A week of work

I've taken a week off this week to get the raised beds back into production. 

The first job was putting into effect the third or fourth attempt at securing the windproof fabric which acts as bird/chicken proofing for the garden. 

I haven't managed to finish it because our local hardware store only stocked about a quarter of the shackles that I need. The shackles are already a second choice behind snap hooks which are too expensive. I've got cable ties as a stop gap (literally) and will try horticultural wire next. 

It's been lovely to spend the days outdoors. There aren't so many birds around as it's still a bit hot but the insects are plentiful. 

Our more permanent bed, home to herbs and fruit, had sprouted lots of mushrooms. I'm not sure what brought them in but it must have been something.

I'll be planting asparagus in this bed today.  

I planted up half of the vegetable bed with celery, spring onions, sugar snap peas and broad beans - all past success stories. I have lettuce now too for the other end of the bed. 

And then the nervous wait begins to see what survives our never ending summer. 

The rabbits got some kale and silverbeet that I pulled up. I let them mingle too in an effort to bond them. They spent time exploring each other's territory and all was going well until Annie found Henry in her hutch and the fur flew! I'll try again today. Wish me luck! 

Spot the skink!

I found a skink in my watering can today. It wouldn't come out even when I tipped the can over. But it let me scoop it out before it scurried for cover. 

I was less pleased to find this nest of paper wasps on the rabbit hutch but it was still interesting to watch them laying their eggs. 

On the bright side

The hens might not be laying but this monarch butterfly was busy on the swan plant. 

The grass is growing and so are the cicadas. 

The raised beds have dried up but there was a crop of potatoes still in the ground from before it stopped raining. 

It's still a bit warm but Henry had found a cool spot. 

The weeds are head high but I found this cape gooseberry bush in amongst them. 

And the possum has taken every last apple but the lemon tree is still producing. 

A plant to call home

I've been waiting for months to find caterpillars on the swan plants that we bought at Ag Day. 

I had been consoling myself that at least we'd have seeds for new swan plants next year. 

And then today we found three caterpillars, one skinny, one moderately sized and one big fat one. Yippee! 

Bug Hunt

We found all sorts of creepy-crawly activity around our block last weekend. 

What do you think came out of this hole? It seems to have made a very neat lid. 

And what will hatch from these eggs? 

These are the cicada skins that we found with a huhu bug. 

You can clearly see the slit out of which the adult cicadas climbed. 

Here's the hard shell of the huhu bug. 

And his furry underbelly. 

Feast

Whilst we've been feasting on frittata, it seems that some of our neighbours prefer a raw food diet. 

I picked about two dozen caterpillars off our red cabbage and curly kale last night, including a chrysalis or two. I knocked off as many eggs as possible too. Hopefully that will give the plants a head start for a week or so.   

Nursery spider on manuka

Dragonfly

This beast took a break on our downpipe recently - it was easily as big as a sparrow - gigantic!

Te Whare o Te Weta

Over the holidays, I built a bug hotel at Playcentre from recycled material gathered from kindly neighbours. 

I've named it Te Whare o Te Weta - the house of the weta, in Te Reo Maori.

After that, I felt the need to construct something at home so I started this pile of logs and pine cones under some ferns. Once I've built up my collection of pallets again, I'll start on something more substantial but this should provide some temporary lodgings.

Elders and Berries

This was my haul from the garden last weekend. Hydrangea heads for an arrangement for a party, three eggs, a dozen apples from our young tree and a few teaspoons full of elderberries - just enough to flavour an apple crumble. 

I was interested to find that the berries in the shade were ripening faster than the berries high up in the sunshine. I can't begin to explain that.

The tree was covered in sap-sucking passion vine hoppers which I'm sure are the reason for the meagre harvest.

We should have more success in future now that this young elder tree has been planted by the chicken coop. I hope the chickens will eat the bugs and not the berries and we'll have sufficient blooms for elderflower champagne.

Holes

Zombie Spiders

I was mildly alarmed a few weeks ago to have this small green orb web spider fall on my head as I closed the curtains. I've never seen such a bright green spider. The plot thickened when the spider didn't run away when it fell to the carpet. 

It turned out that the spider had dropped from a mason wasp's nest in the folds of the curtain. The wasp had paralysed the spider and its relatives and placed them in the nest for its offspring to consume at leisure.

Moth

I've found big moths like this one in the chicken coop and the bathroom. They're almost impossible to photograph whilst alive because they love dull little corners. 

New Zealand seems to have so many moths though that I have no idea what kind it is. 

Big Stick (Insect)

I'll be posting some creepy crawlies over the next few days so if you're not keen, look away now! 

I found this ginormous stick insect, the size of my hand, on my Swiss ball and it was a bit of a surprise.

Second Skin

Here's the golden skin shed by a cicada on one of our remaining flametrees.

In Chinese imagery, a cicada shedding its skin represents the tactic of escaping danger by using deception or the many stages of transformation required of a person before all illusions have been broken and one reaches enlightenment. 

Stick insect at sunset

Bug

Breakfast

Tunnels

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