Getting A Little Chilly ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Week 23, 2012.

Date:  May 27, 2012


Season:  end of Autumn, and 'dry' season



Who turned the thermostat down?  It's a little chilly here this weekend.  Even the wildlife is taking refuge in the warmth of sheltered spots around the garden.

When I began this post at around 10.30 am, it was under 19 deg C (66 F).  That is a little out of the ordinary for May.  The temperature dropped significantly on Friday.  On Thursday the mercury was hovering around the 30 deg C (86 F) mark, which is pretty normal, then suddenly ... out of the blue ... the mercury barely made it to 20 deg C (68 F) on Friday.  That was at least 8 degrees lower than the average daytime temp during May.  The last time the temp dropped that low in May was around 22 years ago.

Not only that, but there were gale force winds and rain!!!!   Rain ... at this time of year!!  That was even more unexpected.  We received around 60 mm of rain on Friday, and we've had light drizzly showers all over the weekend.  Until midday today, we hadn't seen the sun since Thursday and we had to plunge into the dark recesses of our cupboards to pull out jumpers and cosy PJs!!!!   (This is the point where northern hemispherians will be rolling their eyes and audibly groaning!!)

Obviously our winter has arrived a little early, and we're having a little break from our usual dry season.  Of course the garden is loving this wonderful gift of liquid sunshine (as we call our rain) instead of the more normal bright clear blue-sky weather.

I've been confined to the verandah for most of the weekend, just looking out over the yard and garden, as the showers keep on rolling in.  I'm so used to warm summertime rain that the idea of wandering around when chilly raindrops are falling is not all that appealing!!  

It was a very different story last weekend.   The weather was very warm and the skies were crystal clear.

My darling hubby was busy working with an unusual visitor. We don't see its type at our place very often. The skid loader was put to good use spreading and levelling out more of the fill needed for the new car shed area, as well as distributing some of the fill to the enormous dips and ditches that were scoured out down the long driveway during the wet season earlier this year.

It was my job to spread out the piles of fill and even out the roller-coaster of a dirt driveway.  This is something we have to do ever other year, as the wet seasons here take a huge toll on the driveway and the monsoonal downpours carry away a lot of the dirt and gravel away down the slope our property sits on.  One of these years we'll be able to afford to put in a concrete driveway ... I can't tell you how much my darling hubby is looking forward to that!

He's also looking forward to the day when the car shed area is finally finished ... and boy, so am I!  It's a project that's been going on for well over a year now, and when it's eventually done there's going to be a great ugly spot at the back where the huge pile of concrete and blocks sits very high on the slope.

There it is ... can you see it while looking up through the front yard tiered garden beds?  That's the wall that will support the concrete slab that will form the car shed floor.

Let's walk around the tiered garden beds and take a closer look.  Uuuu  ....  gly!  The whole of this area has been looking like a construction site for so long now, that I'm having trouble trying to visualize it actually finished and cleared.

Even when the floor is set and the car shed structure erected, it's still going to be an eyesore at this end.  I think it's a spot that's going to need a great big tiered garden bed on these two sides.  That will hopefully be a project for us next year as we're really hoping to get this car shed finished by summertime at the end of this year, before the next wet season arrives.

As well building garden beds around the car shed, I'm hoping to create another new garden bed in the area off to the right around that African Oil Palm and under the Triangular Palm behind that.   I'm getting very excited at the thought of having some new garden beds!  Roll on next year!

But for now there hasn't been all that much to do in the established garden areas, apart from the occasional weed pulling or branch snipping.

Everything is doing quite nicely, especially after the lovely downpour on Friday and the light showers every since.  The weeds are lying low, the pests seem to be on holiday, and there are some lovely blooms in almost every corner.

I'm happy to report that the sun is now shining and the mercury has climbed up to 22 deg C  (71 F).  I've just been out to wander around and warm up my cold little toes and fingers!

 I was lucky enough to catch sight of quite a few of the birds that frequent this area,

and I spotted loads of butterflies and bees hanging around as well.

I think it's time to get and do so fertilising and some more mulching to reap the benefits of the unexpected rain.  I'll finish off with a glimpse of some blooms that are looking pretty pleased with themselves.