Oxalis and how to get rid of it.

Now the Oxalis plant is another of those loved or cursed plants. There are a few very lovely types available in white, pinks and variations between. The most common type and the one most people think of when they hear the word oxalis however, is the common yellow flowering type.

Now the more pretty and fancy types can be purchased as bulbs or already flowering pot plants, in various Nurseries, and can even be quite expensive. On the other hand while the common yellow one may also often be found in Nursery grounds, they are never for sale. (Or shouldn’t be!)

This pale clover leaf type and bulb, with its pretty yellow flowers can be quite eye-catching, and possibly desirable. In someone else’s garden, but most definitely not in mine! Everyone I know that has it, despairs at ever getting rid of it, as it is so prolific. Also as it spreads from little bulblets attached to its own, that drop off at the slightest touch, pulling them up can in fact spread them further, rather than actually help in eradicating them. They are also fairly resistant to weed Killer too, so eradication is not possible with a one step application. However whilst total eradication may not be possible they can be controlled. If you keep at it.

When we first moved into this place 4 years ago, among many other problem plants, we also had major infestations of this yellow oxalis all around the yard.

Now on my father’s farm he never had a problem with oxalis but he did have a major headache with both Bracken Fern, and Blackberry. The Blackberry was brought under control fairly easily with irregular spraying. However with the Bracken, he brought it under control with constant slashing. Now he realised that he would never fully eradicate it this way but by constantly slashing the Bracken, he was therefore forcing the plant to use all its energy and nutrition into constantly struggling to make new growth. Thus he was weakening the plants resources, and the plant itself. At the same time as well as not only stopping the bracken from spreading and chocking out the grass, this allowed the cattle to graze among them. Now the cattle would not actually eat the ferns but they would occasionally step on the fronds breaking them and in turn helping to keep new growth down.

With this thought of not actually ever totally eradicating the Oxalis, simply controlling it, I decided to put my father’s Bracken Fern theory into practise with my oxalis. Where possible I have pulled up the plants and bulbs, carefully removing all the bulblets I could find, and then, smothering the whole area with leaf mulch and mower clippings etc, making new growth just that little bit harder. I then simply kept following up by removing any new growth I could find. Where it was difficult to get to the bulbs I kept spraying them with weed killer when I could. After 4 years of this I still have oxalis in our garden but no-where near the quantity that was there originally.

Recently I glanced at a gardening article in the Weekly Times and it was by a top “TV” Gardening expert, and I was quite chuffed to find that his advice on how to control Oxalis was the same as I had devised from my own father’s experience. The only weakness with this theory, as he also pointed out, is that you simply have to keep at it and not let the oxalis recover and spread again.

I was reminded of this lately with all the talk about New Year’s Resolutions and how they never work. Now as such there is no problem and every advantage in making resolutions, whether they be New Year’s ones or simply situational ones at any time.

These resolutions are nearly always good ones and ones that will either benefit ourselves or those around us, so if you are thinking of making a resolution to change some area of you life, I would encourage you to do so. And not to wait for the next New Year either!

However like my Oxalis problem, it won’t be easy and it won’t be achieved with a one-off application of resolve. Permeant and ongoing change can be achieved; but you will have to keep at it and work on it.

Sometimes, like when I pulled the oxalis out by hand, you will achieve the correct effect by your own labours. At other times you might need to use neutral help like I did when I used the mulch to retard (Note not fully stop.) future growth, you also will find that these other competitive activities will help diminish the appeal of, and time available, for those old habits of yours. At other times, like when I used weed killer, you will need outside and specific help to achieve your desired results. Like in most things in life, genuine change seldom comes from one action and one source. To achieve most goals in our lives we need to desire it; to work at it; to keep at it; and to call in expert help when necessary. Even to use the ideas and examples of those who have gone before us, adapting them if necessary to our own situation, like I did with my father’s original theory.

