Sturt Desert Pea

Earlier this year we went to Coober Pedy for a holiday.  Coober Pedy is an opal mining town in outback Australia.  

I was unfamiliar with most plants I saw growing out in the desert.  One of the very few plants that I was familiar with was the Sturt Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa).  I have seen these in cultivation before, I even grew one in a pot years ago, but seeing this growing in the wild was an experience. 

Sturt Desert Pea

These plants were amazing.  They have fluffy grey leaves, and large red flowers.  Each plant sprawled several meters in every direction.  

The ones I have previously seen were only a fraction of this size.  It really shows how well suited they are to the harsh desert life.  

One thing I couldn't help but notice was the amount of genetic diversity among individual plants.  

Most were the typical red with the black eye (which I really like the looks of).  Some were red with a red eye.  Others had a red eye, but the red was darker.  

Sturt desert pea - typical form

Typical form

Red Sturt Desert Pea

Darker than the ones above

When I was at university there were huge efforts put into breeding a white Sturt Desert Pea.  It had been noticed that there was a lot of genetic diversity, so they collected germplasm from the wild and crossed and back crossed in the hopes of getting an all white Sturt's Desert Pea.  This was achieved and celebrated.  

It was then noted that these do not perform well in tissue culture, and really must be propagated by seed.  I am not sure what happened to that project, but I remember my lecturer feeling rather down and saying that the project was a waste of time.  

Since then I have heard reports of white flowered forms growing in the wild.  I have even seen a few photos of these pure white flowers, and some incredible pale violet ones.  If you lived somewhere that can easily grow them I don't think it would be difficult to produce a white version that breeds true to type.  The genetics are there.  It would be a matter of picking good parent stock, then back crossing and culling, much like breeding any annual vegetable. 

Several online places sell seed of Sturt Desert Pea.  They are such pretty plants.  Like many Australian native plants they can be a little tricky to grow.  From memory you cannot transplant them easily, so you need to plant the seed where the plant is intended to grow.  I think most in cultivation are grafted onto different root stock as they rot easily.  Perhaps I should buy some seeds and see if I can grow some in a pot.  

Pink Dandelion

Pink dandelions (Taraxacum pseudoroseum) are probably a little different than you may think.  Pink dandelions are available in Australia, I have been growing them for a few years.  They are a pretty little flower that should be grown more commonly.  

I wrote an earlier post on pink dandelions and after growing them for a few years thought it may be time to do an update.  All of the photos on this post are of my plants, you will notice that there is a bit of diversity in colours, this is mostly due to the age of the flower.  

Pink Dandelion

I like regular dandelions (Taraxacum officionale), you know the ones in the lawn with yellow flowers.  They have a huge number of uses in an organic garden.  Pink dandelions are a different species Taraxacum pseudoroseum, they are just as useful and perhaps a little prettier.  

All parts of dandelions, both regular ones and the pink ones, are edible.  The leaves are incredibly high in vitamins and minerals, far more nutritious than most leaf vegetables.  Leaves are especially high in vitamin C.  The roots can be roasted and eaten like a parsnip, or they can be dried and ground to use like a caffein free coffee.  Even though I have never tried this myself, the flowers can be made into cordials or wine.  

Dandelions are great in the compost, they are often referred to as a 'compost activator'.  What this means is they contain high amounts of all the nutrients needed for the microbes in compost.  If you compost something that is low in a certain mineral, adding a compost activator is adding something that is high in that mineral.  Dandelions are high in pretty much everything, so they make a good compost activator.  

Starts white and gets pinker each day

Pink dandelions look superficially much like lawn dandelions, but perhaps a little smaller and the leaves never get very upright.  When not in bloom I would not be able to tell them apart.

When the flowers first open they are either all white, or white with a yellow center.  The white slowly becomes light pink the first day, and then gets darker pink each day.  

The photo below shows some pink dandelions blooming.  The white one opened that day, and the pinker one opened the day before.  It is fun how they change colour and become more pink as they age.  

