Mystery Plant

Any ideas what this fruiting weed might be? I suspect it's a physalis or Cape Gooseberry.

Unfortunately, as observant readers will have noticed, it's a bit late for identification. The plant was already in the skip by the time I realised that there was fruit on it. I found it in the front border, growing underneath an aloe. I'm not sure how it got there - maybe one of the builders had an exotic taste in snacks...

Making a beeline...

I've had a tip-off from a member of our gardening club about a beekeeper who's looking for a lifestyle block on which he can install some hives. I'm eager to learn how to care for bees and would love to have some resident pollinators. Keep your fingers crossed he's keen on our block when I contact him...

Tip of the Day

...courtesy of the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Wetter Weta

When I planted my latest bromeliads, I found a weta in the plant's reservoir. Unfortunately it was face down and so I suspect it had drowned. I wonder if the plant will derive any nutrition from it. Is this one of the 0.1% of bromeliads which are carniverous?

Bromeliads

You've heard of the Slow Food movement, right? Well, I'm starting the Slow Gardening movement. A year after I started my bromeliad bed with a couple of contributions from Aloe Aloe Gardens in Kaitaia, I've added to it with two plants from the Leigh School Festival. I cleared the weeds from a couple of sunny spots, planted the bromeliads and bedded them in with some sheep pellets. I added a ring of pebbles to keep the chickens at bay then stood back and admired my handiwork.

I wonder how long it will be before I add some more plants...

Edible Garden

These shots were taken in a walled garden at the Botanic Gardens in South Auckland. I was interested to see how different plants had been selected for each wall, depending on the direction that it faced and how much sun or shade each plant required.

It's unlikely that we'll be able to build a walled garden but I'll need to think about how to arrange my plants so that the shade-loving edibles are behind the sun-loving ones.

Seed Head