Over the last 36 h, we have been receiving the perfect Valentine's Day gift - Rain. I think that more than 75 mm have fallen in my garden - and my 5000 L tank is overflowing. I am running a slow hose to put the overflow into a path across the top of the garden that is filled to about spade depth with crushed bricks - this will allow the excess to soak further into the ground which has been bone dry to a great depth for a long time.
Yesterday I spruiked about planting sweet pea seed on Valentine's Day - I guess this year I will be late as the rain, falling at about 2 mm per hour, is expected to continue all day.
This summer I have Amarylis belladonna - Belladonna lilies, commonly known as Naked Ladies, flowering on the footpath. They have been in the ground for over 10 years, coming originally from my mother-in-law's garden, and this is the first year they have flowered! They say that Belladonna lilies take a while to settle in, but a compounding factor here in Canberra has been the drought - We had about 60 mm of rain at Christmas time so the ground was wet for a few cm deep for the first time in years - I think this must have sparked some extra life into the lilies and they are rewarding us now - in time for Valentine's Day - Seems somehow appropriate?
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