Flood

Seems like just last week I was writing about the bushfires and how they were burning NSW into a cinder and now we have flooding.
Most people you talk to here just quote Dorothea Mackellar’s poem - My Country (if they know it) and shrug their shoulders.  "That's Australia" they say. And it's true, we are a land of vast contrasts but this time its a bit wearying because we had the fires and now for the 3rd time in 4 years devastating floods.
The state of Queensland is copping it pretty bad at the moment and the rain depression is heading south into NSW.  Here in Sydney we are on alert for flooding rain and 140 km winds, we have been getting a nice soft rain for the last 3 days and the water table is just about at capacity so if we get the torrential rain that is expected we will also flood.
Stay tuned for the mouse and locust plague in March.

Because of the rain and the stinking humidity over the last 3 days my garden is going gangbusters.  On Monday I planted a sweet potato that had sprouted, yesterday I went out to see how it was doing there was a vine growing.  I had to put shade cloth over the tomatoes so they don’t get bruised from the heavier rain and all the shallots, spring onions and garlic have been harvested so they don’t rot in the ground.

I’ll get some carrots in one night this week because the seeds will stay wet and should germinate quickly. Lettuce can’t go in until this humidity clears off and I daren’t plant any winter crops just yet for the same reason. 

All the herbs are doing well; I’ll be picking the last of the sage and basil shortly and hanging them to dry. I found white curl grubs in the soil in the parsley tub two weeks ago.  Parsley was looking a bit sad and droopy so I snooped around underground for a clue and there were heaps of them munching away on my parsley. A Google search gave me a nice safe way to get at them without having to dig up half the pot.  Soapy water.  I made a nice slurry of pure soap and water and poured it over the parsley. 10 minutes later up came about 30 heads gasping for air.  I grabbed them and put them in the bird feeding tray.  A little labour intensive but we eat parsley every day just about so I don’t want anything chemical near it.  The only drawback that I can see is the earthworms vacate to another tub too.