Pink Dandelions blooming

The flowers almost always retain the yellow centre.  That being said, I have had a few that opened completely white and turned completely pink.  This is rare, and I believe has more to do with environment than genetics as other flowers on the same plant had the usual yellow center.  

Pink Dandelion Blooms

Beneficial insects are attracted to the flowers.  Larger pollinators such as bees, beetles, and hover flies love dandelion flowers.  If you are a beekeeper you would already know just how beneficial dandelions are to a honey bee hive.  Native bees and solitary wasps also benefit greatly from dandelion flowers.  They seem to flower for much of the year, which means pollinators almost always have a food supply.

The pink dandelion flowers also attract and feed many other beneficial insects such as the tiny parasitoid wasp in the picture below.  

These tiny parasitoid wasps kill pest insects that would damage other plants in my garden.  I grow everything organically, so this is important in my garden.  

Tiny beneficial wasp

I don't have any photos of this, but even though dandelion are not native several native birds like dandelion seed heads.  

Some of the smaller birds eat a lot of dandelion seeds.  Superb fairy wrens mostly eat insects (and are more than welcome in my garden), but I have also watched them eat dandelion seed.  We have a few tiny birds that migrate through each year, such as double bar finches and zebra finches, which I have seen eat dandelion seeds.  

Much more interesting than this is some larger birds eat dandelion seeds.  I have seen crimson rosellas eat dandelion seeds many times.  There are a few grass parrots that I have watched eating the seeds.  I have seen galahs and even a cockatoo eat dandelion seeds.

More pink dandelions

Pink dandelions are great

Pink dandelions are easy to grow, but they need a little water.  The pink dandelion are not as hardy as regular lawn dandelions.  I have missed collecting their seed many times, and am yet to find one of these in my lawn.  They grow equally well in a small pot or in the garden bed.  They seem to do well in full sun but appreciate afternoon shade in summer.  

Pink dandelions are simple to grow from seed if the seed is fresh.  I should write another post on growing pink dandelion from seed, even though it is simple the seeds need light to germinate.  I had a plant in a pot that flowered and set seed that I collected.  This original plant died one summer when I did not water its pot and it dried out completely.  All of the plants I now have are seed grown from that original one.  

I do sell pink dandelions from time to time, I should start selling their seed as they are simple to grow from seed.  If you are interested they are listed along with various perennial vegetables for sale.

Grow water chestnuts and other aquatic vegetables

Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) are a perennial vegetable that are incredibly simple to grow.  I wrote a post about growing water chestnuts in a bucket.  It is simple and the yield was exceptional.  Each bucket often gives me a dozen or so edible size corms, and well over a hundred smaller ones to replant.  You could eat the small ones, but I find them too fiddly to peel.  

I grow duck potatoes (Sagittaria sp) in the same way.  They are just as simple to grow, and while the yield was nowhere near as large as water chestnuts the duck potatoes also give a great yield for a small amount of space.  

I am told duck potatoes are better suited to cooler climates than water chestnuts, but I find they both perform much the same even in the Canberra region.  Chinese water chestnuts are dormant over winter, so are not impacted by frosts.  I tend to leave some in the soil and as long as it doesn't freeze solid some always survive to grow the following season.  Below are photos of plants in my greenhouse where they are protected from frosts, until this year I have only grown them outside next to the fence where the water is covered in ice regularly over winter.

To grow them I would fill a bucket a bit over 3/4 full with soil and leaf litter.  Plant a water chestnut into this.  Then add water until it over-flowed.  I would put this in the sun, top up the water as needed, and harvest in autumn after the foliage died off.  Gardening really doesn't get much easier than this.  

The buckets would last about 4 years before they would start to fall apart.  Some lasted a lot longer, I still have some that have not yet fallen apart.  

Recently I started to wonder why some buckets degraded at 4 years, and others are still going after ten years.  I think the bucket degrades slightly from the sunlight and becomes brittle, but is able to stay together because there is no stress placed on the sides.  When I harvest I think I must put too much pressure on the bucket and it falls apart.  The ones that have not fallen apart are the ones I have been very careful of when harvesting.  

