Thread: Gardening

Of course you've got to have a shed. And fire fighting potential, oh and another site for another shed of course.

Right, now this is a call to arms. How about some pics of your garden, how about some information about who you get your seeds from, what about some nifty ideas about growing your plants, seed saving, weed suppression, pest control, what sort of chooks you keep (all part of the garden) and ducks etc. Anything to do with gardening, not just vegies.

You asked for it and here it is.

Cheers - Neil

Thanks, ubeut and congrats Berlin for starting the ball rolling.

I have lots of lizards here that help with ground beetles, cockroaches and the larva of somesort of a beetle, possibly the African Black Beetle, I have to dig them up for them tho
lizard looking for a feed.jpgabout to grab it.jpg


Pete

Thanks Neil!

I watched a team of skinks mopping up after a termite swam at our place the other day. They're very effective. I haven't got to the point of hand feeding them though.

Another thing we have about here is the mud dauber wasp, at least a couple of species, when I see them they are either building a cocoon or provisioning it with caterpillars and/or spiders in readiness to lay an egg, I often see them flying in and around the leaves of various plants looking for prey.
Here's a cocoon I inadvertantly happened to break just on completion of being sealed up, it was in amongst some timber I was moving.
broken cocoon3.jpgbroken cocoon1.jpg
This one is filled with various jumping spiders, all different colours and shapes, I'd rather see it filled with caterpillars but jumping spiders were on the menu on that day.
Just in this one cocoon there is such diversity in the spiders, look closely at the one with what look like feathers for palps, the whitish cylinder is the egg of the wasp, ordinarily this will hatch and then feed on the spiders which are in a suspended state, I wonder what we could learn from whatever it is the wasp injects into the spider to stop it going off.


Pete

Great photos, Pete, can't wait to see the next lot of photos.

Maybe we should start calling you the lizard whisperer.

The vegies are starting to reach for the sky and the bees are loving it. The self seeded dill is dwarfing the dwarf fruit trees, the corn patch has pumpkin varieties as a living green mulch and I recently planted climbing beans next to the corn. I've just bandicooted some Pink Eye spuds, raided the Broad Bean patch and reduced the weight of the bramble berry vines.

That's one of the things I miss now that I'm in Qld, the berry and stone fruits, I don't miss the cold tho

Here's a few pics of some life in the sunflower patch
blue banded bee.jpglacewing eggs.jpgpraying mantis.jpgspiky legged jumping spider.jpgyellow jumping spider.jpg
From left to right
The little dot at the top center of the seed head is a blue banded bee, these are one of the solitary types (don't live in a hive) they are also very very quick and dart here and there looking for just the right flower at the right stage of flowering. I don't see these too often. There is also a grasshopper there as well.

Lacewing eggs, another predator of pests, once they hatch! I see these often

A green praying mantis. Often.

Another of the many variety of jumping spider complete with spiky legs, this one has been in the same flower for the last few days. not seen often.

A yellow jumping spider. Not seen often.

Of the critters above the thing that always fascinates me is where do the ones that I generally dont see come from
Are they waiting somewhere for somebody to grow some sunflowers?




Pete

Wonderful what pops up when you don't use pesticides.

some home shots, some alpine shots