h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good to know there is something to be gained from the dust. The same cannot be said for the freezing fog we've had the last couple of days It does make for some amazing iced spiders webs, which look like they've been painted with white paint
What are the new plantings? Or have you already told me?

The new planting - they're quite like the old ones, actually. A couple of grevilleas, some more euphorbias, a hebe and a couple of ground covers. They should all be tough and drought-tolerant, but the last thing one wants is to plant things in pleasant weather and then find that the next few days are effectively an oven...

I can cope with watering restrictions - they've been in place for years now, they're second nature - but not being able to water seedlings ad lib is quite nerve-wracking. I'll next be able to water at 7am tomorrow morning. *sigh* So much for a lie-in on a Sunday.

It's hard for me to imagine having watering restrictions, especially where seedlings are involved. It's not a brilliant start for any plant, however, if they get through it they would be that much tougher would'nt they?

We've have lost the arctic conditions for the time being. It's really nice not to be freezing when outside. Naturally though the cold weather has been replaced by strong winds and rain.

I'm inclined to think that a harsh watering regime for seedlings does toughen them up, or at least eliminates the feebler specimens. It's cruel, in a way, but I try to think of it as a Darwinian approach to developing a robust dryland garden. I mean, let's face it, this place is naturally dry... A garden here will never be truly lush.

The dwarf pomegranate has a couple of dozen flowers. They're startlingly vivid things - just the thing against all those dull grey-greens.

Lets face it, in the wild it's cope or die so only the strongest survive. It certainly on't hurt to use that approach, at least then you have the strongest and toughest plants possible.
I have some good news. About 3 years ago i planted a Daphne Odora Aureomarginata. It was only a small plant at the time but has since doubled in size, but has'nt flowered at all. Yesterday i was pegging some washing out and happened to see something on the Daphne, it was clusters of flowers bud, around 7 clusters in all. I can't wait for them to open and enjoy the heady scent.
I bet those pomegranites are looking stunning

I'm thinking of getting a non-dwarf pomegranate for the space that will be vacated by that pelargonium. It'll cheer that courtyard up no end. This is assuming I can find one, of course. I might have to con someone into giving me a lift to one of the big out-of-town nurseries that have more room for fruit trees.

Actually, now you mention daphne... that would be a nice option for that vacant spot too.

I should be outside now, pruning the cotoneaster I wish the landlord would let me kill, but it's a bit windy and I don't fancy being up a ladder right now. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not. Maybe discreetly-applied poison could be used instead.

When you say non dwarf, how big are we talking?

Don't you just love the strong fragrance of Daphne? Assuming you can smell it without setting your hayfever start off.

It's all systems go for the veg growers now. The only thing we seem to be selling at work is vegetable seeds and onion sets. It could be a poor year for us this year.

I had to wade through 4 inches of water to get to w**k this morning. We had heavy rain all night, the first we've had in a while. All the drainage ditches were blocked down the lane that i walk. The water was like a fast flowing river going straight down the road, it made for an interesting if not wet walk to w**k.
Tomorrow i go into hospital for the angiogram, i have to stay in overnight so won't be around for a couple of days

A non-dwarf pomegranate would be a small tree, a bit scruffy-looking but tough, and of course with startling flowers and very ornamental fruit. They're common in old semi-abandoned country gardens in some districts here, along with agave and aloes and date palms. I'm not proposing to plant any of those three, though.

I've only managed to catch the scent of daphne once or twice... Everyone who knows the plant tells me I've been missing out. That's another reason to plant another one, someday. (I had to leave the old house before the one I planted there was really up to much.)

Angiogram. Not fun in itself, but necessary. Good luck with it. I'm rather glad they're going to keep you on the premises for a while; let them wait on you hand and foot, if they're likely to do that.

I'm pleased to hear you have no intention of growing date palms, ugly things they are.

As you can see i survived the ordeal, and it was an ordeal too. I've heard horror stories about wards in hospitals, i never thought i would get to experience it first hand. Never again!

