Exteriors

Mid July 2019

It is so hot now that we are doing very little indeed.  Early morning, Dave does some strimming, and I water the garden for about an hour.  This is not a good thing to be doing, so we are researching water conservation strategies.  Then we hide out indoors through the heat of the day, making plans for fixing up the garden and making proper water management happen as soon as it cools down.  With our thoughts fixed firmly on the garden, I decided to sign up for a short course on Organic Plant Culture (offered by acsedu.org) to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of actual horticulture.

Some few things are happening in the garden, and seem worth reporting:

 Three Moringa trees have returned from the dead. This is the best one

 Dave came across a welcome visitor climbing over our water pipe

 It is the season of preying mantids, and they seem to love our house - which is nice, because we have adopted them as our symbol - given that most of what we do is on a wing and a prayer!

A green one on the front door ...

 and a brown one on the kitchen door

 One of our successfully self-planted cabbages was let go to seed, so I went to collect the  harvest. Not sure if it is hybrid seed or if it will breed true, but we'll give it a go.

 The kitchen garden is flourishing after its rapid make-over last month, together with a few of the plants in pots that I got to make Mum's bedroom steps attractive.

 This is the kitchen garden from the other direction.  tomatoes, squash, mint, and rocket, with parsley going to seed for collection.

 A surprise in the hedgerow.  I've never known our wild brambles to fruit before.

 On a visit to Sivota recently, I came across these two barrels planted with interesting polycultures.  The top one is hibiscus and squash.  The bottom one I can't remember or clearly identify now, except for the fennel.  We'll have to go back!