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?

Former Missionary! Really?

Recently, I had to fill in some details about myself. When it came to putting down my occupation, I decided against putting down my present occupation of “sales assistant and delivery guy”, not because I am ashamed off my job but because I did not believe that my current job description best revealed my background, so I put down “Former Missionary”, which I am! Or am I?

I struggled with the word ‘former’ and strongly wanted to just put down “Missionary” which, in the broad sense of the word, is true.

However, these days when you mention the word “Missionary”, most, if not all, understand it in the Narrow sense, and as we are no longer official connected to a “Mission” Society, I no longer felt free to use the word, even though, in the wider sense, I still consider myself a missionary.

In the broader sense being a “former Missionary”, is like being a retired Christian; easy to say but just not possible to be. You are either one or you are not. What you do, where you do it and how much of it you still can do, is beside the point. You either still are, or you never were!

In the dictionary, a ‘missionary’ is defined as, “concerned with, or characteristic of, religious missions.” It also defines, “mission”, as, "A particular task or goal assigned to a person or group.”

Is this not what we have been called to in the Great Commission in the Book of Matthew 28: 16 – 20? A very specific task, if you ask me!

Is this not also, to paraphrase, what Jesus said in the Book of Acts 1: 8ff? “You will receive power from the Holy Spirit to be my witnesses, starting where you are now and spreading out as you are led?”

As I was once called, I still remain called, and even though no longer officially connected to a mission and thus unable to openly claim to be so, I am still a Missionary for Christ!

And proud of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Walter

Why didn’t they see what I saw?

Melbourne Victoria is currently on stage 3 Water Restrictions and every one is being enjoined to save water and to use Grey water on their Gardens instead of fresh tap water.

Being on holidays I am currently pottering about the garden when it is not too hot; and using the Grey water from the Shower and Washing machine for the garden plants. Earlier today I was out in the backyard and did a bit of tidying up about the yard there. Later my wife did a load of washing and my daughter came home from work and took the dogs out into the yard for a short play and run around with her. Later I went out to empty the washing machine water onto the area where I had been working earlier. Before I got that far I glanced over at the side of the garden bed and so called lawn area and wondered why there was a large damp area there. At first I was suspecting a broken pipe on our side but it was damp not flooding. Then I thought it must have been run off from next door, but climbing up on the fence revealed only dryness on that side. Climbing back down I noticed that the damp area actually ran from across the other side of the yard and down to this low spot. So following back across and up the yard to the far corner, I discovered that a heck of a lot of water must have flowed quickly from a back neighbour’s through the compost area cutting a well washed path through there. Climbing up onto that very high fence and risking the wrath of the two yappers that live there, I saw an above ground swimming pool further up their yard and although from my distance it looked okay, I ‘m guessing that the liner gave way somewhere and sent a tidal wave through our yard diminishing as it went and stopping at the lowest spot where I first noticed it.

My problem is that both my wife and daughter and walked around the yard at some point after this must have happened, and although they didn’t go in the far corner, I can’t understand why they hadn’t noticed the damp areas?

My only guess is that they didn’t see it because they were not looking for it and it wasn’t really their area of expertise or concern.

What about you? Are you aware of what is going down around you or are you only cognisant of your own areas of expertise and concern? Has a temporary tidal wave past your way recently completely unnoticed?

In this case the consequences for us are negligible but maybe not so next time, Hey! So be alert to what’s happening around you.

Till next time: Walter

Brushy Fence. Obstacle or opportunity?

Our back wooden fence is in very poor condition, as is a small piece of a side fence dividing the backyard from the front. So a little while back, when I saw some cheap brush fencing cover rolls in the Reject Shop, I bought a few to cover up these weak spots in the two fences.

The Brush fencing rolls aren’t that strong but they did what I wanted them to do. Cover up those eye-sores.

However, lately the two spots where I put them, have bought them under attack. Up the back, the brush fencing is under attack from George the dog, as he is trying to bite his way through it to find a weak spot in the fence to get out. Yesterday, to get around that problem, he moved on and dug under the door under the house, to get under the house, and because, out the front of the house the dirt has been removed from the boards in preparation for restumping in the next week or so, he was able to get out and wander up the street. Much to his delight but greatly to my wife’s anguish! (And so to our first born, when she got home from work and found that her dog had gone walk-about alone.)