How’s your life-garden growing? Got any Oxalises in it? If so what are you going to do about them? Remember, it’s your Garden! If you don’t make a start, no-one else will either. They may be more than happy to help you but they can’t do it all for you. You have to make that first call, and sometimes even ask for help: Walter

Modern Technology! Weird, Wonderful or both?

How do you feel about Modern Technology? Do you think the whole thing just too weird to worry about? And if you miss out on anything new, well tuff! After all you have lived all your life till now without it, and see no need to try anything new.

Or do you see modern Technology as wonderful and have all the latest creations, no matter how much they cost you? Whether you really need them or not?

When it comes to keeping up with the latest Technology, I am definitely a needs only follower. For a long time I had resisted both the Mobile Phone and the computer. Eventually I was introduced to various functions of both that I came to accept. However, a mobile phone is still only for taking and making necessary phone calls and not for every day usage. There is still a land-line for that. As for Text Messages? What are they?

It is similar with the computer; I truly believe it is a wonderful piece of equipment and has a myriad of wonderful uses. But! As for me, I only know how to open Word, and e-mail, and as that is all I perceive I need to know, that is all I want to know. Also it works for me. Well most of the time that is. The only problem is that when I have a problem, I have a major problem and I have to wait till my son is available to solve it for me.

Recently I became aware of the benefits of Blog sites, and after thinking of it for some time, eventually had my son create one for me to put my musings on. Which he did, lovely boy that he is! And every thing went fine; until early this past week, when for reasons I have yet to learn, I became unable to open up to my own site. Unfortunately my son was away for a week leaving me stuck with my problem.

As I was on holiday this week and as it was a non important matter, I was reasonably happy enough to wait till he gets back. However had this been important, I would have been in BIG trouble and would have had to hire some expensive outside professional to do that which is probably a very simple task.

Enough of me, what about you? Are you making the most of what is available around you? And are you taking the trouble to learn all you need to know about it? Or are you like me? Only making do which what you have to use, and with no idea how to maintain it? And as there is little need to know, refuse to learn?

Remember, despite our hopes and wishes, there won’t always be someone around able to help us out all the time. If we are going to use something regularly, then we really should learn the basics about it. Even if that is like how I am learning. One step; or rather one problem, at a time.

So, if you are reading this on my Blog site, you know I have just learnt one more valuable lesson in modern Technology and its uses and problems! Walter

What next for the Australian Cricket Team?

A couple of years back, more than a couple of our overseas Cricket following friends, asked me if there was another team in the world who could beat the then Australian Cricket team.

(This was before the 2005 Ashes Loss!) I replied with a positive response.

My positive reply then was that yes there was. The bad news being that it was the Australian Second team. I then went on to explain my theory of why Australia was so good at that time.

It was because we had so many other players good enough to be a winning second string team, yet still not able to get a regular spot in the Number One team.

This discussion came to mind again today, as the Australian Team now has 3 world class champions retiring after the last Test. (4 if you count a world class Batsman who retired two tests back!). So now the question on every ones lips is, “Where to now for Australia? Can these 4 top players be replaced quickly? The answer is twofold.

As Individuals They will never be replaced. There is only one Glen McGrath. There is only One Shane Warne. There is only one Justin Langer. There is only one Damien Martyn.

All true, but as in the past, so in the Future. As far as fast Bowlers go there was only one Denise Lillie, There was only one Jeff Thompson. Still all true. But since them we have had, only to name a few, Massy, Pascoe, Alderman, Lawson, Lee, and oh yeah, McGrath!

As Individuals They will never be replaced, but collectively there are many other potential greats waiting in the wings. People who perhaps would never get a chance to show there potential wares as long as these champions are holding down their spots. Like wise with Batsman! Yes two top world class Batsmen have retired in Langer & Martyn, but as expressed on the TV by someone more knowledgeable than me on the subject, there areallready a couple of obvious talented batsmen in the wings already like Brad Hodges & Phil Jacques, who couldn’t previously hold down a permanent spot, but who now get their chance to regularly show their wares, and not have everything hinge on one performance to get a regular run.

