Week 1 March 2001: Still very dry although the days are becoming cooler now that autumn is on the way. The rainfall for February was 45 mm. The average for this month is 87mm.
We have a number of ferns growing inside and this week we divided a large Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum species). We divided this specimen into six smaller plants.
Added two books to our library this week. The Bush Garden by Esther Wittenhall is a delightful book consisting of a series of essays dealing with her horticultural adventures creating a native garden. Interesting photographs accompany the essays. The second book is Water Gardens Plants & Animals by Nick Romanowski. Nick is an authority on wetland plants and his book is an inspiring introduction to aquatic horticulture. We recommend both books.
Still on an aquatic theme: The other day we walked down to our Small Dam. The water is always crystal clear and this is probably due to the growth of Chara. This underwater algae appears to have a cleansing effect on bodies of water. As mentioned last week, Chara has cleared the water in one of our frog ponds. This dam is full of small tadpoles and numerous frogs jumped into the water as we walked around the margin of the water.
Bought some metal strapping to attach nesting boxes in trees. We have three nesting boxes, which hopefully will be used by Rosellas.
Weeding some new garden beds. Some weed seeds have germinated and struggled through the mulch. Eventually weeds will be choked out as the new plants develop.
Noticed a large Blue Tiger Butterfly (Danus hamatus hamatus) feeding on a red flowering Eremophila glabra and also visiting a pumpkin flower. One of these days we must conduct a butterfly census at Yallaroo. As the gardens develop there is an increasing number of butterflies visiting.