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

the dryer bits around the edges are the beaches, they only get covered in water twice a day!!!!

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>Make hay while the sun shines seems to be the motto.<

Yes I did that literally on saturday in the small patch of traditional wild flower meadow I seeded last autumn. In the first year it is important to regularly cut it back so that some species that take longer to germinate aren't shaded out by the grass and other flower species. Also every time you cut the hay you are removing nutrients, mimicking animals cropping and the farmer taking hay for storage. The poorer the nutrient levels in the soils the better the traditional meadow grows. The species of flowers and grass are adapted to do better the poorer the soil...well I should say the system as a whole for complexity, to stop some species dominating.

Next year it will just be the traditional two hay making sessions.

It's the same with my pond. By only using rain water a richer ecosystem results..rather than using tap water..especially in London, that is high in nitrates.

Saw this and I thought of you:

http://www.garfield.com/usacres/vault.html?yr=2011&addr=110528

Could do with Orsen to come and help me actually.

An old fashioned weed hoe is a gardener's best friend.

I have an ancient one which was here when I moved in 20 years ago. I put on a new handle, and treated it with that stuff you can paint on the turns rust to something very hard. It's still going strong.

Of modest relevance to my gardening situation:



'The snowpack across the northern Rocky Mountains has shrunk far more quickly in the past 50 years than in the previous 800, a new study shows.

Runoff from those layers of snow feed rivers that supply water to more than 70 million people, raising concerns that the declining snowpack will lead to water shortages in western North America, reported the study published online Thursday in Science Express.'




http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/06/09/science-rocky-mountains-snowpack-water.html


This report only confirms what has long been talked about around here. What isn't mentioned in the story is the inconceivably large amount of water (significant percentages of major rivers' flow) which is pumped into the bedrock by oil companies. This water is effectively lost forever.

That sort of information is really scary anhaga. The water that comes out of the taps here is desalinated seawater, for which the company uses a good percentage of windpower*. However, the plant broke down last week. By law we have to have storage for x litres of water per day per household - but should the plant be terminally broken, then bob help us.

*I think that eventually the island will be self sufficient in power and no longer need oil. I hope this is very soon now that I know what the oil companies are doing to the environment in Canada.

and, after all my talk of local aridity:

'High streamflow advisories and flood watches have been issued in much of Alberta following several days of heavy rain.

Alberta Environment spokesperson Chris Bourdeau said most of the province north of Calgary is under some sort of advisory.

"Certainly with the large amounts of precipitation we're seeing in central and northern Alberta, we've issued a variety of different high streamflow advisories and a couple of flood watches for some of the streams and rivers in central and northern Alberta."'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/06/18/edm-flood-watch.html


And, the part likely most incomprehensible to outlanders:


'Edmonton firefighters spent much of the morning chasing down six dragon boats after a section of dock broke away from the bank.'

Yes it's been raining cats and dogs here of late..thank goodness. And just as the cricket season and Wimbledon is about to get into full swing. That usually does the trick.

That westerly air stream is back properly hopefully.