Winter Reigns (and rains)

Welcome Winter!

Yay!!

The cooler days and nights

are so lovely,

with the added bonus of some glorious rainy days.

A few pots of tiny pansy seedlings potted up a few weeks ago,

are really very rewarding 

now that they have grown a bit.

 When choosing the small punnets of seedlings a few weeks ago, at the garden centre, it was hard to resist the urge to stay with just one colour.

So many

beautiful colours

to choose from!

But I stayed strong, and stuck with just ONE colour.

I have gone for

one shade of deep

blue.

I had designed our backyard

with a theme of

mostly GREEN.

So only a small amount of flowers would be needed to always stand out, and make an impact.

Instead of throwing out this

metal lantern,

when the base rusted out...

I plopped it onto this garden bed, and the tiny groundcover has grown into it.

I LOVE it!!

I have to confess to not giving enough time to gardening these past couple of years.

It's not that I have lost interest,

just that I have been otherwise occupied.

But STILL, because the garden has

'good bones',

it is never too hard to keep it from looking 'too shabby'. 

A single pot of Royal Cape Plumbago

is enough to star in it own little corner of the yard.

Through the Grotto with delicate 'Babys Tears' as a ground cover,

to the

Bali Garden in the background, on the other side of the house.

Even though I do not get to spend much time in the garden these days,

I never cease to derive massive enjoyment from just SEEING the garden every day...

...with the rabbits scattered throughout the scene.

One of my all time

favourite plants

is Zoysia.

It always manages to

look

lovely and green...

even when the lawn looks a bit

old and tired

during Winter.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my garden this Winter,

as much as I have.

Thanks for looking!

Delicious monster!

What’s big and green and creeping??

...has leathery, glossy, large heart-shaped leaves used in flower arrangements and is commonly grown as interior decoration?

With aerial roots that have been known to make ropes in Peru,

and baskets in Mexico…where it’s leaf and root infusion is drunk daily to relieve arthritis.

In Martinique the root is used to make a remedy for snakebite.

A member of the Arum family,

this exotic plant which is native to tropical rainforests of southern Mexico,

has found a home in our humble backyard.

Why…it has to be Monsterio Deliciosa.

Also known as: Ceriman, Swiss Cheese Plant (or just Cheese Plant), Fruit Salad Plant, Monster fruit, Monsterio Delicio, Monstereo, Mexican Breadfruit, Monstera, split-leaf philodendron, Locust and Wild Honey, Lions Paw, Windowleaf and Delicious Monster

I first planted it as a way of easily obtaining the beautiful large green leaves, when I had a wedding or other church event to decorate.

It has happily lived in our backyard for about 15 years. Just recently, My Knight had to do some rather severe pruning, or it would have swallowed our large palm tree.



But as delightful as it looks,

and as useful as it may be to many peoples…

the thing I really want to tell you about is its FRUIT!!

Which is utterly amazing in every way.

The unique fruit is up to 25 cm long and 3–4 cm diameter, looking like a green ear of maize covered with hexagonal scales.

The fruit can be ripened by cutting it when the first scales begin to lift up and it begins to exude a pungent odor. (pineapple/banana-like) You then wrap it in a paper bag and set aside until the scales begin popping off. The scales are then brushed off or fall away to reveal the edible flesh underneath. The flesh, which is slightly similar to pineapple in texture, can be pulled away from the core and eaten. It has a fruity taste similar to jackfruit and pineapple.

YUM!!!!!!!!!

WORD OF WARNING:

This totally deliciously yummy fruit…has a dark side.

The fruit often contain things called Raphides and Trichosclereids – needle like structures of calcium oxalate, approximately 6mm long. These manifest themselves more so if you try to eat the fruit BEFORE it is properly ripened…and you will know if you have tasted the not quite ripened flesh, as your mouth has the sensation of sharp stinging prickles.

So best to wait until the little scales have fallen away from the fruit by themselves, and don’t go picking them off. Just eat what is ripened and then put it back inside the paper bag until the next day.

Funny how our backyard seems to surprise me with 'usefulness' and 'yummy delight', when I only really wanted 'pretty'...must go and see if there is another of these wonderful fruit ready for picking...

I've created a monster!

It all started quite innocently.

Having discovered these delicious little ones a while ago,

and become slightly obsessed with snacking on them...

(Perino tomatoes)

the crazy though crossed my mind,

to pop a couple of tiny seeds from a small tomato that I was enjoying,

into the garden bed outside our kitchen window.

Our backyard was only ever designed to be a pretty sight.

Visually pleasing.

We had long ago decided to keep it free of anything

that might be construed as pertaining to usefullness...ie. vege gardens and the like,

which require occasional periods of aestheticly challeged scenery.

But those tiny little seeds had other ideas!

Above: this is the view we now see from our kitchen window.

Below: where once there sat a gorgeous Lobelia filled, delightful view...

...there now sits an amazingly vigorous tomato plant.

YIKES!!!

Not only has it grown way larger that I thought was possible,

it has also produced abundant flowers...and fruit!!!

Ok. So there was a slight learning curve involved

in the 'growing of ones own tomatoes'.

It had to do with pesky little grubs.

The secret is...

that you must sprinkle yucky green poisonous tomato dust

all over the tiny yellow flowers.

If you fail to do so...

then you will end up with a super crop of

tomatoes that look like this...

Once we had used the dust,

things were looking up!

I don't know how many tomatoes

we have harvested from those initial couple of seeds that I stuck in the ground,

but there have been countless punnet sized crops so far.

Now we are wondering when the plant will have run it's course,

as it still seems to be nowhere near finished with it's growing.

You would have thought I might have learned a lesson about poking seeds into the garden bed.

But no, I couldn't help myself throwing in a couple of pumpkin seeds a few weeks ago...

Now I am wondering if THIS large leafed monster will

 devour our whole backyard.

YIKES!!!

Busy Bee

While taking a wander through my garden,

I came across a peculiar sight.

Someone had cut very neat holes in our Heliconia leaves.

As I stood staring at the strange spectacle,

a large bee buzzed by me and landed on the leaves,

and proceeded to slice herself another chunk of leaf.

It only took her a matter of seconds to do this,

and then she was off and making her way to her secret nest.

I raced inside and grabbed My Knight and my camera,

and together, we watched for signs of when the clever little cleaver bee would return.

Then My Knight saw her.

Carrying a slice of leaf, she very quickly disappeared
into the end of our watering wand.

We just looked at each other in astonishment.

Soon, the busy little bee again appeared from her, now not so secret, nest.

The little bee paid no attention to either of us,
as we wrangled for a better look at her hidey-hole.

We stayed to watch as she went about her chores,

This time, the bougainvillia was her leaf of choice.

We saw her quickly speed back to her hidden construction site,

carrying a large chunk of leaf.

above: dragging the piece of leaf inside

As each new piece was added to her patchwork quilt inside the nest,

she ventured out once more to

hunt and gather

another small piece to complete her youngun's nursery.

The garden is always full of surprises.

I can always discover something new,

each time I take the time to enjoy it.

Mr Google was happy to provide me with these next few photos

of the 'Leaf Cutter Bee':

Have you made time lately to

take a wander in your own garden?

There will no doubt,

be lots of wonders

just waiting for you

to rest, and enjoy.