Recent photos

Here are three recent photos to share  – but be warned, the last one is an ‘indulgent pet photo’ in case you need to avert your eyes.

This morning I peered out the window to see this pee wee (or magpie lark if you grew up somewhere different to me), helping themself to some mud in the top of my waterlily bowl. He was collecting mud, with the help of his mate (I’m assuming) to make their nest. Pee wees make beautiful mud bowl nests on horizontal branches that, preferably, hang over a large enough void to deter predators. Sadly this particular nest is not being built in our garden. My favourite sighting of a pair of pee wees building a nest was on the corner of National Circuit and Kings Ave in Barton. The branch they selected to nest on reached right out over the middle of that busy road. Clearly the traffic was of no concern to them!

Next is another visitor to our garden, although definitely not a native or deliberately planted. This poppy has grown and flowered all on its own volition in our herb bed. I believe it is a Rough Poppy, (Papaver hybridum). I love the contrast between the stunning red petals and the blue stamens.

Here’s the indulgent pet photo … you were warned … sometimes life is just too much to bear.

Rain interrupted gardening

It seems quite a long time (well just over a week really), when I started working on preparing the backgarden for autumn planting.

I confronted the bed where the ‘changeling’ squash was expanding exponentially and decided that I’d had enough of this not-a-zucchini so it was getting ripped out. We actually have no idea what this plant actually is – we thought we had planted more ‘Wrinkled from Friuli’ (Zuchetta rugosa friulana) in this bed but the fruit that I displayed in my post on this topic, was definitely not what I thought I’d planted.

It gave me a really good feeling to rip out these plants, plus they were mouldy and in the way.

Underneath I found all sorts of things. There was a self-sown tomato (with ripe fruit even!) and several beetroot plants.

I decided that I’d put a late crop of beans in, on the assumption that I might still get a result out of them, or at the worst I could dig the plants in as green manure if the frosts came early.

Despite the 260mls of rain we got last week which flooded around the beds,

the beans seem quite happy and are growing away well.

I think it will be the corn bed next. At least we got all the cobs off before the rain started.