The vegetable garden and more
After yesterday's scorcher, some of my flowers are looking a little worse for wear today. A temperature transition from the low '20s to the high '30s in the space of a day does not make for good things to happen in the garden!
However, the vegetable garden fared much better (just a couple of scorched leaves on a silverbeet plant).
The snowpeas have almost finished. I might get another 4-5 pods if I'm lucky. We've eaten all of the carrots. They were exceptionally sweet and very enjoyable to eat. The broccoli is flowering and there are some seeds forming, so we'll have seeds to plant next winter. I planted some bok choy last month, and am most disappointed that they're starting to flower early. This means the leaves won't grow as big as they should. Nevertheless, I picked some leaves today for a salad.
I've recently planted some tomatoes, green beans, lettuce and a capsicum (red pepper) plant.
My first tomato flower is about to open! It's a cherry tomato variety, and apparently, very prolific. I'm sure there'll be some more pictures soon!
Green beans heading for the wire mesh.
This is a "Heritage" lettuce. I'd never seen this speckled variety before. One of my co-workers had more seedlings than she could use, so she gave them to me. They were very happily accepted! She also gave me the tomato plants.
The capsicum already has a bud on it!
Flowering bok choy.
All of the vegetables and herbs below came from our garden. They made a very tasty salad for lunch today with the addition of tomatoes, capsicum and carrots (unfortunately not ours!).
Oh, and look what's ripening here! Yum!
The Captain Cook bottlebrush is now flowering profusely. It always makes a good show at this time of the year.
Remember the banksia cone I posted in various forms in the recent past? (see post of 22nd September) This is what it looks like now! (Oh, and please excuse the snail shell at the base - I've been doing some exterminating lately!)
These kangaroo paw buds will soon be open.
I just love the "artwork" made by insects in the paperbark tree.
Some "wildlife" now - a wasp.
A bee on a nasturtium flower.
And a spider just "hanging out"!
Finally, a cactus flower that will soon unfold. I expect that this one will be red. The plant last flowered a few years ago. Last year it produced a bud, but a snail or slug got to it before it could open. I was most upset! This spurred me into transplanting it into a hanging basket (very carefully, as it has prickles!). The poor plant looks a bit worse for wear from earlier slug/snail attacks, but at least it's flowering in peace now. The plant has eight buds.