I'm sorry the hospital provided such an, um, experience for you. I do hope you have no repeat performances.

Are you under orders to rest, or are you straight back to the grindstone?

I agree about date palms in general, but there's someting about seeing the occasional century-old specimen out in the middle of nowhere in particular... Maybe it's an association of concepts, a sign of home, that sort of thing. That being said, no, I'll never plant one. I don't even like dates that much.

Luckily there will be no repeat performance, my heart is fine.
On the downside, i have to return to w**k tomorrow and for the weekend
Time is marching on in terms of the garden. The first snowdrops are just about to open, spring is just round the corner
I guess date palms don't look quite so out of place there as they do here. It seems south coast resorts always grow date palms along their seafronts and in their gardens, god knows why! They must be trying to create a tropical feeling, it does'nt work without the tropical temperatures and white sandy beaches, not to mention the grass parasols and pina-colada served by a waiter

I am so glad your heart is in good shape. It's a subject that gets my attention at the best of times - I have a mild form of an hereditary cardiac thingummy and my sister has a form severe enough for her to have had a defibrillator implanted a few years ago. So yes, heart issues are something I pay attention to.

Back to vegetation, though. I agree about date palms being ludicrously out of place on a British foreshore. They're out of place here in Canberra too. But out in dry wide-open spaces they punctuate the landscape nicely.

My mum died of heart disease, so it was a thought that i might inherit the same.
I'm sorry to hear of your condition, it must be a worry at times. When you say defibrillator, i wonder if thats what we call a pacemaker here? A machine that regulates the heart if it starts acting up.

Date palms are denfinately dry conditions tree, which is why they look so silly here!
We're having problems with flooding after all the heavy rain, something i'm sure you would be grateful for given the drought. Is'nt it a shame that they havent worked out how to balance the weather so we all get our fair share of sun and rain. I guess it's only a matter of time though eh!

A pacemaker delivers a constant regular impulse to the heart to keep it behaving properly, a defibrillator only kicks into action if a significant arrhythmia develops or there's a missed beat or something similar. When it does its thing, the effect is said to be like being kicked in the chest by a horse. My sister's has fired once, while she slept one night; she had a rough night but only knew what had happened a few months later when she had a check-up and the doctors downloaded the last six months of her cardiac activity. (Yes, she's fully computerised. Hurrah for modern medicine.)

I got a bit lucky with my version of the problem, inasmuch as the QT interval of my heartbeat is longer than usual but not in the danger zone. Obviously my sister's QT interval is a big problem. This condition runs in Dad's side of the family - there's a track record of cousins dropping dead in their 20s for no obvious reason. One of them was a policewoman on the beat, so clearly our overall physical health isn't affected, it's just that the heart might stop. Rather perversely, I'm now too old for the condition to manifest itself in any threatening way; if it hasn't shown up by the early 20s, it probably won't. At 38 I feel reasonably safe. My sister, on the other hand, had a series of heart attacks at 19. (6 February 1989, 7:10pm. One of the few days I remember with any real clarity.)

All I really have to do to keep myself safe is avoid extreme physical stress. Hence the office job, and the gentle sporadic gardening, and the complete failure to engage in sport . (It's as good an excuse as any...)

In other news - we've had a bit of rain over the last few days. The remnants of the 'lawn' have turned greenish. I wonder if this will last; if it doesn't the lawn will be brown again next week. I do think the drought will break reasonably soon. Surely it has to. But even then, our water restrictions are likely to become permanent. I think this is a sound idea; after years of this we should stay in the habit of not wasting water. If that means we stop planting inappropriate things, that's a bonus.

Being kicked in the chest does'nt sond too pleasant, i hope you sister does'nt have to put up with that too often.

We've had reports on our news about the temperature over there, it said that record levels have been reached. Jeez, that must be so uncomfortable aside from the risk of fires.

