Africanaussie

As I mentioned previously, the back section was getting rather overgrown, so I ventured into the heleconia/ginger section with my loppers.   Heleconia stalks flower and then die, so I decided to cut back some of the flowering branches and bring them inside. These red heleconias are my favourite, and I am so glad that they are now flowering profusely.  I need to figure out how to divert the new shoots so that they remain inside the bed, and I think continually cutting away the dying branches will allow the room for them to stay contained.  There is still way more to cut back, but for now I am enjoying flowers in the house.   The sexy pink ladies are so hard to put into an arrangement - maybe it would have looked better with another one in the center instead of the cordeline.  I was cutting back the lemongrass and found this tiny creature -  his skin had a metallic sheen to it.  I am still trying to find a way to make the perfe...

One of the first things I did on returning home was clear some of the weeds in the vegetable garden.  The lemongrass had become monstrous, and so I chopped enough leaves away to clear the path.  Some went into the compost where  they are a great compost activator.  The others were just laid on the bare earth (now that the weeds are gone).  They are a sort of mulch, which I also hope act as a bit of an insect repellant, being lemony and all.  I had put up a small shadecloth before I left, and in my absence a pawpaw tree had grown right up under it and was beginning to bend sideways.  I couldnt remove it as the loofah has got all entwined with it, so just changed it to a different angle to allow the pawapaw tree grow up alongside it.  I do hope it is a female pawpaw.  I have quite a few new papwpaw trees shooting up at the back of this bed, and those should be the red pawpaw, so am holding thumbs.  Hubby didnt pick any asparagu...

The asparagus is tipping over and although I have read that you should not disturb the roots I did put in a few small stakes to support them.  I have stopped harvesting them in order to build the plants up for next years harvest. These were only two year old plants this year. I also cut some lemongrass and used it as mulch around the base -I think it keeps bugs at bay and also it smells divine.  The lemongrass was running a bit rampant and needed cutting back, so I coarsely chopped some of the stems to dry and make tea.  I am not sure if you are supposed to use the stems or the leaves for tea, but I think the stems are more flavourful - at least that is what you use for cooking.  Anyway this time I had used all the leaves for mulch!  I often use a lemongrass stick in my regular tea as a stirrer and it imparts a lovely flavour.  That got me going, and soon I was cutting back the spearmint, chocolate mint, stevia and even a few hibiscus lea...