Back to the brush fence piece between the front and the back. It too is under attack but not near the bottom like the other from George, but at the top. The culprits? Two Magpies! Apparently they think this light Ti-tree type brush is ideal for their nest. And they are only to happy to help themselves to this free and readily accessible material.

Moral of the story?

One man’s beautification scheme can be another’s (The dog’s) obstacle or another’s (the Magpie’s) housing opportunity. It all depends on how you look at it! In the case of the dog, it was an obstacle that when he found that he couldn’t eat his way through it, he found another way to avoid it. In the case of the Birds, they made every advantage of it.

How do you react to the obstacles that every day life places in front of you from time to time?

As an insurmountable problem? Or as one you can either find a way around, or even take advantage of and use to your advantage? It all depends on your out look, doesn’t it?

Walter

Any Spanish heath in your life?

My grandfather first rented and then brought a 20 acre former Rose Nursery at Watson’s creek just after the turn of the 20^th Century. Over the years he both cleared and extended his property, handing over to his son 54 acres. In the early to mid 1960’s Dad added to the property by purchasing a 20 acre block next door. Unlike Grandpa’s purchases which were mainly covered with wattle and Gum trees that needed clearing, the new block had been cleared of all timber many years earlier but had been allowed to get run down and when dad bought it, it had very poor pasture and was over grown with Spanish Heath, ti-tree and in places Blackberries. Over the years dad both improved the pasture and removed all the ti-tree and Spanish Heath, and controlled the blackberries. He used chemical means to control the blackberries but for the ti-tree and heather he used physical labour. Whenever any grew he would chop it out immediately and thus stop it spreading.

Thus you would thing that despite Dad not having done anything to the property these last half dozen years or so, that there would be no Spanish Heath left on the property, some 40 years plus since he bought the property. Not so! Recently I went for a walk up in one of the gullies that I can still remember being literally covered with Spanish Heath back in the 60’s and was surprised to find half a dozen plants in full flower. Although a pest, I must admit that the plant in flower is an impressive sight.

I was simple amazed at the tenacity and ability of the plant to have such viable seed after all those years of aggressive eradication by dad.

This is very much like the scriptural description of Sin. Now I know a lot of people today don’t like the word sin and so prefer words like faults, bad habits or weaknesses. Call them what you like, they are still like the Spanish Heath. Although we know that they are bad for us we find them attractive and feel that one or two around the place will not harm us. We forget or willingly ignore the fact that they are aggressive spreaders and reproduce others very quickly. To deal with theses weaknesses, faults bad habits, these sins; we need to act aggressively with them. We need to chop them out immediately we find them. We need to be constantly on our watch for them. We can never ignore them; not even for a little while.

Do you have any “Spanish heath” in your life right now? Then deal with it right now. Eradicate the full grown, and the seedling plants, and stop all seeds from growing. Yes it will be an ongoing process but the longer you put it off, the harder it will be. Counter wise, the sooner you start and the harder you work at it, the easier it will become, with just “mop up” work to keep things under control.

I have since been informed that each Spanish Heath plant can produce 9 million seeds a year! I have no idea how they managed to count them all, but the volume does help explain how it spreads so rapidly and with such tenacity!

An Ode to the humble Hydrangea.

The Hydrangea, like the Agapanthus is a much maligned plant of yesteryear. 

Like the Agapanthus, the Hydrangea is making a comeback today due to new varieties and colours. 

Though much maligned the Humble Hydrangea has many outstanding qualities that recommend it to many gardens, particularly large ones. Some of the newer varieties are dwarfs and suited to pots or small gardens but the original varieties are larger plants and like a bit of room.

The plants themselves can grow in many difficult conditions that many other plants can’t, making them suitable for lazy gardeners and difficult gardens.

While they do not spread or reproduce like the Agapanthus, they are long living. The hydrangea, unlike the agapanthuses is not as prolific in spreading. The hydrangea reproduces itself by suckers from the original plant on the outside and as the inside ones die the outside ones replace it in an ever perpetuating motion so that although the plant is always reproducing itself it never spreads from its original spot by that method.

