Sunday, 23 August 2009

I Love my garden!

I have been working a little more this week, so not much has been happening in the garden. Though the weather is improving and whilst we are not getting the very hot weather that the mainland is we have been having very mild nights (no fire) and days, this has bought on many of the flowers. I have noticed that one of my fruit trees has blossoms of a beautiful red opening up on it. The rest are a bit behind, but I am living in hope that I will get some fruit of them. I have left it too late to transplant the ones that I had intended, but it has been to wet. I was out in the vegie garden deciding what to take out and where to plant things for the spring and summer. I happened on a huge bumble bee pollinating the broad bean flowers.
Bumble bee working pollinating broad beans.
I also noticed a smaller possibly native bee pollinating the broad beans as well. So I am now hopeful that we will have broad beans in the not so distant future.
This may be a much smaller native bee pollinating more broad beans.
. Looking at my brassicas, and well they have been a little bit of a disaster this year. I am sure that I planted them too late. So will be planting them much earlier this year. You can see that my cauliflowers are not forming great big heads, but this one is much more closed. For two of us it will still give us a couple of meals. Not a sucessful year for broccoli either Thankfully between the winter salad bed and the tri colour silverbeet we have had a choice of greens from the winter garden. I had been working last Sunday week for a brief time in the garden, until it rained again. I was hoping to weed all the berry bed and finally cut down my still green raspberry canes. I started to weed around the fence line and the currant bushes to no avail as the water just ran into the areas I took the weeds from and the lovely soil was still caked onto the roots of the weeds. So weeding roots has to stop. I will do some trimming of the leaves and my raspberries this week.
Water surrounds the currant bush.
I was walking about the garden today and was again amazed at how sweet the wattles perfume is. We have quite a few wattle trees/bushes on our land. I love the variation to their flowers, leaves, and colours. They bring many native animals and birds into the garden, to eat the seeds when they fall. They are incredible plants. I am researching which are the wattle seeds you can eat. I have my fingers crossed we may have this variety. The aborigines made a flour from wattle seed (Acacia), and in the southern regions of Australia there are 47 types of wattles which produce seeds for human consumption. (from Edible Wattle Seeds of Southern Australia). Edible Wattle Seeds of Southern Australia is a joint project of the Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia and CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products. Whilst this book is talking about cultivating these Acacias as crops, I like the idea of having something that grows easily at our place that puts nitrogen back into the soil. You can burn the wood, and get the added benefit of the glorious flowers. Now I may be able to utilise the seeds in flour, as flavouring and apparently you can also use it as a coffee substitute. I would imagine roast the seeds and grind them. Hmmm maybe I will try that in a few years, sorry but I love my coffee! I may trim off a branch or two and bring them inside. The other plants in my garden are flowering and it seems to me the rosemary is quite early this year, and the daisy's big bold flowers in front add textural contrast. The golden diosma flowering, in front of the purple Happy Wander which flowers quite early in winter and continues flowering into mid spring.. the garden today was humming with bees.
Daisies in front of flowering blue Rosemary
Golden diosma in front of happy wander
One of many varieties of narcissus we have growing
My poor old comfrey is suffering however. I am thinking I will dig it up and place it in compost, keeping just some of the healthier looking plants. Too much rain and infested with bugs.
It really is a fantastic autumn/spring this year, even with the weeds and inability to spend much time in the garden.

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