Africanaussie

I spent the entire day on Saturday in the vegetable garden.  There was lots to do.  Always the changing of the seasons seems to bring extra chores.  First thing to go was the support that I had added to  the back fence so that the passionfruit vine which went wild had somewhere to go.   That died off due to the woody passionfruit virus but has started up again travelling in the other direction.  I have decided I dont want it going along the back of the vegetable garden again as next season I want to plant tomatoes along that back fence and need to prepare the soil there.  At the moment there are small stones there, so it will be a big job, but I have time.  The arch had sagged down so much that there really was no arch left.... I had purchased a cheap arch and it had rusted away. Not a good look at all. I removed that bit of wire and with hubbys help we inserted it into the old arch.  We put the wire under the mass of passionfrui...

  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 s...

I have been noticing for the last couple of weeks that crusher dust (which is what was put inside the middle of the herb spiral as it was built up) has been flowing out of the gaps between the rocks. I thought maybe I had been watering too hard as the connection to the soaker hose is right above my mint on the side of the spiral. After moving that there was no change and an even bigger pile of dust around the basil the following morning. So I began a little detective work and moved a few rocks to find............. a toad hole. Now most people say toads are wonderful for getting rid of bugs etc, but here we have cane toads which are a big pest, and poisonous, so they had to go. As I poked a stick into the holes, and jiggled it around the toads were jumping out left right and center. My, what a sight... they are truly horrible ugly creatures. There must have been a huge extended family - I counted about 10! I hope they got the message they are not welcome. That must be why some of the h...