These buckets are very cheap (less than $1 each), so this isn't about money, I don't want to be wasting plastic if I can help it.  

This year I am trying something a bit different.  I am submerging a pot of soil in the bucket of water.  Come harvest time I can lift the pot out, harvest what I want, and return the pot, all without stressing the bucket.  I think it should work, and it should make harvest easier for me.  

Below are photos of what I am trying.  

I got a cheap 10 liter bucket, and a slightly smaller pot.  The bucket is the cheapest I can find, the pot was given to me second hand.  I already have water chestnut corms, and I use soil that I dug out of the drain in front of my garage, so it is not a huge financial expense.  

10 L bucket and the pot

I filled the pot with soil and leaf litter from a drain in front of my garage.  I didn't fill the pot the whole way, simply because I didn't have enough soil.  It would probably be better if it was filled higher.  These plants need soil if they are to return a decent crop.  

Had I thought about this earlier I would have done this a few months ago and added manure from the chicken house.  Poultry manure is great for the garden as it contains all essential nutrients for plants growth, but it can't be used fresh.  If I tried this now it would burn my plants as it would not have time to 'age' enough.  

Fill the pot with soil

I put some water in the bucket, and submerged the pot.  From here I will plant a water chestnut, or a duck potato, and top up the water.  

In autumn or early winter I will lift the pot out of the bucket, and tip out the soil for harvest.  This sounds much faster and easier than harvesting by digging through frigid water and mud in search of corms with my cold hands. 

Pot of soil submerged in bucket

In this bucket I planted one water chestnut in the soil.  The water level was slightly too high, so I lowered the water level so a leaf could emerge into the air.  

Chinese water chestnuts and duck potatoes both need their leaves in the air, otherwise they may rot.  For now the plant is still tiny and using its leaf as a little snorkel.  Once the plant grows taller I will increase the water level to the top of the bucket.  

  

Water chestnut planted

I tend to grow azolla on top of the water in buckets like this.  Azolla sequesters nitrogen from the atmosphere, and acts as a high nitrogen fertiliser when it dies.  I normally let the water level drop to the soil level every week so ants can carry off all the mosquito larvae.  Placing a pot in a bucket like this will make that impossible as there will always be free water in the bucket.  Azolla is also proven to reduce the number of mosquito larvae surviving to adulthood, so hopefully it helps.  

Water chestnuts ready to grow 

I put a few pots in buckets.  The plants will survive, and divide, and provide an edible crop, so even if this method proves inefficient I won't have lost anything.  

I have high hopes for growing them in a pot submerged in a bucket this, but I am also starting to wonder if I will have mosquito issues doing things this way... perhaps I should put fish in one bucket and no fish in another and see if what works better.  

Keep an eye on my blog as I plan to update how having a pot in a bucket works (or doesn't work) for growing water chestnuts and duck potatoes.  

If you want to grow water chestnuts in a bucket, it is far easier than you may think.  The most difficult part is being able to buy the plants.  I have a for sale page where I sell water chestnuts and duck potatoes and other perennial vegetables in Australia.  I update the page regularly, and it has my email address that you can use to contact me.  

Jekkas thyme variety comparison

I wrote a previous post comparing different varieties of thyme.  Some were clearly better than others, some were far more vigorous than others.  Out of all the varieties of thyme I have grown over the years, the real stand out has been Jekkas Thyme.  

In my climate, Jekka's thyme grows far more vigorously than any other thyme variety.  It grows more stems, each stem has more leaves, and each leaf is larger than regular thyme.  It has more flowers, and larger flowers than regular thyme.  In my climate Jekkas thyme quickly grows, it throws down roots wherever a node touches the soil, meaning it can form  dense and expanding clump quickly.  

Regular thyme on the left, jekkas thyme on the right

For me, I find both varieties taste and smell much the same, and they both change over the season.  I can't easily tell the difference in taste, perhaps Jekkas thyme is slightly stronger, but not significantly so.  I don't think the average gardener or home cook could tell the difference in taste.  Perhaps I'm wrong and some foodie will correct me on this point and smugly point out how one is ever so slightly more [something] than the other, or one has more subtle notes of [insert some term I have no idea what it means].  

