A Look Around The Garden

Chilies

Beetroot in raised bed - Johnny Jump Ups just visible on the left

Snow Peas in dappled morning light

General view of small part of the garden

Went out this morning and took some photos of some of the things growing in the garden.  I have chilies in a half wine barrel.  Snow peas climbing up a small shed.  Beetroot in a raised garden bed and a general shot of a messy patch with rocket and weeds.

You don't realise what you have until you start taking stock.  Lettuce here spring onions there.  Lemons in the backyard and limes in the front yard.  I love it all.  Click on Photos for a magnified picture.

Johnny Jump Ups

The viola tri-colour or "Heartease " also known as Johnny Jump Ups because of their wonderful habit of self seeding and growing in unexpected places are a wonderful addition to any garden.  You can crystallise the flowers and use them as cake decorations so they also have a function inside the kitchen as well as decorating the garden.

Beside the raised garden bed

I love to see them popping up beside the raised garden beds and also amongst the vegetables.  They even appear after you have added extra nutrients to the soil and turned the bed over.  There is no deterring them. 

Dance of the Bees

Bee at work amongst basil flowers click on photo

What wonderful creatures the bees are.  What other creature gives more than it takes.  Tirelessly they work all day to fertilize and take home the fruits of their labours to the hive.  Whole populations of humans would collapse without their endeavors.  Crop failures and starvation would ensue their demise.  Yet these little creatures are in danger.  Hive failures are endemic in the USA.  Overpopulation and environmental pressures will not help their cause.
Growing bee loving plants is the best we can do on an individual level and hope that humans wake up before it is too late.

Frog Spawn

Tadpoles growing bigger click on photo

Spawn in centre front - little tadpoles lying still

As you can see I have taken out frog spawn from the pond and have spawn and small tadpoles which have hatched out of the black eggs.  The challenge now is to see how big I can grow them before putting them back in the main pond.  I have done this several times before and the small tadpoles have disappeared.  So if I can get them larger this time they may stand a chance at survival.  If only I knew what is wrong. 

There are so many of them and more to come.  I might try and use different vessels so they don't become too overcrowded.

Trials and Tribulations

What a joy the garden is.  Even with all the trials and tribulations of failed crops, seeds and pilfering by the wildlife.

I love to walk around and see plants sprouting from last years crop without any help from me.  All the eggplants this year grew this way.   I remember digging in damaged eggplants and up sprouted the seedlings a year later.  Johnny Jump Ups are the same.  They just love to spread their seed around.   You find them sprouting in all sorts of little corners in the garden.  I  have planted Forget Me Nots.  They haven't flowered yet but when they do they will also present me with little surprises later.

I also love to watch the spring onions pop their little heads through the soil.  They seem to take a while to take off but when they do they are a delicious addition to our salads and stir-frys.  Spring onions grow the most wonderful flower head which is full of seed.  I pick these and let them dry and I then have enough seed for next spring.

Silverbeet, coriander and thyme also love to spread themselves around.  I hate to disturb them to plant new seedlings, but the practicalities of garden life take over and I do plant around them.  Rocket also lives up to its name and I wouldn't have planted a seed of the three varieties in the garden which grow everywhere.

Why doesn't everybody have a garden?   What's not to love about them?  They are good for the soul and the environment.   What is better than a bowl of salad leaves picked fresh from the garden, put in bowl and eaten within an hour of harvesting?

It is now Autumn and the garden still loves the lettuces, chilies, beetroots and parsley.  My Alpine Strawberries are flowering and I am waiting for the little fruit to colour to taste my first one.

Frog Pond

Original fibre glass pond

Now with plants fully grown

A couple of years ago we visited an open house permaculture garden in Port Kemba.  This was where we got the inspiration to replace the lawn with woodchips.  The people who lived here were modern day hippies.  It was a lovely garden.  Chickens in a huge run.  Garden beds everywhere and a frog pond which was a huge garden urn filled with the run off from a water tank.  The urn had fish to eat mosquitoes, tadpoles and water lilys.  The house up from theirs was the same with no fence between them.  This no boundary between the two houses made for more possibilities to garden and share resources.  An idea which would be totally foreign where we lived.

We went home and decided that the fibre glass in ground fish pond which was left by the previous owners would be perfect to put in the ground to make a frog pond.  This in ground pond was previously in a shed up the back which we fixed up for the chickens.  What its purpose was in the shed was a mystery to us.  We had seen a couple of frogs around the garden but they were a rare sighting.  As rare as our sightings of the blue tongue lizard are.  We see this lovely creature every now and then and wouldn't have a clue where it resides.  Every time we think it has disappeared for good it makes a brief appearance.

Back to the frog pond.  We dug a hole deep enough for it to be level when filled with water.  We surrounded the fibre glass edges with sandstone rocks.  Planted native grasses around it.  Filled it with rainwater and put in white cloud minnows which we purchased from the local indoor fish man.  [When I can work out how to put up photos on this blog I will put before and after pictures.] 

Then we waited, and waited and waited.  No frog noises.  We kept on waiting as we could do nothing else.  It is not advisable to bring in frog spawn from anywhere else as only the local frogs native to the area are recommended.

One night, many months later, we heard the frog.

One morning there was frog spawn in the pond.

Then tadpoles.

The tadpoles grew and grew and we sighted a couple of small frogs around the pond.

The white cloud minnows were multiplying and the frogs kept mating.  All was rosy in the frog pond until this year.

There has been plenty of spawn but not a tadpole in sight.  I have even taken the spawn out of the pond and waited for the tadpoles to hatch and grow some before I put them back in the pond only to disappear also.  I don't know what is wrong.  I have taken half the minnows out and given them to my son in case they were eating them.  I asked the aquarium man if he had heard of the minnows eating spawn and tadpoles and he said in the 20 years he has been selling fish it is new to him.

I have searched the net to no avail.  Once more I have a problem on my hand.  The good news is that the minnows are very happy and the pond is looking really beautiful now the grasses have matured and hang over the pond giving the necessary shade in summer.

Misanthrope Encounters Facebook

Well I have done it.  I have joined the facebook brigade.  I resisted as long as I could but was overwhelmed by my frustration to contact a wonderful alpine strawberry site and its owner Michael Wellik.

For those who want to read heaps about these wonderful fruit go to www.fraisesdesbois.com/. 

I have been having problems with germination of the seeds.  They germinate and grow one true leaf and then stop.  You need at least 3 true leaves to up-pot.  Just another catch 22 in the life of a strawberry grower.  I don't know if it's the weather or just "white soul" the strawberry in question, or the seed raising mixture or what? 

Awaiting Michael's comments on the matter.  Will let you know of any further developments.