The weather is challenging me in otherways too, namely in the vegie garden. I was speaking to a grandmother at speech day yesterday and she mentioned that she had grown vegies in her backyard for many, many years but gave up recently; not because of her age or fitness, but because she felt that the weather and pests were getting increasingly worse and worse over the past few years. I can certainly empathise with her today! After having very little rain for months, in the past three weeks we have had storm after storm come through, with hot weather in between. It's been almost monsoonal, I feel like we've been transported to the tropics, LOL. As a result, the insect population has positively exploded, and what plants and fruits the bugs aren't getting have split their skins or have developed humidity-related fungal diseases.
Of the 18 cos lettuce seedlings I planted last week, all have been cut off at soil level (presumably by cutworms) Every tomato has a split skin, the zucchini and cucumbers have mouldy leaves, most of the beans seeds have rotted instead of germinating, the silverbeet leaves that haven't been skeletonised by bugs look wilted and ill, and this is what remains of my very first apple, that I have been molly-coddling for weeks:
It split open after all the rain and the bugs attacked straight away :-( I did manage to salvage enough of it to get a taste, which, despite being a couple of weeks away from harvest time, was delish. So sweet.
Ah well, what can you do but battle on? I'm only a beginner vegie gardener so I am hoping that by the time peak oil and global warming *really* start to bite, I will have worked out at least some of the peculiarities of my local climate and pests, and some strategies for dealing with them. My advice to you if you want to start growing vegies too, is start little, but start now!
Making: It's school holidays, so it's bubble mix and playdough.
Dinner: Zucchini fritters, homemade tomato sauce and salad.
Reading: Clean Food Organic Volume 5, which arrived in the mail today.
Utilities: Gas 35.6 MJ/day (goal 19.2); water 355 L/day (goal 120); electricity 13.3 kWh/day (goal 5.7), garbage 5.05kg/this week (goal 2.3); recycling 5.4 kg/this week (goal 0.75).
Contemplating: The impact of Peak Oil on medications. Miss 6 has an eye infection, so it was off to the chemist this morning for eye drops and sterile saline solution (both in plastic bottles). It makes me wonder how much the price of pharmaceuticals will go up in the future, and how their availability will be affected?
10 comments:
Oh, that poor little apple. I'm glad you at least got to taste it. :-)
I've been meaning to ask you about your Gas reading Julie. Does your meter measure in megajoules? Mine doesn't and I have to wait for some sort of complicated calculation on my bill to find out what I've used.
Thanks Polly :-) No, I have to convert my meter readings to megajoules - my bill says that they use a factor of 39.936428! I.e. the difference in the meter reading x 39.936428 = gas use in megajoules. Do they explain the calculation they use on your bill somewhere, so you can do it yourself?
That's early for school holidays isn't it? I thought they had another couple of weeks. That could explain why I saw so many older kids at swimming today!
I wish there was a cheap way to deal with the humidity/weather for cooling the house down. I too have noticed the differences with the vegie patch in the last week or so, lettuce suddenly bloting etc....
Hi Kez, the public schools have another week or two I think?
I agree Ali, I can cope with *hot* weather no problems, but the humidity knocks me for six every time :-(
I can so relate: fungus on the zuchinni, whitefly and tomato worm on the tomatoes...luckily the beans are still producing but the leaves are looking as though something is getting to them. It's a learning curve.
Thanks Julie, I'll take a closer look at the bill.
There is organic sulfur spray available for the fungus (I live in a climate that's been humid forever) on your zucchini. It works, and the compound has been in use for at least 100 years (before oil-based economy). You can keep them alive and producing. Handling cooling the house- keep air flowing. Ceiling fans use very little energy and do wonders for a hot room, even with humidity (you get used to it). Consider an attic fan (they make solar-powered ones) to pull hot air out of the house through the attic. You could do what my grandparent's generation did- open windows at night, and shut the house up tight during the day, all windows closed and covered. House tended to stay tolerable until late afternoon, when everyone would go to the porch with a big glass of iced tea. DON'T use the oven and minimize all other heat-generating things. Some of my ancestors even kept refrigerators and freezers on the porch to keep from heating up the house.
Hi anonymous, thanks for all the tips :-) I came across the organic sulphur spray yesterday, so I'm glad to hear that it works well for you. Mum uses dusting sulphur and reckons it works well too, it's just a pity it keeps drizzling rain and washing it all off though, very frustrating. It's amazing the amount of heat generated in the house through the windows - I always do as my Mum does and shut the house up tight early in the morning, it makes for a much more pleasant temperature inside for much longer, and means on stinking hot days we might only need the air-con on for a couple of hours, and not at all up to about 35'C. We do have ceiling fans which are excellent, the problem is that I have to sit directly under them to get any relief when it is 75% humidity like it is right now. It's only 28'C but there isn't a breath of a breeze! Very unpleasant.
Cheers, Julie
I am sorry to hear about your vegie patch. It's so frustrating to work hard and have little to show for it.
Kate
Post a Comment