Below are some photos of regular culinary thyme next to Jekka's thyme for comparison. You will get a good idea of what I mean about Jekkas thyme being a superior variety.  

Regular thyme comparison with Jekkas thyme

Take a look at the sprigs of thyme below.   Both plants were growing in my garden over the past few years and have been treated the same, so the difference is due to superior genetics.  

The two sprigs on the left are regular thyme, the two on the right are Jekkas thyme.  It is pretty easy to tell them apart even from a distance.  

Comparison of Thyme sprigs

What you can see clearly in these photos is that the leaves of Jekkas thyme are very large for a variety of thyme.  

Not only are the leaves far larger, but there are a lot more leaves per sprig.  Jekkas thyme tends to produce a lot more sprigs than regular thyme, and if allowed to will develop into a sprawling ground cover.  

I like to grow Jekkas thyme where it can trail over the side of things.  I really like how it looks when in bloom and cascading over the edge of a garden bed.  

Jekkas thyme blooming, good for bees

Raised garden bed draped in Jekka's thyme

Regular thyme vs Jekkas thyme

These varieties of thyme also flower differently.  I don't know the best way to describe this, but you can see that regular thyme flowers up the stalk.  The flowers are small, they are spaced out, and there are not many of them.  This means that bees or other pollinators need to do a lot of work to collect nectar and pollen from thyme flowers.   

Jekkas thyme mostly flowers in a dense clump at the end of a stalk.  There are more flowers, each flower is larger, and they are closer together.  I think this looks prettier.  

As there are more flowers, each flower with larger nectaries, bees collect nectar from them rather efficiently.  The bees spend less time searching for flowers (or less time and effort travelling between flowers) as the flowers are all there together.  This means they collect more honey, and they collect it faster.  This means more honey for the hive, and more time for the bees to be doing other things.  It is a win-win, the bees win twice.  

Thyme flower comparison

Rather than just mentioning how much more leaves you get from Jekkas thyme than regular thyme, I thought I would show photos of just how much more productive this variety is than regular thyme.  

I took two sprigs of thyme, and two sprigs of Jekkas thyme, stripped off the lower leaves, and put them in piles for comparison.  I don't tend to use the leaves at the very tips of the sprigs because the sprig tends to break if I try to pull them off.  

At this stage the remaining sprigs, with their few leaves, could be planted and grown into new plants.  

Yield comparison Jekkas thyme

The sprigs were all similar in length (the regular thyme sprigs may be ever so slightly longer), and the plants were grown under the same conditions in the same garden.  The difference in yield between the two varieties is quite remarkable.  

On the left are the small leaves of regular thyme.  On the right is a significantly larger pile of leaves from Jekka's thyme.  There is simply no comparison in terms of yield.  

If you are going to bother growing any edible herb, you may as well grow an improved variety that provides more food for the same amount of time and effort.  

While Jekkas thyme used to be rare and difficult to find in Australia, I am glad to say that it is now easy to find.  Most garden shops seem to sell it, as do a few online plant sellers.  I also sell Jekkas thyme plants through my for sale page and it easily survives postage with no issues if it is given some water to get it established.  

Buckwheat Atmospheric Nitrogen Fixation

Legumes fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, some are far more efficient than others.  Some legumes sequester a tiny percentage of the nitrogen they consume, others sequester significantly more than they consume.  Buckwheat is not a legume.  

There are a few non-legumes that are known to sequester significant amounts of atmospheric nitrogen.  

I have heard that buckwheat can sequester atmospheric nitrogen.  I never thought much of it because there are a lot of garden myths and lots of garden nonsense around, and everywhere I read about this claimed it as a fact but provided no evidence whatsoever. 

I started searching and found many studies that demonstrated the ability of buckwheat to enrich soil with major nutrients, in particular, phosphorus and nitrogen, after being grown as a cover crop.  From those papers I was convinced that buckwheat can and does enrich soil, but I was still not convinced if any fixation of atmospheric nitrogen was happening.  

