All seasons greetings in a christmas day

5000 calls for emergency assistance later

Well, I got my wish for a white christmas (see last blog), but perhaps I should have wished for something else.   I was thinking how nice it would be to be in the northern hemisphere having a white Christmas.  The first photo shows we did have a white landscape in part, thanks to some severe winds 30 celcius plus hailstones.  Now, I don't get how these hailstones didn't melt when they hit the ground. Shows the lightening force with which they sprang from the sky.   And the next photo is a section of my front garden, showing what an eerie light these Christmas storms brought with them. Ten kms north, there was a twister heading their way.  Speaking of which the Northern Territory is being lashed by floods and Cyclone Grant. This is the season not only to be merry but to have your wits about you for cyclones, fires, rips at the beach, sharks, jelly-fish, snakes, poisonous spiders ... The Gold Coast has been closed due to high waves.  In Australia, we really do get the whole kitten kaboodle, for seasonal malaises. My next research project will be to see how the latest fad - outdoor rooms bear up with hail stones, heavy torrents, winds and other extreme events. 

This photo doesn't do justice to the eerie light brought on by
the storm in between 3 hailstone onslaughts. 

Dreaming of a non-arid christmas

It's late December, and low to mid 30s celcius time. The other day, 49 degrees celcius was reached, although I forgot which region.  

This is what Christmas in Australia is all about. Pretend snow, Agapanthus, white xmas trees and lights a flashing, too much food at lunches on days we refer to as 'stinkers' or 'scorchers'.

Christmas in Australia certainly beats being in the Maldives, the Phillipines, Africa,  Christchurch, NZ (repeat earthquakes!), Northern Japan, and most of the rest of the world, at the moment.

Also, the caterpillar which crawled out of the the corn which I placed under the Christmas tree is living proof that organic farming is critter friendly! See photos of caterpillar wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

Our cockatiels were enjoying a good soaking with the spray bottle.

Land-clearing national issue

Two of our more serious environmental issues affecting land-management in Australia, are land-clearing and weeds (both listed ie declared and environmental - not yet declared).   Some might even go so far as to say that Outdoor Rooms are a type of land-clearing, on the domestic scale. Perhaps this is a tad extreme, and we greenies have to avoid being too extreme.

But on the technical level, we can be mindful of what potentially gets cleared or disturbed when you build an outdoor room:

1. Top-soil -  see post of 31st October
2. Trees and plants
3. Biodiversity 
4. Potential for a carbon sink - see post of 7th September
5. Potential for cleaning of ground-water and storm-water - see post of 16th September
6. Rain-forests if imported illegal timber is used - see post of 8th October. 

Also, building outdoors can sit oddly with ol'fashioned gardening principles for biodiversity and 'martha gardner' (pardon the pun) type remedies.  I can't see antidotes against pests, snail and slugs such as crushed up eggshells, beer traps, coffee grains, twigs for small reptiles being used around the  built up garden.  But maybe, I stand to be corrected.

Outdoor rooms are definitely all about being tidy, and minimalist to match the latest stream-lined architectural style.  

Landscape that a webpage forgot.

          LISTS, LISTS, LISTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL BLOGS.  

When reading material on the internet, it does seem as though landscapes and gardens get forgotten when reading serious environmental matters.  Next time you go to a website on global green issues, see if you can find anything about landscaping and what we do to the space outside our homes.   This really is something that gets forgotten, unless you happen to click on the topics themselves.

• For example, see this list from www.abc.net.au/environment/ 

ALL

·         CLIMATE CHANGE

·         ENERGY

·         FOOD

·         FORESTS

·         GREEN BUSINESS

·         GREEN LIVING

·         HEALTH

·         LAND MANAGEMENT

·         MURRAY DARLING BASIN

·         NATURE

·         OCEANS & REEFS

·         POLLUTION

·         TRANSPORT

·         WASTE

·         WATER

·         WEATHER

A John Ruskin Quote - However, Plants are Not Made Equal

Agies seeding themselves, and in the
front garden, too! 

Being thus prepared for us in all ways, and made beautiful, and good for food, and for building,
and for instruments of our hands, this race of plants, deserving boundless affection and
admiration from us, becomes, in proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly perfect test of our
being in right temper of mind and way of life; so that no one can be far wrong in either who
loves trees enough, and everyone is assuredly wrong in both who does not love them,
if his life has brought them in his way."
-   John Ruskin, 1819-1900, Modern Painters VI  

That quote pretty much captures it all.

But there is one thing I should add that all plants and trees are not made equal.  Noxious and environmental weeds are our second largest ecological issue in this country, after land-clearing. 

On one of my more dangerous landscaping jobs this week which involved a piece of metal getting wedged in my eye along with a smidgeon of rust, I did still spy a goodly number of Agapanthus (Agapanthus praecox spp. orientalis) spreading about the eastern and inner suburbs of Melbourne (and coastally, too). It is a real takeover bid in public and private places. What I don't like is how they dwarf a lot of the native shrubs and really look quite silly protruding out of otherwise quite tame garden beds.  It's important to dead head them ie remove the flowers before the seeds disperse.

Over the holidays, I will send some letters to councils and local papers about this.  In the meantime, check out this list of well-known weeds.

http://www.gregsindigenouslandscapes.com.au/Environmental%20Weeds.htm

Tricky course finally finished.

Well, a bunch of us finished our Sustainable Landscape Design course this week, and we are all pretty proud, as out of 45 people starting across two streams,  two and a half years ago, apparently only 16 of us have got through.  Apparently the course is one of its kind in the world, with a similar title anyway. It was a great exercise in getting your head around designing on the computer, dropping all those bad gardening and landscaping habits and just coming to appreciate what we have around us and how divine and precious it is.  It seemed apt tonight when I went out in to my garden and found about 10 tomatoes on my vines. They've come a bit early this year, thanks to all the rain.

And, what a fantastic bunch of people we've met over the last two years, and have to thank  them for being so inspiring and knowledgeable, Frances, Mim,  Brad, Stu, James, Kerry, Helen,  Gary, (Swinburne teachers) and Bruce, Tracey, Ryan, and all the fantastic staff at Sustainable Gardening Australia (my volunteer job).  I also have to thank Andrew for his help when I was struggling with getting my head around some complex building aspects, and without whose help the green roof would most certainly not have got up so smoothly.  I also have to thank my family, especially my son, Sebastian for putting up with the infernal tirades at the Vectorworks software programme (oh, and the vodka helped too).