Saturday 18 January 2014

January 2014.

This is a picture of vegetables growing in my Ecobed.  Not much to see really, except that my garden has just been put to the test.  Today's weather has been very mild (23deg C.) but for the past 4 days it has been very hot and dry with a maximum daily temperature averaging 43.3deg C.   The past 7 days has averaged 35.8deg C.
Of course help was at hand.  The extra sheet of 75% shadecloth took me 5 minutes to fit, and far less to take off this morning.  I filled all the Ecobed water tanks with captured rainwater before the hot weather hit, and they all lasted the week without needing a refill.  The Ecobed (above) used about a third of the water in the tank.
The rest of the garden coped better than I expected due mainly to my drip line irrigation system, but most plants suffered some damage like the Hebe above.  Conditions were not as extreme as Melbourne has suffered in the past, because the wind velocity was moderate. 

Despite this there have been serious bushfires in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia with some loss of life and a lot of property damage.  I would like to express my profound sympathy to those affected.   

Unfortunately bushfires are a part of life in this country, and It is still early in the season.  The authorities are very worried about what could happen during the next few months.