Spring garden

Nasturtums make a break for freedom

Over the wall, where next?

A self-sown freesia enclave in the lawn.

Broadbeans

The tamarillo recovers from a savage pruning.

The bird feeder struggles for space.

Entrance to the secret garden.

Backyard wisteria.

The Goddess of the garden.  Ceres, I think.

The delicate quince blossums.

Old style 'Ballerina' rose.

Gazebo grape vine.

Some garden shots

The back yard with George's bouncy thing - retrieved from someone's hard rubbish.

Mow the grass last weekend - you'd never know.

Thornless blackberries.

A Hubbard's Squash is rather vigourous.

(Yes, I have chopped off some of the leaders)

Vegetables fight for light.

Serrano Chilli, grown from seed.

Hubbard's Squash

Herbs and things.

Tattered but fruitful...

The leaves hail-shredded but the fruit of the tamarillo hang in there.

Cooked lemons?

All the 'ripe' lemons on my tree look like this - free juice inside the fruit, pulp collapsed.

Heat damage?

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A couple of garden bits...

A poetry site had the prompt "What do you see out your window?"  

I took a photo but never wrote the poem.

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With a week of 30-40 degree days, possibly more, 

I have opted to turn the vegetable garden into a tent.

Garden shots

The front yard, near the gazebo.

A gift from a neighbour, moving to a flat; Ceres, maybe.

The wisteria on the back trellis, after one year.  

The vegetable garden - nursery section.

Broad beans, garlic, leeks, shallots.

A slight change of plans...

The possums have found a new path to the tamarillos.

(I have visions of them singing "Is this the way to Tamarillo?" in surprising baritone voices.)

So I have harvested them all. 

The tamarillos.  Apparently I am not allowed to harvest the possums.

So, will try poaching them.  The tamarillos.  Forget possums for the remainder of this post.

Will also try dehydrating some.  Who knows; quinces were unexpectedly magical.

Will also try a tamarillo chutney tomorrow.

Others will be sliced, sprinkled with sugar and eaten.

Had an avocado, tamarillo and onion salsa with lunch.  Not bad.  Needed some roast pork.

Anyone nearby who would like some, let me know.

A high maintenance love affair.

I have a quince tree.

I love quinces but I am not alone:

Moths love them.
Ants love them.
Mould loves them.
Last year even rats loved them.

You can't eat them raw.
You have to cook them.   Because of the moths, ants and mould, there is a lot of halving, coring, trimming, quartering and peeling.  You then stew them or bake them.  As mine are never whole, pristine fruit like the ones in the photo, nabbed via Google, stewing is the go.

Before you leap in and tell me about Quince Paste, let me say I tried making it one year.  It becomes a seething, boiling, volcanic hell-hole of a saucepan.   It spits lava at you.  Hot, blistering lava.  The only sensible way to stir it is with a towel wrapped around your arm.

But I have found a better way:  dehydrate the poached segments.

They dry to a beautiful texture that goes beautifully with a nice cheddar.

Today I cooked the remainder of our crop.  A lot of trimming and peeling.  The worm farm got the trimmings, happy little worms.  I get the rest.

Some of the stewed fruit will be dessert, the remainder will hit the dehydrator.  Can't be bad.

How to Annoy Spiders

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Sprinkle glitter on their webs.

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A few more garden photos

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In the 'Aztec' bed, the beans find the corn to be a supportive friend...

...while, down below, the pumpkins (Anna Swartz) enjoy the mottled light.

I was a little underwhelmed by the insipid colour of the rhubarb (although it is a vigorous grower), so what to do with a lime green stewed fruit?

Add elderberries.  That worked.
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Minor pruning?

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Our neighbour has trimmed his Pin Oak. About a third removed.

To the east of us so doesn't affect much, garden-wise. Be interesting to see how it goes/grows over the summer. Stay posted.
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Spring is coming.

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I always love it when the magnolia flowers.
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A bird by any other name...

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Strange bird that stalks around my front garden.

Anyone know what it is?

Rummaging in 'What Bird is That?' suggests a 'Painted Quail'.
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Quince meets Rat.

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Ever wondered what it looks like when rats eat your quinces?

Of course you have!

Well, now you know.
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Extended dining room.

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Here was my bird feeder. I used to put seed for the doves and lorikeets here and put meat for the magpies on another dish on the ground. The children just would not play nicely together. Especially the lorikeets.

But on Sunday I found a cat eating from the magpie meat.

Time to extend the feeder.

All that glitters....

Yesterday, after I had checked for mail (the real stuff that the Postie delivers), I found a leaf stuck to my trousers. I thought nothing of it and put it into the waste paper bin.

Next morning, when I went into the study, the leaf was suspended in mid-air in the middle of the room.

Yes, that's right, it had a spider living inside it.


I put it out in the garden.

I do love the time of year when the leaf-curl spiders are about. I have a salt shaker full of glitter and I go out into the garden and decorate their webs for them.

Looks magical. All sparkly.

But it is gone the next morning. I have visions of the spiders cursing and swearing, running their fingers down each strand of their web to take off the glitter.

Can't really begrudge one setting up home in my study.
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The smell of trellis in the morning.

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The wisteria smells the freedom of the wide open trellis and is making a rapid run for it.
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The advantage of home gardens...

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One of the advantages of having your own garden is that you can grow things that you wont see in the shops. Above is a Cape Gooseberry.

The lovely papery lantern holds a lovely little berry with a tangy tropical taste.
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I've got worms!

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Not only that, I got them from my son!

Now, with all the responsibility of a foster parent, I am carer and guardian of a thousand or so hungry mouths to feed. Just don't ask me to identify which end is which.


The high-rise hostel for these worms is called a "Worm Cafe" (above).

Who thinks of these names?

I have visions of a focus group (think short, fat, balding men with pony-tails and paisley shirts) sitting around, drinking lattés and wondering what to call the new worm farm design. One looks at his coffee and a small light glimmers and the "Worm Cafe" is born.

And they vote.

The focus group, not the worms.
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Up boy! Up!

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I've grown nasturtiums on and off over the years. On occasion put them in salads or used the flowers as a garnish.

Never thought of them as a climber though - more of a crawler.

I read somewhere that growing nasturtiums up you apple tree will discourage Coddling Moth.

Up?

Well, I'll give it a go and Lo! they do climb. Apple trees, anyway.

Have I created a monster?


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