing in the house!
Too broke this year, robbed by a neighbour's tree last year, for high-speed anything !
dial-up $10/mo highspeed 30/mo
At least with my garden I can eat organic without paying a high cost.

Liz,
Our weather turned weird about 3 yrs ago when huge winds tore thru Vancouver's lovely Stanley park and a few more shingles off my roof. I am hoping to get a new roof this year, for the longed for rains......
We had snow for 2 yrs running before Dec even began - most unusual for any amount of it before Feb usually, really, normally. Will we ever see normal again?
We are in an el nino pattern this year and I hope that means, as it usually does,, that it will be milder and wetter. I love to sit watching the birds come to bathe in the rain -yes!

Snow falls oddly here on the island. one part may get buried while another, a mere 10 miles away gets very little. Courtney and Nanaimo are not that far apart and one may have it with the other just receiving a skiff of snow. Usually it does not last but htese two years past remind me of nothing else but the snows I left behind in Toronto!
Many years we have had no snow at all. Summers are usually dry but this is BC after all and it is unpredictable. There is what is called the 'Coombs Fall Fair' which is held in the middle of August!
I used to think that was so strange, in August it is not fall, except that it gets dry here for long enough to turn the leaves of the roadside trees yellow, from dryness, earlier than Fall. Some people say that they think our seasons have shifted a little, by as much as one month but that is not a scientific opinion, it just seems that way some years recently.
Gosh, our water rates are being raised again for the cost of improving infrastructure and to discourage overuse. That makes gardening more expensive. The city fathers say we have ots of water but it is getting expensive for us to access. I may join the local community garden when it relocates, just not to have to pay extra for water & grow some potatoes and romano and maybe fava beans as they are things that so not need constant attention like my scarlet runners and blue lake pole beans do.

Oh dear, chatty it is I am today... no one like to read so much anymore.

Rob,
Even we have a Timmy's here! It arrived a couple of years or so ago.
And if you see my pic above somewhere, you will see that I am definitely a warrior princess!

Holly,
yes they do! I spoke to a young man on the cell phone who was just on his way to or from a TH in Erie Pennsylvannia!
Soon I will trade bird shots with you! I have pics of birdies bathing too tho not as sweet as your darling Henry! I also have a dog about Henry's size, as far as doggies go that is.
And just to keep it to gardening, Roland was a great help in our squash weigh-ins at Aunty B's this summer. I think all the squashes, hubbards, weighed far more than his 4 lbs. Whew, he made it to the middleweight category himself tho he was said by pros to not be able to, as he was born a little runt. 1yr Aug 18th.
He has a very light foot in the garden and i must watch carefully what I toss to the side as he is on it, testing it and tasting it right away. OK with kale, not so good with Monk's Hood or the Datura I got for $5 at the thrift shop last week! Good to be up on your plants when u have a 45% veg-head doggy.

D & Rollie

 

What a cute pic - even though the dog doesn't look too impressed! Looks like he's saying "do I have to pose for another one of these ridiculous photos again"?!!!


: )

 

Dana funny you should say yr weather has shifted about a month. That is exactly what I have been saying for the last 3 or so years. Spring turns up in the middle of winter.

Cute pup a real pocket St Bernhard.

Liz

 

DANA
we read that far !!! no worry its always a nice read ! LOOOOOOVE your doggy ! Will show you my cats soon we had 5 dogs in South Africa from 160 pounds to nearly your size a real FA MI LY :-)

 

OK saw a great vegetable patch chicken rotation idea that someof you may be able to implement. Would work well with just 2 chooks.

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2695022.htm

I do this in an add hoc way and they are definatly good at what they do but thisis a nice controlled method. There was a video but I seem to have lost it. So text and imagination will have to do. Also other nice bits on this program.

Looks like vids are a week later.

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/
Here is the video archive if you want to see other things

Liz

 

I'd love to BUT my neigbours would kill me ( although its legal now in our area) and the the noise I could no stand
as well as the RACOONS COYOTEES would come round even more I am sure :-)
Interesting read . Thanks Liz

 

Oh I forgot all the predators. By the way 2 hens are not noisy. Depends on the brand but I have ISA brown and they are very quiet don't even cackle long when they lay an egg. You DON"T get a rooster and it should be ok in a normal area.

Liz