Rain again, the Wet Season returns?

The wet season starts with a stormy afternoon, October 2015
Our first proper thunderstorm of the season tops up the tanks and gives the grass a boost.

We have had our usual dry Spring. Put in the perspective of places across the world and closer to home that really suffer from droughts, our little dry season is nothing to complain about, and in fact it gives us a welcome break from mowing, but it does make seed raising in the garden an endeavour unlikely to succeed. No matter if they get daily watering, seeds sown outdoors in beds just aren’t going to try to germinate under the combination of dry air and baking sun.

This year hasn’t been nearly as bad as last, when also the Winter was dry and the rainwater tanks got down to worryingly low levels. Not sure of what to expect, I abandoned parts of the new garden when the watering got too onerous and the tanks too low.

But this year in hopes that the light rains of Winter might continue, and then in anticipation of October rain, I went on preparing and sowing beds with small seeds like lettuce and brassicas. Apart from a few hardy sprouts nothing showed, and the mid-levels garden is looking a bit bare. The assorted chicken forage rows (corn, millet, sunflowers, chia) by the chicken yard high on the hill are just dust furrows.

But now the season seems to have switched, and hopefully we are back into the welcome wet season routine of clouds that build after morning and likely dump a bit of rain in an afternoon thunderstorm. They stop outdoor work and send the dogs under the table but storms also give the signal to germinate. And who doesn’t like a good storm?

Hopefully in a week or so some of those sown but brown vegetable beds will start showing some rows of green, and the warm wet season will have properly begun.