DECEMBER, 2011 – SUMMER (WITH OCCASIONAL RAIN!)

Vegetables – taking out and putting in.

A definite change of season at last. The silver beet that had been keeping us in green vegies for months finally had to go and, after some composting and digging over, into the same bed went three Golden Globe pumpkins. The asparagus has been feeding us for a full three months with delicious, juicy stems and has now been let go to fern and a couple of grafted tomatoes have gone in as well. Everything has been very slow to start but now, at the end of December, is going along nicely.

The Asparagus has to be left now to grow its
ferns and become strong again for next year's crop.

Christmas takes over.
Somehow, December became very busy in all areas except the garden and it wasn’t until the last couple of days that I’ve been able to spend some time outside. What I found there was all good. Nothing died, nothing fell out and there really doesn’t seem to be a lot of work needed. This means there’s been time for sitting on the verandah enjoying the pleasant afternoons and evenings and gazing at the many different shades of green and the vast variety of flowers.


This is along the edge of the verandah - X. viscosum, Wahlenbergia (Bluebells),
some Native Violets and a prostrate Cootamundra - and others not in this picture.

Special presents for small grandchildren. As well as our beloved native birds, we have many blackbirds in our garden. Geoff and I are not a bit fond of blackbirds despite their lovely song because they continually scratch all over the gardens digging out our seeds and throwing mulch everywhere. They also eat our worms and fight and squawk loudly during mating. However, we felt they might as well contribute to our Xmas by donating some nests. Here’s a pic of what we prepared for our five small grandchildren. They were very impressed with having a ‘real’ birds nest – one of them even took his out and put it in the apple tree "so that other birds could use it".

Just a little moderate pottering.
Now that the mad rush is over and we have time for other things, I find it hard to go out into the garden and not do ANY work at all. To me, it’s not really work, it’s a pleasant way to spend an hour or so outside.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of cutting back:  Acacias, Tea Trees, Melaleucas…. a number of various shrubs that have begun to overpower others or take up too much space in the bush garden and invade the pathway.
I found an Eremophila that’s begun to die away from underneath and I’ve cut it back quite viciously. However, I suspect it will have to come out; I really don’t think it’s going to sprout again.


Eremophila glabra - It's been in since 2005 - maybe
it's come to the end of its life.

Direct Seeding
Almost everything is producing seeds in abundance so I’m collecting heaps and heaps of them with the intention of trying a direct seeding system which I learnt about while visiting Paul Jennings’ Bush Garden in Warrnambool in March this year. I’ll investigate a little further but basically, the idea is to prepare the ground so there are no weeds, broadcast the seeds of many different flowers, trees, shrubs, etc. and then cover them with branches to break the wind and hold the water. I think I’ll have to wait for spring or late winter but will report in the months to come.

Wild life
Galahs ...
We’ve been visited by a small population of galahs who entertain us with their aerobatics – swooping between the trees and doing nose dives almost into the ground. Then they potter about on the grass, grazing happily and quietly while their babies sit up in the trees whinging and complaining. There’s a very short video of the complaining babies in this album.


This is a still picture of our beautiful Galahs.


Butterflies ...
There’s also been an invasion of dozens (hundreds?) of brown butterflies which dance continuously through the tops of the trees and around and about the smaller shrubs, sipping at the flowers and dancing in and out of sunshine and shade. They are all over the town in everyone’s garden and are a constant delight day after day. I have tried and tried to take photos of them but they are so fast and erratic that I never get more than two at a time in one picture.


Here are two on the Kunzea. VERY lucky to catch them with wings open!

I’ve looked them up on the internet and they seem to be “Common Brown Butterflies” – but common or not, they are beautiful. I WAS a little concerned about their caterpillars in the future. What will they want to eat? Will they be a problem? But it seems that they lay their eggs on native and imported grasses so this may not have any great impact on all our favourite plants.
and Spiders.The whole garden is filled with many spiders. I’ve found baby Scorpion Spiders, Wolf Spiders, heaps and heaps of Leaf Curl Spiders and uncountable garden spiders of varying sizes. The Spiny Spiders have established a couple of very well-populated nurseries, too. Some people call them Jewel spiders because they have a beautiful pattern on their backs which can be black and white or gold and white. They’re harmless and very beautiful.

And so to the New Year. This Blog is now over 18 months old and is proving valuable to me as a record of how things grow and when they bloom. You can see more of all the pictures at this album.