The only way the Hydrangea can spread in the wild so to speak, is if an animal or something breaks of a piece at the right time of the year which then falls to the ground wherever it lands or is dropped and takes root and grows.

Today the Hydrangea plant is mass produced by cuttings at the right time of year. Done right it is easy to do. I have done it. Unfortunately when I did it, I put about 20 cuttings in a row in the ground in the vegetable garden of my parents home, but somehow never got around to moving most of them and the majority are still there flowering year after year some 35 years later. In truth there are still some of the original plants at my parents home that were there before I was thought of.

During our time in South Africa we even came across a couple of Hydrangea plants at a former Mission Station that is now used as a Medical Clinic and where the garden has been open to cows, sheep, goats and horses for some 25 years. Yet these two plants still struggle on, through good times and bad. And believe me, they are mostly bad!

It is the Hydrangeas ability to cope with dry conditions that has endeared it to many in the past. In my mother’s garden of my youth, water was scarce and not wasted on plants. Only very special plants got any water during the long hot summer months and even then it was only the bath water that they got. But as stated above the Humble Hydrangea survived many, many long hot summers. It has the amazing ability to draw the moisture out of the atmosphere when it can’t get it through the roots.

Many a time I have seen the plant shrivelled up like it was dieing during the day, only to draw moisture over night, and to be thriving again the next morning.

The Hydrangea comes in many shades of blue and pinks and even white ones. The hydrangea also grows almost anywhere but prefers a semi shady position with morning sun. When grown in full sun it suffers a little from sun-burn in hot conditions and this look sometimes turns people against them. Another problem that some people have with hydrangeas is that they buy one colour and plant it in the garden and the next flowering season it is another colour.

This is not the plants fault but the fault of the soil in your garden. If you want Blue Hydrangeas, you must make sure there is plenty of Iron in the soil. You can do this with various fertilizers or even Special Blueing Hydrangea mixes. If you want pinks, then you need to avoid acidic soils and add lots and lots of Lime & or special Pinking agent.

The more iron in the soil the bluer the flowers will be. The more Lime in the soil the pinker the Flowers. That is why if you want blue flowers you plant Hydrangeas where other acidic soil loving plants, like Azaleas, camellias and Rhododendrons thrive. You most definitely do not plant them next to brick houses or cement paths or any other place where lime is/was present.

Also unlike the Agapanthus which maintains a standard shape year after year and flowers abundantly whether looked after or not, the hydrangea needs a little selective pruning each year, especially after flowering.

Basic pruning, shaping and removal of dead wood from the plant can (and should) be done in the dormant stage of the growth cycle in winter. However immediately the flowers start dieing and looking yucky, they should be pruned off back, not to the next bud but to the second next bud, which is the next year’s flower head in embryo.

That’s enough about the humble hydrangea, what about you and me? Can we not only hang on but survive and even thrive in difficult conditions, which often seem to be most of the time, doesn’t it?

Are we reproducing new plants (Christians) either from within the family or as cuttings (converts) spreading elsewhere?

Or are we in need of pruning, even if it may mean letting go of a part of us that has been a part of us for a long, often too long, a time. Do we need a change of nutrients, so that our colour and shape will change and become more attractive, or are we afraid of change and rather than let people see the different shades and colours that we can become hide, behind our standard blueness.

If so what are you going to do about it? Are you in need of a change of colour or even a change of location?

Or are you just surviving and desperately in need of a change of environment or even simpler, just a good dose of decent fertilizer?

In other words are you happy with your present situation; or are you going to seek a change, whether minor or major?

If so what are you going to do about it?

Is this truly going to be a NEW year for you, or what? Walter

First day of 2007. What does it mean for you?

So it is now a new day and a new year has begun. So what? Is it really a new year for you or has the so called new year started off the same way as the old one ended? “Just another day in the Salt Mine!” A day and year where you simply have to grin and bear it?

Why do you think that is so? More importantly what have you done or trying to do to change your present situation?

Today I have no answers only questions. Over to you again: Walter