The first snowdrops have opened in the garden. I always look forward to seeing them, the clumps increase every year, so they are looking pretty good just now. Some Hellebores are also starting to flower, could this be the start of Spring? Not according to our weather forecast. We are to have a cold blast from Russia this weekend.....Oh flippin yay!

Oh, what I wouldn't do for a cold blast, even if it did have to come from Siberia.

Yes, it's hot here. 36C-38C all week, and there's a few more days of it expected. But I can't complain... If I hadn't left Adelaide I'd be trying to cope with 46C, which is just plain nasty. Mum tells me she's been lying in a dark corner of her house on a tiled floor, listening to audiobooks because holding an actual book is so exhausting. The house is air conditioned, but that's not much use when the power cuts out every so often due to high demand. At least she has a battery-powered radio/CD player thing for the times when the power's off.

I'll be having company here for dinner tomorrow. I owe my friend N a meal or two, and her house is hot and stuffy, so I might as well share the advantages this house presents.

The garden's holding up well - so far...

How do you fancy 6 inces of snow? Only i'm not to keen on the stuff myself, neither are my plants.
I do get a day off because of it though. The whole of the south-east is at a stand-still. No busses, trains and the roads are chaos. It always amazes me that countries like Canada still operate, despite several feet of the white stuff. Yet over here a couple of inches has people panic buying bread & milk, and the country grinds to a halt.

Snow! Yes please, especially if you melt it down before sending it over. Then again, it would melt almost immediately on arrival...

We're expecting 40C on Saturday. This is a very rare thing indeed in Canberra. I think I'll just stay home and vegetate on the couch. I was going to go to the multicultural festival food day in town - about 130 ethnic groups serving up tasty things - but I don't fancy the heatstroke that would follow.

As for inappropriate responses to the weather... Public transport in Adelaide and Melbourne is in chaos at the moment as railway lines and tram tracks have buckled in the heat. Pathetic, really - those places always do get stinking hot at this time of year - and it's not helped by Adelaide's new trams having been made in Europe for a European climate. Naturally they don't work in hot weather, with or without buckled tracks. (The 85-year-old trams the new ones were to replace have had to be brought out of mothballs; they were made locally for local conditions.)

I have a heat casualty in the garden. It was a euphorbia of some sort. I thought it would be bulletproof, or at least heat resistant, but I was wrong.

My goodness, i thought we were the only country that ground to a halt with adverse weather conditions It's almost comforting to know that we are not the only ones.

How are you coping with the heat, i imagine the trip to and from work is not pleasant at all.

We still have some snow left from Monday, it freezes every night and melts just a little more during the day.

I am surprised that you lost a Euphorbia, they are pretty much indestructable....or so i thought.

I'm pleased to say the my lovely pleione orchid is starting to grow again, indoors i hasten to add. I bought the bulb last year and it had a lovely flower, with a huge leaf following. I was'nt sure whether it would do the same again, but it's looking good.

40C again today. And tomorrow. And Sunday... 29C come Tuesday, apparently. That's going to seem quite cool.

Mum tells me it'll get to a *minimum* of 32C tonight in Adelaide. Hottest night since the 1890s.

It's been so hot for so long that I can hardly think. The thing is, I'm just out of practice. Canberra's summer this year has been like the summers Adelaide used to have when I was at school. We all survived them with no lasting damage. But that was before we, or most other people, had air conditioning. I think that could be the problem, you know - sitting in a hot school then a hot bus and finally a hot house was tolerable because there were no sudden changes in temperature. Now I go in and out of cool and hot areas during the day and I find it hard to cope...

I'm surprised I've only lost the one plant so far. It must be bad, though - I have a few succulents that are showing signs of sunburn. Sedums, I think they are. And there are a few things looking rather stressed, as you'd expect, but at least they're hanging in there.

Orchids. I should try my hand at orchids one of these days, but I'm not sure I have a suitable place for them here. Do they really require a lot of cosseting, or is that just a myth?