Enough of Cricket. What about You and your life? Do you feel like you can never be replaced, yet still know you can’t go on forever? What will happen when you retire, whether voluntarily or involuntarily?

Are you training others to fill your spot, or whatever other spots that eventually there will be a need to fill? (It is always a shot to one’s confidence, when they hire two people to fill your role!) In Cricket it is not the players, but the Administrators job to train and prepare replacements. However usually in our lives, it seems that we don’t always have that luxury and if we don’t train our replacements, no one does! Thus either making it difficult for us to retire when the time is right or leaving a large hole to fill, when we have to. A hole that shouldn’t really be there if preplanning had been properly done.

Pre planning has been done by the Australian Cricket Board and thus we already have quality replacements ready and waiting, plus future replacements for them also being prepared. Stuart Clark, as top Wicket Taker this series, has already shown that he is a capable replacement for McGrath and in the wings are a couple of young guns like Mitchell Johnson, waiting to show his wares at the top level. So again, are you prepared for the future or do you need to start on it right now?

On the other hand perhaps you feel only a second string player and feel that you may never get the chance to take over the top spot? Are you continually frustrated because you never get a chance to show your wares and when you do, find you still can’t do enough to win the top spot permanently.

If so, spare a thought for Stewart McGill. He is a great Spin Bowler. Some would argue that as a bowler (but not Batsman) he is better than Shane Warne, yet he has had to play second string to Warne for nearly his entire career because normally there is only one spot in the team for a spin bowel and that spot has always belonged to Warne. The only way McGill could normally get a game was when Warne was injured or suspended. (They have played together a couple of times on the rare occasion that that particular Cricket Ground favored two spinners.)

Anyway McGill long ago accepted this reality but still kept playing his best, even though he thought he would retire before Warne. That has turned out to not be the case and now he again has the chance to prove he is good enough to do the job for his own now that Warne has retired.

What about you? Are you doing your best irregardless of your chances of getting the top job? Ready at any time to step into the breach and fulfill the task?

Or have you simply given up and simply going through the motions, or even worse given up altogether and walked away from something that you are in fact very good at, for no other reason than that you couldn’t be number One. Well remember, as in life, as in the Cricket Team. There may be many in a team but there can be only one no, 1.

My advice to you is to stick at what you are good at even if you will never be regarded as Number one, or even to get the chance to be No.1. Hang in there and do your best always, even if it is never properly recognized or rewarded.

If you are already doing that, great! If not buckle down, throw away the excuses and give your best in all things: Walter

Natural Born Leaders?

Is there such a thing as a natural born leader, or do they have to have the chance to grow into the Job?

In the wake of the Test Team’s 5 nil drubbing of the English Test Team someone asked the question on TV today, whether Ricky Ponting was the best Australian Test Captain ever. The wise answer was that although he has come a long way since the team under him lost the Ashes in 2005 and he is captaining very well at the moment, he still has a way to go to reach his best, let alone to be regarded now as best ever.

Ricky is not the best ever, but this is just another example of a person growing in his job as he is able and allowed to do. Now not everyone in Australia has been on Ricky Ponting’s side in regard to his Captaincy skills. It is not that long ago that, when he first became captain, there were many who thought he should not have got the job ahead of Shane Warne. The Ashes loss did not help his cause either. But he put his head down and his captaincy, and his batting both improved and now his captaincy is both accepted and recognized.

My point here is that very few are born fully talented and experienced and thus have to be allowed to grow into their Jobs. Some do so very well, some don’t. Some don’t get the chance. Some countries, like England recently, have had a whole series of Captains. When they have struggled, they have been replaced, rather than being given the opportunity to grow into the Job.

In Australia, most recently, Taylor, Waugh, & Ponting have all inherited strong teams and gone on to be recognized as strong, good and successful captains. But it has not always been so.

