Out in the garden

We have a lot of natives already growing and keep planting more of them, the sensible choice, but admittedly I combine them with whatever else wants to grow here. Gardening is a bit of a challenge of the moment, the bandicoots keep digging and uprooting a lot of plants at night. And they get into the chook dome for any leftover scraps leaving a convenient hole for the chooks to go for a bit of a morning dig finishing of the night of havoc... 

I keep filling up the holes in the ground and putting more bricks and stones on the sides of the pen to keep digging out chooks impossible. Although the obstacles and slower winter growing the greens are thriving preferring the milder sunlight.

With day temperatures around twenty degrees and dry we're outside most of the time.

It's the middle of the Winter, outside it's a playground for the birds, with most native trees flowering now.  The bees are working overtime, wherever you are in the garden you hear the dreamy buzz of bees.

The callistemons (or bottle brushes) are a big hit with the local rainbow lorikeets. They are a delight to watch, hanging upside down noisily snacking on the flowers.

 These habanero chilies grow very well, but are so fiercely spicy they are almost impossible to use for cooking, overdosing too easily. I ended up making chill oil with them, just perfect.



Lavender. After too many bad nights with the kids, I started putting some flowers in their pillow cases. Subtle, but very effective...

 The Cadagi tree now made it officially onto the undesirable noxious weed list, creating havoc for native bees (link). Another one down, still 6 to go. We have a very serious woodpile to keep the fire going for many cold winters to come.

The chooks don't seem to be too bothered with the cold, averaging 5 eggs a day from our lucky 7.

The mornings are too cold to have breakfast outside, some flowers on the breakfast table do make for a bright start of the day, Sophie is more then happy to pick some for me...