Aching Back But It Is Worth It..

I flowers I cannot imagine a garden without them I have finished planting these 90 corms
In groups of six and eight in the small places between the Standard roses..



It has taken me over six hours to do this planting as I had to dig the soil hard as a rock it was, I should have soaked it first but did not want to waste the water had to get Tony to do the last few places I added Gypsum, a sprinkle of lime some mushroom compost watered that in well yesterday and left it over night.

Goes to plant them late this morning to see on the planting instructions its best to soak one hour before planting, I have never done that before.. So I thought I would give it a go as these are going in very late as the first lot rotted with the rain we had early last month..

One hour to fill so off to the back garden where I got a vacant raised bed ready more digging turfed out lots of the top layer it was like a slab of concrete, filled it up with nice soil Thanks to our four girls *Chooks* so plenty of chook poo in it, put gypsum, and a sprinkle of lime in it and some mushroom compost then planted the punnet of Silver beet for the girls they love that, watered that all in, look like a quick shower tonight as I used my bath quota from the garden tap as I did not fancy carrying buckets of water from the tank that far for a bed that dry.

Back to the front garden planted those three packets of Anemones and Ranunculus.

Just finished lunch so back out to plant Pac choy and Cos lettuce seeds..

Got some pots to fill up with bulbs too..

A job well done

Hopefully you will be getting some rain tomorrow... predicted for both of us, so should give those plants a good soaking

It's going to be beautiful, Mary-Anne. You take me back years as I used to plant Anemones and Ranunculi many years ago before dog showing took me away from the garden. That was around standard roses too, in two now overgrown beds each side of our front path that I must clean up. I'm scared to start though because of all the bulbs I'll find and won't know what to do with. If it was still corms as well ... . LOL.

Sounds as if it was tough going there for you, you might be a bit sore tomorrow. I am definitely hanging out for rain before I tackle ground in the orchard here that has never been dug in over 35 years, too hard for me.

Thanks Gail we sure could do with some rain its so dry here the garden could sure do with a pep up pill..

Oh they will look so pretty in the Spring, Mary Anne!

I had to dash out before as it started to rain wondering if I could put some type of covering over those 90, as much as I want it to rain did it have to happen today why not three days ago to soften the soil and I would not feel as bad as I do I have wet the soil so much it does not need any more moisture right now, and they reckon it could rain more over the next few days Oh well just my luck once again I will not be replacing the second lot if they rot..

You need a Army plus equipment to dig your lot up Betty after 35 years, still imagine what you are going to find though there could be treasures buried deep, maybe that pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow I bet you have seen plenty of rainbows in the Orchard over the years..

Tough going is right Betty, this afternoon I tried to dig a hole on the garden side of the chook yard fence so I could plant the passionfruit vine but the jolly mattock kept bouncing off when I finally broke the crust would you believe there was no soil at all only dried out clay and further down wet clay by then Tony seen what I was doing and came to my rescue I dont like to bother him at present as he is so busy because of this bad neck he is making a trolley with 2 fixed and 2 swivel wheels with a reclining back so he can do the last half of the underfloor insulation it being higher than the front he is having trouble reaching the joists from the rubber blanket on the ground ..

Well they say Necessity is the Mother of Invention and there is lots of necessities with us two as we get older

Yes they will Val, heres hoping I dont loose this lot to the rain..

And so it rained all night and just a few sprinkles now.. 81 mm was in the rain gauge at 6am so all the work I have done in the garden the past four days and what I have added to the soil plus all those plants will rot again as they are sitting in wells of water only time will tell. I cant win sometimes I wonder if I should just rip all the garden beds out and go back to grass everywhere.

The rain finally eased off a lot around 4am so I put a pair of shorts and a tee shirt on grabbed me boots and a torch and went out and connect the 30 mt flexible downpipe to the overflow on the tank straightened it out all the way under the house on hands and knees with the jolly torch under my chin then connected a 6 mt rigid downpipe to that which took all the water over to the far side of the block away from the house. I only took it off three days ago and coiled it up under the decking so it would not be in Tony's way when he is working under the house putting the insulation under the floorboards.

Thankfully it was a warm night again although my clothes were plastered to me I was not cold I actually lifted that pipe and poured some water on to my legs to get rid of all the dirt on them, I could not lift it too high the water was so heavy in that 90mm pipe..

And I did not see one Cane Toad which surprised me..

The bulbs should be just fine MA as long as they soil as not washed away

I looked at this post and thought you meant 81 points, which didn't seem bad, then I realised it's mm, 4 times that amount. You have my sympathy. Hope you haven't lost your corms, Mary-Anne. Hard for me to even imagine that amount of rain in such a short time.
Our clay is maybe 6 to 8 inches down, and in some places not that much. Planting would be easy here ( well ....) in comparison to digging a grave for a dog. We tend to do that in advance now we aren't so fit.
Nothing exciting in those garden beds of mine. Spanish Bluebells, Grape hyacinths, King Alfred Daffodils, jonquils and red nerines. Hundreds of all bar the latter. The left side of the orchard has never been dug at all, so yeah, an army of nice strong men would be luverly. LOL.

Cheryl they will probably rot like the last lot did with such clay type soil here the water in that bed does not drain away fast.

Betty ..Yes its a hell of a lot of rain everything flooded today the water is so deep down at the back fence some of it is still sitting there wont be long and the fence will go rotten as the back neighbour has started to brick up the bottom of the timber fence to stop the water bacause he dug out over a metre for his shed and it floods all the time now.

Planting is never easy here Betty even when its rains it hard to dig the jolly clay out wet or dry

That sounds like your neighbor is using the fence to build a dam. I'd suggest you buy some ducks and water lilies, Mary-Anne. He'll be in trouble if ever the dam bursts. I know all about clay. You dig a hole, plant your tree(flower or whatever), then the water collects in the hole and the tree dies. Hasn't happened here of course for the past 12 years. LOL.

Hi all.

I checked the rain gauge when I arrived home yesterday PM. 31mm here. It is raining now. Not all that heavy but constant for past few hours. I love laying in bed listening to the rain - sleep would be even better.

Good heavens, MA...I don't envy you that job, crawling around under the house in the mud. I hope everything dries out beautifully and the bulbs and corms survive and thrive. Best of luck.

Thanks everyone, too much rain now everything sitting in wells of water.

Work under the house has come to a stop.. I am not doing any, its all up to Tony..

All the water from our block is running into the neighbours huge shed..
Oh Dear but his own fault

Still raining too hard to go food shopping

It will be interesting to see how much your gauge has in it today Daniel another 76mm in ours 3 hours ago it's getting squally now as well when it eases off I have to go and tie my four Scotia tomato seedlings to the stakes they were coming along fine have not been out to look this morning..

I wish they would update this SEQ Water site http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/ as its been 58.96 % for days now we have to be well past 60% now and I am sure they were going to remove more restrictions when it got to that amount..

youre going to have an explosion of colour MA by the looks of it! cant wait to see them when they're up and flowering

I would have hoped for that Ota but sadly with all this rain they would have rotted by now..