Early Summer in NE Downunder - a corner of my Greenhouse/Shadehouse Garden

looks wonderful and lush

Lush, thanks Mushy! More like overgrown ... we've had a bit of rain in the last few months and it's so hard keeping this area under control!

Still looks nice Bernieh.Hope you dont get the floods that some are getting over there.

Carol ... no flooding up here in the north yet. But with the 'wet' season looming, we will probably get lots of localised flooding during the torrential downpour that's forecast.

Down south, of course, they've had so much rain for the last couple of months that the ground is just saturated and the water has nowhere to go ... hence the flooding. Lots of spots in three of our states are now declared disaster areas as a result and there's also been loss of life. It's a bad time or year for many.

Bernieh:

Great photo! I especially like the variegated Costus!

Thanks, Andy. Still waiting on the variegated ginger to flower ... it's taking its time! The little Geranium is also taking a while to flower again, but they both seem fairly happy where they are so I'll give them a little longer before I think of moving them.

Bernieh:

I had a Costus speciosus 'variegata' - Variegated Crepe Ginger before...it died from hard water damage before it could bloom. :>(

Now that's a shame ... you'll have to invest in a rainwater tank. Are they used over there? ... they were very common back in my grandparents' day and they're making a comeback now.

Bernieh:

I have three 50 gallon trash cans full of rain water.(which is unheard of for this time of year) I've been using the water for many of my hard water sensitive plants. It seems to be working so far. :>)

Many of my neighbor are collecting rainwater also...especially with the continuing water restrictions.

California overall, is in pretty good shape for water so far this year. October was the third wettest on record for San Diego...and the second half of November was pretty wet also. Northern California has had well above rainfall this season and the Sierra Mountains have almost quadruple the amount of snow typical for this time of year. This is good news for our drought. :>)

Yes it's the same for us this year. We've had more rain than usual and the dam's level are the best for many, many years. We're still on Level 1 water restrictions though, but that's to be expected after our long history of drought years.

Rain water tanks here in Townsville are not so common ... mainly because we usually have very dry years. Of course, during years when we do get rain (such as this year) you do see a few more tanks going into people's yards.

Bernieh:

Water tanks here in southern California are unheard of...I've only seen them in wetter parts of the Hawaiian Islands.

I can't get my head around the "no rain for a year" concept..It usually does nothing but here...LOL

Oh Mushy ... we've had a couple of years in a row with no rain and I can tell you even we have problems getting our head round it when it happens! We're so fortunate here on the coast not to have quite the extent of drought that is experienced further out west. I have a nephew who didn't see rain until he visited us when he was around 8 years old!!! He'd heard about rain, and read about rain, but had never seen it!

Bernieh, Palmate:

We always receive a least a little rain a year...even in a horrible drought. With that being said -- we've seen years here in San Diego with as little as 3in/76mm of rain. 3in/76mm is typical yearly rainfall for the deserts of California (they can receive less though and some have received no rain at all in some years).