Overflow from our dam after the normal overflow pipe can no longer cope with the volume of water coming down the creek.

Spring 2009

We are now in the middle of the wettest Spring for at least 6 years. (So much for warnings of impending el Nino events .....)

The ground is now definitely saturated and any new rain is flowing off into the creeks. It is making it hard to find suitable times to spray for walnut blight (principally copper-based Bordeaux-type mixture). We found out last year to our cost that even new grafts could be set back in a damp Spring by the bacterial infection of walnut blight. It is not just a problem affecting nuts in mature trees!

Fortunately walnut blight is the only really problem for local walnut growers with no major insect pests in Australia (unlike the rest of the world) so spraying is minimal and with relatively innocuous agents such as copper oxychloride. Since a lot of Australian soils are deficient in copper, it could even be viewed as a secondary soil improvement programme.

Fingers crossed for Summer. We don't want one like last year with its devastating fires.