While the mechanism behind increasing soil nitrogen probably doesn't matter a great deal to the average home gardener, I had a lot of questions regarding how buckwheat increases soil nitrogen.  

From my understanding there are three possibilities with buckwheat regarding how soil nitrogen is increasing after it is grown.  Perhaps one or even a mix of all three is occurring.

1. Deep roots can gather resources from lower in the soil/subsoil.  This is transported into its leaves and stems that mulch down later and become available in the surface layers of soil.  
2. Chemically changing the form of resources already present in the soil so that they are now available.  I believe this is probably what buckwheat does with soil phosphorus.  
3. Sequestering nitrogen from the atmosphere through bacterial action on and/or near its roots.  The bacteria may colonise and live on the roots, or the roots may secrete something that feeds the free living bacteria living near by in the soil.  

Then I read a study that demonstrated significant increases in soil nitrogen after growing buckwheat as a cover crop.  Page 32 states: 

“Despite the fact that buckwheat is not a nitrogen scavenger, concentration of nitrogen in soil significantly increased in both soil layers indicating stimulation of biological nitrogen fixation by bacteria in the rhizosphere”.  

The study mentioned above seems to indicate that there is an increase in available nitrogen in the soil after using buckwheat as a cover crop.  This demonstrated significant increases in soil nitrogen after growing buckwheat.  

The paper went on to mention bacteria in the rhizosphere as being one possible reason for the increased soil nitrogen.  There are several possible reasons behind the increased soil nitrogen, these possible reasons were not explored in any detail.  

My buckwheat flowering

After this I also read a few really old papers, one was titled Nonsymbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in Soils of a Semi-Arid Region of North China.  This paper suggested that active non-symbiotic fixation of nitrogen might be an important factor strangely high yields obtained in poor semi-arid soils in Northern China.  

I then found and read a few published peer reviewed papers that make similar claims of increased soil nitrogen after planting buckwheat.  Some of these papers mention which bacteria are likely responsible for this phenomenon.  

Interestingly enough, buckwheat is often considered to be non-mycorrhizal, yet I was able to find several reports of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation of buckwheat roots (such as https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00572-008-0181-6), and vesicular–arbuscular mycorrhiza in buckwheat (such as https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=ea93a54578db5ab2a1a813f7697e895992bea0d9).  Mycorrhizal action could account for some of the increased phosphorus that is found in soils after buckwheat is grown as a cover crop.  

Then I stumbled across a thesis written in 1997 published on the FAO website.  This was titled: Nitrogen fixing microorganisms of the buckwheat rhizosphere and their influence on the plant productivity.  

It was a fascinating read.  From this thesis it sounds as though if buckwheat is properly inoculated, it fixes a significant amount of nitrogen from the atmosphere.  It also states that the grain yield is also increased by 15-20% when inoculated.  This is intriguing as it is the first time I had read anything reliable that claims buckwheat fixes atmospheric nitrogen.  

Buckwheat does not form root nodules, but that does not exclude it from fixing atmospheric nitrogen as there are a number of non-nodulating legumes that also fix nitrogen.  This thesis indicates that there may be significant bacterial nitrogen fixation occurring in the rhizosphere, and demonstrated a significant yield increase as a result of that nitrogen fixation.  

Buckwheat setting seed

Based on the above, it is safe to say that buckwheat does play a role in fixing a significant amount of atmospheric nitrogen.  Sadly, the amount of atmospheric nitrogen that is fixed by buckwheat during its short life appears to be unknown due to a lack of study in this area.  

Given the massive economic significance of buckwheat, combined with how incredibly nutritious buckwheat is, along with it being a major crop that feeds a massive number of people who eat it as a staple food, I find it odd that this phenomenon would not have been studied a whole lot more.  I wish I knew more.  

Succulents

I grow a lot of edible things.  I like to grow things that I otherwise could not eat, such as mulberries or diploid potatoes or pink/purple sweet corn.  