I remember well when Alan Border became Captain. It is no disrespect to him to say that he was not good at it originally, but he was the only one available who was prepared to put his hand up for the Job. I also think it true to say that in his first few season’s he, would have lost the captaincy, many times over, if there had been an obvious alternative. There wasn’t so he stuck at the job and the Cricket Board stuck with him and in due course he turned both his, and the Australian Team’s fortunes around and retired as one of Australia’s greats, and as already stated, passed a successful team on to Mark Taylor, who in his turn, turned a successful team onto Stephen Waugh, who in his turn turned the Team over to Ricky Ponting, equally as successful as any of the previous two Teams. Nothing breeds like success! However success never lasts without hard work and strong leadership, working with what you have before you at that time.

My point here that it is hard and even pointless to compare a Captain who inherited a successful team against any who came before him, let alone against those who made successes of unsuccessful teams. Each has to be assessed on what they did with what they had to work with.

It is the same for us. We can’t really bask in someone else’s hard work, nor can we blame the failures of those who preceded us. We have to deal with what we have. Make the most of what life deals out to us. And then be assessed on how we responded to our challenges. Sure we can blame our circumstances and environment to some degree, but at some point all of us must take responsibility for what we have done with what we got. It doesn't matter how little recognition we recieve. Or how poorly we feel we have been treated. Always react with your best. Not excuses, just your best.

How are you reacting to your present situation? Reacting against all the adverse challenges? Basking in someone else’s successes? Or doing your best with what you have been given to work with, without comparing yourself to anyone else but your very own best.

In all that you do, don’t ask if this is better than anyone else but ask yourself, if this is really the best you can do? If so take solace in that.

If not buckle down, throw away the excuses and give your best in all things: Walter

Pretty plain but pretty, still.

I like to garden and to grow things. However I am not a great gardener and many of the things I grow are the common plants that anyone and everyone else grows.

As I potter around my garden I often pot up smaller plants into pots. Either to plant elsewhere, or keep in pots, or to give away, or simple because I can’t bear to throw away a potential plant even though I have no need for anymore of that type.

Lately I have decided that I have too many pot plants around the place. So I planted a lot in the garden, just to get them out of pots. Some others I took up to the Hall where we now hold our Church services, on Christmas Day. My idea was to initially brighten up the outside entrance and then to give them away to whomever wanted them, after the service, as so called Christmas presents. Even though they were big healthy plants, no one really wanted them as they already have them. So although I did find a taker for one Hydrangea, I took the rest home.

So, as an exercise in getting rid of my excess plants it was pretty much a failure. However in talking to the Pastor later, he complimented me on improving the Ambience of the place with the lovely plants. So I have now been encouraged to continue taking plants up there, not just to get rid of my excess baggage but to improve the ambience of the Worship service. This of course, involves a bit of extra work and not what I was intending originally. It was to get rid of extra work, not create more! However if it helps others and doesn’t cost me more than I am happy to provide, why not.

What about you? Have you started something plain and want to get rid of it, thinking it is not appreciated? Have you started off trying to do one thing and ended up doing another, not intended?

If so, the thing to do is to ask yourself a few questions. Such as:

Are my efforts, bringing some benefit to others, whether originally intended or not?

Am I doing something that no one else will do?

Am I stopping others from doing better, by my efforts and thus need to step back and encourage others to come forward?

The answers to these questions should help you to decide what to do.

For me, I will continue to take plants up and back each week, for as long as I can, or until asked to stop.

Because even though they may be pretty plain and pretty common, they are still pretty and pretty useful!

Are you using costly stone? Or cheaper stuff!

I was recently reading through the first Book of Kings in the Bible and came across this line in Chapter 5 verse 17: “At the Kings command, they quarried out great costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.” (NRSV.)

Now I know that King Solomon was rich therefore could afford to do it, by why do you think he used Costly stones for the foundations? After all, once put down, no one would see them again and thus cheaper ones would have been as equally effective?

