A dry winter is no problem, but dry springs once the heat comes are a problem. Look at overall precipitation figures for the midcoast of NSW since the late 1800s and you’ll see that we are still the same well-watered part of the world, and we still tend to have our driest months in the winter/spring. While conditions overall are still better than those of twenty years ago, how rain falls around here for moso is far more important than how much rain falls. Poor spring seasons since the boom years, especially those of 2010-2011, have meant that the grove stays healthy enough but makes little progress. UPDATE, OCTOBER 5 2015: I’d decided not to update till there was something exciting to add to the blog. Looks like I will soon be able to step off my deck and into bamboo (though the sector SW to NW will have to stay somewhat bare as a firebreak). Note how I’m shaping the grove to come right up to the south edge of the house. Maybe the moso really did know more than me by shooting so ambitiously mid-grove. The odd five mms of rain with the odd thunderstorm should see them to full height, though drought is still on the cards. Got a bit of rain over the last fortnight, not much, and quite a few shoots have turned into poles, some large and internal along with some healthy pioneers on the fringe. Like all who came before me on this continent, I’m punting in the great lottery called Australian climate…and therefore should not complain. It was followed by the hottest year and second-driest year in our record, the hellish 1915. While 1914 was a bad drought year for much of Oz, and hot everywhere, here we were saturated, especially in the crunch month of October. All that regrowth from 1950 gave plenty to burn! 1950 was legendary for rainfall in Eastern Oz, and the spring rain was sensational in that year yet the late winter-spring-early summer of 1951 was legendary only for drought and widespread fires in northern parts. I want acres of hundred foot poles!įrom the rainfall record starting 1882, it’s clear that one can never rely on the critical high rainfall in October and November which moso needs here, despite the fact that this is a wet part of Australia. As I’ve said before, drought on a mature grove is a good excuse to take things easy, but when you are a few seasons short of achieving a mature grove it’s a disappointment. While the grove stays perfectly healthy in poor years it simply refuses to advance. When I consider that 2011 was the last good season (after a succession of good seasons), I’m inclined to get frustrated. UPDATE, JANUARY 24 2017: Spring 2016 was yet another fizzer. Last spring there were some handy pioneers in the SW corner, nothing mid-grove. UPDATE, NOVEMBER 6 2019: Rainfall…one of the worst years on record, nudging 19. The warning of a fellow grower: Bamboo is emotionally invasive. It’s not hard work and it’s all in shade, there’s just a lot of it to do. Meanwhile, I’m loving my time in the ‘boo, crushing down dead lantana and hacking the privet. A better camera and better photographer may be called upon. When the long-needed tidy-up is done I hope to publish some photos of the grove in prime condition, free of all withered undergrowth and fallen poles. With all the moso I need for private use and enjoyment (as well as giving small quantities to local wood-workers and visitors) I’m going to worry less about drought years and other frustrations and just…use and enjoy! If we do get some boom years I’ll be overworked, at least in the spring, so why not take the benefits of these sluggish times? This means that I will be able to get exercise in full shade in any season with a soft, even leaf litter underfoot. There will be a defined walking track, maybe a one kilometre loop, good enough even for a bike ride. However, with the return of some health and energy I have begun doing a clear-up at ground level so that it will soon be possible to walk clear through several acres of soaring bamboo. Since then we’ve had adequate to good rain, though not in the right patterns for maximum moso growth. UPDATE, MARCH 14 2021: Well, 2019 did turn out to be our driest in the local record. (Of course, my definition of “soon” may not be the same as yours…) Soon I’ll put up some pics showing how the grove has wrapped around the south and west sides of the house. It never gets overgrown once the lantana has faded away, it never turns to mud underfoot, and I can always walk in shade. Since marking out a well-defined walking track I now have moso for my daily ramble, even during flood time. In fact, I’m hoping to stay right here for keeps. That was a long time ago, and I haven’t gone anywhere. UPDATE, MA…AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE TITLE OF THIS POST: I began this post at a moment when it looked like I would have to sell all.
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