I also grow a few ornamental plants including a few nice ferns.  Like many people, I also have a few succulents.  

Variegated succulents 

Recently I got a cutting from a variegated succulent, I need to look up what it is but have been told it is a 'tree houseleek'.  It has changed a bit since I planted it, but I still like its colours.  

This cutting has a few offshoots.  If it grows well, after some time I should be able to remove the offshoots and grow a few more of them.  

Variegated succulent

Offsets under the main rosette

Should be simple to divide once it grows

I also got some cuttings of a different variegated succulent which has similar colours.  I like these variegated succulents more than the first one, they look nice.  Someone told me the one below is Crassula ovata ‘Tricolor’.

If it grows I should be able to divide it into several plants.  

Variegated succulent

There are a few in this pot

String of buttons

A few years ago my daughter bought a string of buttons succulent (Crassula perforata).  I don't know what she liked more, the plant or its name.  

It was such a tiny plant when she bought it, and it has grown well.  She grew it for a long time, and it started to divide, and then flower.  

I helped her divide it, and she now has three of them (I only took photos of two).  

String of buttons succulent

String of buttons

String of pearls

I like string of pearls succulents (Senecio rowleyanus).  They aren't as hardy as many succulents, but they are simple to grow and they look incredible.  Mine flower each winter, the flowers are not overly interesting to look at, but they smell like cinnamon. 

The ones below are almost a meter long, and will get even longer if I can protect them.  

At this stage I only have plenty of the typical gtreen form, and a small number of variegated string of peals plants.  The variegated ones are so pretty, and they grow a lot slower.  I also have one cutting of the far larger and rarer 'big peas' or 'perla grande' variety which I can't wait until it grows and shows me what it can really do.  

String of pearls

String of pearls succulent

String of pearls succulents get rather long

String of pearls succulents are simple to grow, they will grow in soil or even in water.  When pieces break off they can be planted to create new plants.  Below are some of the cuttings I am growing out.  

It takes some time and a bit of space to grow them long.  For this reason small plants are relatively inexpensive, and longer plants tend to cost a lot more.  

String of pearls cuttings

String of beans, string of fishhooks, string of bananas

Recently I was given cuttings from a strong of beans succulent (Senecio radicans).  This is a different species to the string of pearls.  It grows in a similar way, but has longer leaves (rather than spherical leaves of string of pearls).  I am told this succulent is hardier, and more vigorous than string of pearls.

When I got the cutting, the leaves were long and thin.  After planting the cutting, and watering, the leaves have plumped up a lot.  The parent plant grew under harsh conditions for a number of years, so my cutting became plump and has grown fast since I planted the cutting and gave it water.  

Over winter these can take on a purplish tinge to the leaves.  The flowers are large and smell like cinnamon.

String of beans succulent

String of dolphins

I got a cutting from a string of dolphins (Senecio × peregrinus) a while ago.  String of dolphins is an interspecific hybrid of Senecio rowleyanus (String of Pearls) and Senecio articulatus.  

On the right angle, when not watered very well, the leaves look like dolphins.  When over watered the leaves plump up and no longer look much like dolphins.  

I have had it for over a year and it is still so tiny.  It is in a pot with other plants, but by now I had expected it to be much larger.  This plant is growing so slowly that I think it is not loving life and needs to be moved to a different position or a different pot or something.  

String of dolphins 

Shrek's ear

My son saw a succulent called Shrek's ear that he was rather impressed by.  He took one leaf from this plant and asked me to grow this for him as a cutting.  I believe it to be Crassula but am not sure of the species. 

From that one leaf, my son grew it into this healthy plant.  I also have a few zygocactus cuttings in the pot with it.  The zygocactus looks poorly, but it flowers.  

I need to repot this one for my son, and put the zygocactus in its own pot.  After the Shrek's ear settles in we should divide it into two large plants.  

Shrek's ear succulent

Succulent and zygocactus

There are also a few succulents growing in the garden.  Among them are a few Aloe vera plants.  I don't pay them a great deal of attention.  

I do sell string of pearls plants and cuttings through my for sale page.  At some stage I will probably list some of the other succulents for sale.

