Vereeniging Leiden 1886

A year ago we went to Leiden to celebrate the relief of their seige. I could do with a freshly smoked haring today, and someone please open the dykes and release a flood on Toowoomba!
Today is windy with dust again. In fact the air has not really cleared since the big dust days a week and 10 days ago.

Dianellas

The flax lilies or Dianellas are flowering in our garden this year. It is interesting to see the variety in leaf colour and form. Some send their flowers above the foliage, while others hide it among the leaves. The flowers vary in size and colour from pale blue to deep purple. Some leaves are dark and stiffly erect, while others are yellow green with red edges, or soft and bluish-green.
I have collected various plant genera in the past - crotons, caladiums, hippeastrums, lilies, bromeliads, etc.
So I have decided to collect Dianellas.
Today I surveyed my plants - there are more than 30 as I have split a couple of clumps in past years and spread them around. I am still working it out but I think I have -
Dianella brevipedunculata with yellow-green leaves and inflorescence amongst the foliage.
Dianella caerulea Paroo lily
Dianella congesta with inflorescence amongst the foliage, smooth leaf margins and smooth midrib
Dianella revoluta with inflorescences mostly held above the foliage and grey-green leaves. I wonder if this is the one I collected seed from in Gilgandra in November 2007? I now have three impressive plants on the driveway.
Dianella tasmanica which I bought at the Wilsonton market soon after we moved here in 2004. I split the clump in 2006 and it is doing well around the garden with tiny blue flowers in among its yellow-green conduplicate leaves. However I can't find any prickles on the leaf margins!

Spring in the vegie garden

This spring I have completed the landscaping around the tank, which has now been in for a year. It took a while to be motivated to move all those rocks, but now it is looking great and is mostly planted for the coming months. I have been looking at rotational plantings to keep the soil healthy over time.
We have had a long supply of lettuce, endive and rocket this year and some are now going to seed, but we also have some newer plants coming on.
The two clumps of ruby chard are still looking good and there whenever we want them.
We also have plenty of leeks and spring onions available.
After a long wait, the broad beans are now producing meals for us. It was a worry that such a good looking stand might not yield any fruit.
The self-sown scarlet runner beans are just ready to start picking and I have more seedlings coming up on the bean screen for summer.
The tomatoes on the bean screen are also covered in green trusses and will start to ripen soon.
We also have a new planting of tomatoes near the tank, as well as purple king beans and two corn crops sown recently. we also have potatoes and sweet potatoes planted.
The parsnips I sowed in winter are also looking well and we hope to harvest these soon.

Franke Scrub days

We have had two working bees this month, due to people not all being available at one time. The first was on our very dusty Wednesday, but it was fine down in the scrub. When I went back up to the cars for smoko, it was most unpleasant so I headed home to get ready for my lunchtime Lieder recital.
Last Wednesday, we again had a small gathering but I enjoyed being there again. We have made great progress since we started clearing asparagus vine a couple of years ago. It is very dry but we are seeing a lot of interesting small plants coming on. Let's hope the cattle are not put in there again.

Energy efficiency and sustainability

We are half way down on our big tank now with watering each evening. There is still 2/3 in the top tank, so we are moving to another electricity efficiency measure - changing over from town water to our tank supply late afternoon to 8 am. This way we have rainwater showers and can water the garden, but not use the pump during our peak generating hours when we sell into the grid at a premium price.
We recently had a free home sustainability assessment - part of the Federal government's Green Loans initiative. I had hoped for a rating, but it was more about saving cents than dollars.
No mention was made of window drapes, areas of glass and shading of walls, or aspect. Incandescent bulbs were noted and loss of heat into the roof cavity through our extract fans in the bathrooms - which also keep our bathrooms free of steam, although we have never used the fans themselves.
We could get a loan to replace our 10 year old fridge to save a star or so of electricity, likewise with the 10 year old washing machine which also works very well, and being a top loader suits us for reusing bath water.
So I suspect it is another stimulus package to encourage people to spend more money to reduce their excessive power bills. It will be interesting to see the report. Will they lend us interest-free money to get more photovoltaic panels? We can only fit two more with our inverter anyway.
I am still in favour of it as it provides jobs for assessors - money from Canberra to Toowoomba. And we did get something out of it so far - we put a timer on our beer fridge so it turns off during peak generating hours, when it is usually not opened anyway. Ten days on we seem to have an automatic defrosting beer fridge, working better than ever.
With our new off-peak water pump program we may be saving a couple of units a day to sell to the grid.