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Gardening with Gael - Hot and dry gives way to cool and wet

 

 

thumbnail Continus coggygria-134The rain began Saturday afternoon. At first there was just enough to dampen the washing I had out, but by mid-afternoon there was what I call ‘proper rain’. Box has been muttering since Christmas that he did not think that it would rain until May. It was hard to believe him but in fact it hasn’t been until this last rain that I really felt as if the drought had broken. I imagined the cracks in the paths of the tea plantation at the Block slowly closing as the rain penetrated and the soil expanded with moisture.

There’s a magic to the rain. The Irish author Niall Williams writes poetically about rain. His latest novel begins. ‘The rain stopped’ and ends ‘the rain started’. When it rains, lines from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem go through my head: The rain is raining all around / It falls on field and tree / It rains on the umbrellas here / And on the ships at sea.

Nitrates contained in the water droplets are essential for the plants to thrive. Regular sprinkling and watering does not have the same results as a great shower of rain. Nitrogen is transferred from the sky to the soil via rain as part of the nitrogen cycle which in turn is broken down by microorganisms.

The nitrates which are then available to the plants form the building blocks of proteins for plants and animals. Lightning serves this purpose as well. The lightning does the same job as the microorganism by separating the nitrogen atoms in the air and making the nitrate readily available to the plant.

‘My lawn came to life overnight’ pronounced a friend, and it’s true. Immediately after the rain (or precipitation as it is often referred to in forecasts) a blush of green appeared and somehow in my lawn so did a healthy crop of rocket. Vegetables in my pots doubled in size and I can see hearts forming in the cabbages. I am always surprised by plants that I thought were dead. After a good rain, they seem to shake themselves and new growth appears.

I can feel and hear, from the chat in the line outside the Four Square, the relief felt by all gardeners. For some reason griselinas were particularly hard hit. I have had griselinia lucida in my gardens for 20 years, remaining glossy and subtropical-looking all summer. I suspect it wasn’t only the drought that took its toll on so many plants; I fear the sustained high temperatures did as much damage.

This may become the new norm. So many plants that have survived for 20 and 30 years have curled up and died. The native border of my garden has completely changed. Time to reassess the plants that lived, and particularly ones that thrived.

A favourite up at the Block that has provided beautiful colour all summer is my smoke bush cotinus coggygria. Mine has purple foliage which is admired and used by friends who practise ikebana. There is a lovely green leaf variety on my way to the Block. Now, in the autumn the leaves are turning fluorescent shades of pink and orange. I am surprised I haven’t planted this bush more in the past. Drought tolerant, it thrives in poorer soils, covering itself in late spring early summer with hairy dense flowers that resemble smoke. Depending on the variety, the colour can range from grey through to pinkish hues. The one thing they do not tolerate is wet feet. I think they’ll be ok in a drought then.

 

Drought tolerant, cotinus coggygria thrives in poorer soils, covering itself in late spring/early summer with hairy dense flowers that resemble smoke.

My lawn came to life overnight.

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