Olive Garden in the Desert

Recently we went to Coober Pedy for a holiday.  Coober Pedy is a town in outback South Australia, it is located in the largest desert in Australia - the Great Victoria Desert.  

In Coober Pedy many houses have been dug underground, they do this as the climate is too hot and hostile above ground.  Not surprisingly, there are not many gardens out that way.  

While we were in Coober Pedy we went and had a look at the Serbian Orthodox Church.  Out front of the church was a garden.  The garden consisted of a few olive trees and fig trees.  

Look at this garden, isn't it incredible!

Olive Garden in Coober Pedy

The picture above is taken when I was standing in the desert.  The fence marks the edge of the garden.  The garden is noticeably different to the surrounding landscape. 

The picture below was taken when I was standing in their garden.  It clearly gets more water, and has different soil, to the land outside of the fence.  I really wish there had been someone there who I could ask a few questions, as this type of garden is very foreign to me.

Their garden was remarkable.  

Coober Pedy Olive Garden

It is difficult to judge tone in a written blog post so I will be clear.  I am not being sarcastic, I truly found this garden to be remarkable.  I wish I could have learned more about it.  

Most of the olive trees were barely surviving, they were struggling even though they were well established and even with the extra water that they were given.  The locals kept stressing that this had been a very 'wet' year and everything was 'much more green than usual'.  Even so, these olive trees were doing it tough.  

I regret not being able to take cuttings and be able to grow a Coober Pedy olive tree at home, it would be cool to grow a Coober Pedy olive tree.  Sadly there was no one from the church around for me to ask and I didn't want to just take cuttings without asking someone first.  

Olives are well known for thriving under incredibly harsh conditions.  As olive trees and figs barely survive there with supplemental water, it really highlighted how extremely harsh the desert climate must be.  Even though these trees were barely hanging on, and most had died back, I was told that they produce fruit in season.  There was an old olive grove on the edge of town, its trees were not looking as good as the ones near the church.  

To give a little perspective on how harsh it is out there, look at the photo below.  The sign in the distance is next to a road.  It is warning drivers that there are no fences, and to beware of wandering stock.  There have been bores sunk so the stock have enough water to survive.  This was a very 'wet' and 'green' year, yet there is not a single grass growing out there.  The stock survive by eating the native shrubs that exist in that part of the desert.  Interestingly these animals are not fed grains or concentrates, they find enough food to survive in the desert, but that is a story for another time.  

Unfenced farm near Coober Pedy

Interestingly, there were very few dugouts with succulents or cacti growing out the front.  The few that did have anything growing appeared to be under cover and were provided with shade.  

I asked someone about this, and was told it is too hot and dry for succulents to survive unless they were under shelter and were provided with extra water.  This person gave me some cuttings from their string of beans succulent (Senecio radians) that they kept partially shaded and watered often.  This cutting has grown very fast since being planted back at home.  

Serbian Orthodox Church in Coober Pedy

The Serbian Orthodox church, the members of which had tended the garden, had been dug into the side of a hill.  Underground the temperature was far more stable and bearable.  This church was very interesting.  

Dug Out Church tunnel leading down

The Coober Pedy Serbian Orthodox Church is dedicated to Elijah.  For that reason the story of Elijah (from 2 Kings) is depicted on the walls.  

Some of the story is carved into the rock that the church has been excavated from, and some is depicted in paintings.  I am no photographer, so these pictures do not do justice to its beauty.  

Ornate carvings behind glass to protect them

Like any Orthodox church, there are no pews.  

This church had had the smell of an orthodox church (from the incense that is used), mixed with a curious salty, rocky smell of the earth.  

It was interesting seeing a dug out Orthodox church.  I would have loved to have been able to attend a service, but we were not there on the right times/days.  

It was fascinating seeing a desert garden.  It was interesting to see a garden survive (and produce fruit) in an area so arid and harsh that cacti and succulents do not survive without protection and being provided with extra water.  While I found it interesting, I am glad that I do not have to garden under such harsh conditions.