It was not the same as with the foundation, or stumps of this house, where cheapness did make a difference. Recently my son planned to do some renovations to this house. In his preparatory work he got down and dirty and under the house, and believe me to get under the house, you have to get down and dirty.

Anyway he went under the house to check the foundations or whatever, and found that not only were the stumps not solid but also badly in need of replacement. So money previously allotted to other work had to be extended to replacing the stumps. This resulted in another dilemma. Replace them with what? With wood again? Or to go for the more expensive Concrete? Added to this was the practical consideration that he only plans to hang on to this place for another couple of years at max and sell and move on, so why spend extra money on something that he will not really get the benefit for?

Like Solomon, he too went for the more expensive option, thus preventing the next owner having to face the same problems that he had to.

Some times we think and act with the thought, “That out of sight is out of mind”, and therefore it doesn’t matter.

Now sometimes that is true like with Solomon’s costly stones. As long as the stones were solid it didn’t really matter how they looked, but Solomon wanted to give his God the very best he could. Therefore he did, even where it didn’t really make any difference and no one else would ever see.

On the other hand it made a big difference when my son had to decide between the cheaper option, either eventually perpetuating the present problem onto someone else in the future, or going for the extra cost at the beginning, to no obvious benefit to him, but with some extra costs also for him.

What about you today? Are you like Solomon giving the best you can for God and for family, even where it will never be seen?

Are you like my son and choosing the more permanent option when you have the choice, even though it will cost you more than you planned?

Are you tempted to go for the cheaper option and let the next person suffer with the same problem, or fix it once and for all?

Do you think you can get away with shoddy work and that no one will notice and even if they do, it will soon pass from memory?

If you are thinking along those lines just remember the Leaning Tower of Pizza. World famous only because its builders scrimped on its foundations. Think too of the vast amounts of money spent on it over the years to stop it falling completely over. Do you really want people to spend their money and efforts to correct your failings?

Or would you rather see extra money spent on more deserving causes?

So, what are you building with? Costly stones? Or with the cheapest alternative?

Something brings eternal benefit to others, even if your contribution is soon forgotten?

Are you suffering a green drought?

At the moment most of Australia is suffering a severe drought. Some have called it, a once in a thousand year drought! How they come to that conclusion is beyond me as Australia has only had records, and even then only partially, kept since European Settlement some 200 plus years back.

However it is a severe drought, there is no doubt about that; and much of the country is very, very dry. Yet in other places there is lots of green growth. This greenness is confusing and is what is called “Green drought”.

A classic example of this is what has happened in our own back yard, in that area nominally referred to as lawn but is really just a grassy area when conditions suit. Up to just before Christmas it had been very dry and next to no rain and the grass everywhere including the back yard had browned off and was pitiful looking, almost too non existence around where there were trees. However just before, during, and after Christmas, we had some cooler weather and a few decent showers. No-where long or heavy enough to make any difference to Water Storage levels, but enough to make the brown dry grass, spring back to life and make the yard look green again.

Now this green drought phenomenon can be confusing because when you look at the nice green yard it is hard to believe that there is still a drought on. However the rain that we have had is just enough to kick things off again but not enough to make the grass really grow. So it looks green but there is no quality or quantity in it. It is nice to look at but useless to feed live stock on. Not that we have any grass eating livestock in our back yard.

In many ways this early growth can be unadvantagious too. My dad, who had a small farm, used to hate early summer rains that had no follow up rains to keep the recently germinated grass seeds going. Because if you have too many false starts like this, you end up exhausting all the existing desired grass seeds in your pasture and end up with a paddock full of weeds later.

What about you now? Are you going through a severe once in a thousand year drought?

Or what about a green one? Does everything look green on the outside to others looking on but there is no quality or quantity in what you are doing?

Have you even checked “your lawn” lately? Is it dry, green or even overgrown with weeds?

Do you need to get the Supreme Gardener it to clean it up again?