Mother Earth is P'ed off!

Its official, Mother earth is certainly pissed off with us minions called the human race. Floods, cyclones and earthquakes! What's next? Pestilence? In a way, we're having that too - with locusts and of course there's always cockroaches which are everywhere. So let's have no more Mother nature, please. On behalf of the human race, I, Dani King, am sorry! Please give us a break here in Australia and our neighbours New Zealand.

Mother Earth

Its interesting to me that the authorities are saying that Australia will have more catastrophic natural disasters due to global warming and we still have sceptics out there. In our country, alone, we have fires in one part of the country and cyclones and ridiculous rain patterns in the other parts. A few months ago, southern Queensland flooded. Brisbane was pretty much all under water. The death toll was one too many, with thirty-five perishing, which will probably rise as seventy-two are missing. Countless houses and businesses destroyed with Brisbane at a stand-still. It will take months to get back on track. At the same time, northern Victoria was flooded, bearing down on farms which had just been through the droughts and now flooded. Thankfully, there were no deaths in Victoria. In Perth around the same time, there were fires which took houses.

Then last week saw Cyclone Yasi hit northern Queensland which has left them powerless and without drinking water. Their water treatment plant was hit pretty bad which means they may be off power and no water for a week. The water they do have is coming straight from the dams, which needs to be boiled twice to drink. Which is hard to fathom. Rooves were blown off; trees were at 90 degree angles; windows smashed in; houses and businesses destroyed with the impact of a very pissed off mother earth. Unfortunately, one man has perished, with three people missing. Banana plantations which were hit five years ago with cyclone Larry have been hit again with Yasi.

Now, in Melbourne, we see the aftermath of cyclone Yasi as its still on its path downwards. For the past twelve hours, we have seen continuous rain. Its been heavy. Flash flooding has hit the CBD and parts of it are under water. St Kilda has been without power.

The wonderful part is that there has been a wonderful human spirit through these times; people volunteering their time and skills across the country. People giving money. That's patronism. That's Australia. The Victorian fires in 2009 saw comradery in many forms. People are still digging deep for them, and this will continue with the victims in Queensland and elsewhere. Its what Australians do.

TOMATOES

I used to have a greenhouse of seeded tomatoes but none of them grew any bigger than a few centimetres. I ended up moving the greenhouse. Imagine my surprise, when I went down to water one day and in the same area where the greenhouse stood, were seedlings of tomatoes. Not one, but two! I must say, it is exciting. However, the only problem is that I don't know what kind of tomatoes they are. I grew a few different varieties in the greenhouse, you see. Anyway, no fruit as yet, but plenty of flowers. I have OTHER seedlings which have turned into fantastic bushes of plants. These seedlings are producing fruit. So I am thinking, it will not be long until the 'unknown' tomatoes will produce fruit too! Tomatoes are my favourite fruit. And I have different varieties (roma, (heirloom)green grape, periforme, heirloom purple, cherry tomatoes, etc) in pots and in the ground. It got me thinking about how amazing seeds are. Here, I was trying to do the right thing and have them in a greenhouse and for some reason, they did not take. However, in the ground, which is hard clay, they thrive. A client of mine had a flood through her garden & house at the end of 2010. And now, in the midst of builders rubble of a newly built fence, are seedlings of tomatoes and capsicum. I can't wait until they produce fruit to see what varieties they are. I am now thinking that certain seeds don't need the 'correct' seeding practices because, if it the time, they will grow.

Christmas 2010

Christmas time again. The last few years in Melbourne, we have been battling harsh droughts and therefore no rain. This Christmas, saw precipitation coming from our skies yet humidity and cloud cover. Boxing day is 19 degrees and we are faced with the realities of a Summer which may be wet and cool. Floods are in the north end of Australia; fire warning in the west and Melbourne looks like its going to have its usual "four-seasons-in one day" season. Our dams are more than half way. Over seas, its unseasonally cold in Europe. Seeing small villages in Ireland without water due to frozen pipes. Heathrow was shut the weeks before Christmas due to icy runways. In America, temperatures are down to -7.

Rain

I am not complaining about the rain. However, is it too much to ask for it to rain from 6pm to 4am? Enough time to get it out of it's system and then gardening folk can get on with their days! The farmers in the north don't want any more either. How awful. Five years of drought followed by a season of flooding! This is worse for the crops and soil than the drought. Hardly seems fair, does it? We work in the rain and it has to be really coming down for us not to work. At the beginning of the day, this seems to work, however by afternoon, we realise we are drowned rats anyway. Can one get any wetter? Might as well work! Everything sticks to you. The drains of the older houses are flooding and our equipment are getting ecstatic with the amount of white smoke they are blowing. I AM NOT COMPLAINING but...its very frustrating...certain things cannot be done in the rain. Ladder work, for example is a very bad idea in the rain. Mulching is another one. I have mulched in the rain and ended up looking like a chocolate covered peanut! Which isn't the look I was going for! The rain we are getting is not misty, its actually soil deepening rain. Which is good, but also means that everything is growing a lot faster. We were at a client's the other day and we had to mow the lawn three times. The entire lawns took three hours to complete! So we have the same allotted time in Spring as any other time and we work three times as hard, because as well as the lawns, there are overgrown hedges, dead-heading, mulching, WEEDING and the list goes on and on. It also been very balmy, which makes working in the rain so much better, because there is no cold factor. Very Queensland weather. However, as Melbourne does it, we're now going lower than 14 degrees in the night again, which is much better. Our dams are not past halfway and they have dropped the restrictions, forgetting about how quickly they can drain. Governments only think three years ahead. Not to the whole picture. It would really be nice if there was a politician out there who would see the big picture. Yes, I want dream land to turn into reality. I think I spoken about this before. Obviously, its something I care deeply about. Rain is water, but it won't last forever. If anything can be shown from the last few years, we know it dries up quickly.