Vegetables and Herbs

 I do love how colourful the area around the birdbath has become - maybe a little too wild though - I could see some cutting back was needed soon.  The coleus edging can take over - it started out as one little four inch pot, now is a ground cover in two areas of the garden,    The madevilla vine is also getting quite heavy and the arch had rusted though and was bending.  It  needed some stabilizing and re-inforcing.  I guess it was not designed for such heavy use.

I have also noticed that the birds are not visiting the birdbath as often - maybe there is enough water around, but then again maybe they dont like to feel "trapped" inside under the arch.  So I pruned back the cats whiskers around the birbath and moved the birdbath right out from under the arch.  It will be more convenient there anyway as we need to be quite vigilant about cleaning out standing water so that the dengue mosquitoes dont breed.   Once the wet season is over I will move the rose into the new rose garden that hubby wants to start.  There is a yellow ixora to the left, and the orange one to the right is quite prolific, I was hoping they would both grow to the same height and fullness.  Sometimes (maybe always) you have to let the plants make the rules.

I added some labels to the herb spiral -they are under the passsionfruit arch so that might protect them from the weather a bit.  I will probably have to get some more permanent ones sometime.  I have seen in other peoples photos some lovely stake type labels with a copper strip that you etch onto -wish I could find those.  If anyone can help me on where you get those I would be most appreciative.  In the meantime these little colourful leaf and butterfly ones will do.

Appearing under the passionfruit vine is a volunteer from the neighbours vegetable patch.  A birds eye chili bush.  I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to chiles - I have heard these chiles are very hot, but since I do buy bottled crushed chiles to add to some of my curries etc, I am wondering, should I don some rubber gloves and attempt to bottle these? 

The skinny snake beans are producing well, although some of the leaves are dying off, as you can see here - I am not sure if this is part of the cycle - a lot of these tropical vines die off at the beginning and only produce on new growth.  The beans are very tasty - a little more rubbery than normal lazy housewife green beans, but they produce quite prolifically and  so I am happy to have some vegetables that grow in the wet season. I do eat the thick snake beans,(peeled and very lightly steamed)  but hubby is not so keen on them.  To the left is jicama and to the right is malabar spinach.

So my vision of growing a ton of wet season vegetables is not exactly coming to fruition, but I am harvesting a few vegetables, fruit and herbs, and the ground is not lying fallow which is what often happens around here.