New member/self introduction

[Paul Garrett]

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Hi Chris, we can't have too many qualified and experienced people on =this list!

As for my part of Australia, just recently its been like one giant =barbeque.  We've had an amazing season of bushfires and for a few weeks =there we woke every morning to smoke haze and the fragance of burnt =eucalyptus.  That seems to have passed now and we are back to glorious =summer days.  Where I live (Canberra) we have a hot summer and a cold =winter - though recent years have been particularly mild with minimums =of only around -5C.  Its dry and snow is rare.  The natural soil is =appalling clay and shale.

My Arisaemas - mostly babies - are mainly in pots but I have a shady, =irrigated, soil-improved area put aside for some of the hardier ones =next year.  Of the more mature plants I have (candidissimum and =amurense), I had wonderful blooms this year, but no seed set.  

The biggest gardening challenges I face are hot, drying winds in summer, =ever increasing water bills and brush-tailed possums.  I gather from =reading posts on various forums that our possums could best be described =as squirrels on steroids.  Canberra is a "garden city" - lots of trees - =and the possum population in my suburb in particular has exploded.  They =eat any fruit on the trees and occasionally fall into the garden during =fights or "courting behaviour" (I won't go into lurid detail).  Suffice =to say that I was not at all happy the morning I found that my one and =only Cardiocrinum had taken the full force of a possum falling from 20ft =up.  If they ever so much as damage an Arisaema, I'm getting a shotgun.  =I have proposed that Australia export possums to pay back the rest of =the world for the rabbits, cane toads, puntia cactus, starlings, =sparrows, carp, cotoneaster, etc etc. 

Happy gardening

Paul
 
What is your part of Australia like??  Thanks again and best wishes!   =
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