Peek A Boo

Ive always thought that preying mantis have a quizzical look about them, as though they have just been asked a curve ball question and they are thinking about their cryptic response. I also have this cartoon image of them locked in the back of my mind that says they should be wearing glasses and working as a librarian. Neither of those thoughts have much to do with my job, but it does make me smile when I do find a mantis. This guy was hanging out with me while I finished dead heading the dietes, he wasnt a massive. just that lovely inbetween size. So hes alot bigger then the ones Ive seen alot of over winter, but not massive. He probably would have been about 5cm or so and was quite content to have me take his photo. Lovely little chappie he was.

Tangled

Snake vine, Hibbertia scandens. The photo tones down the bright yellow of the flower, but it is quite a showey native creeper. It is commonly grown as a bit of a tangley shrub in places where nothing else will grow due to its hardy nature once its established. I recall one of my exboyfriends use to call this a tennis ball bush, simply because he use to have it in the house he grew up in and they would play tennis in the back yard. Every time they would hit the ball into the bush, they would have to get another ball as they could never find it again. In his words 'the darn thing eats tennis balls!'. This wouldnt surprise me as snake vines tend to grow onto themselves if they have nothing to climb on and after several years they become quite an impressive tangle.

A Touch Of History

Commonly known as a Tea Tree, this is a type of Leptospermum. They are all in bloom at present and look beautiful. The colours range from white to pink to red. We do have a couple that are a bright candy pink colour, but most are this pale pink shade. This is not the type of tea tree that they make the tea tree oil out of, that is a more tree like species and I dont think I have ever come across one in my gardening career. I do know how its common name came about. The meaning is quite literal, and the leaves are steeped in boiling water and consumed like tea. I have never tried this myself but will get round to it one day. The quirkyness in the tale is that brewing the leaves to make a tea was discovered on Captain Cook's voyage to Australia, and the man encouraged his crew to drink the tea tree beverage in a bid to ward off scurvy. Whether this worked or not, Im not entirely certain, but Im sure after months at sea it would have been a welcome change from grog and water rations.

Definitely Not A Weed

We were pulling up the annuals today and preping the beds ready for the advanced seedling punnets of petunias to go in, so they will be ready and beautiful for Christmas. My coworker was pulling the odd weeds from around the roses while the other two of us were getting the bigger plants out when suddenly he jumped and yelped. He went to grab what he thought was a weed to discover it was cold, slimy and not happy about being grabbed. It was this little guy, isnt he cute? Im pretty sure this is a little Motorbike Frog, and after some quick research it turns out they turn green with gold mottling after sun basking, but can be a darker brown in cooler conditions. I didnt know they could change colour, learn something new everyday. I put him round the corner far away from our demolition.

Midweek Pick-Me-Up

I dont have much of a story to tell about this lovely little fello. I was deadheading the Dietes in the garden beds around the lake when he showed up out of the blue (if you pardon the pun). Im not used to seeing dragonflies keeping their wings back against their body when they arent flying, although I typically encounter the larger species of dragonflies. This little guy wouldnt have been much longer then about 3cm. I also find that this type of dragonfly tends to be alot more timid then the bigger ones too, they will take off in a heartbeat if they think youre getting too close. He hung around long enough for me to take a photo and when I put my phone away, he had disappeared. Certainly brightened my day up and has helped to shake this bad mood Ive been in for the past few days. Such a lovely little chappie.

Spring In All Its Glory

If you have ever worked as a gardener in a retirement village, you very quickly pick up on the old school names for some plant species. So I know this bush as a Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, where as everyone else I work with calls it a Brunfelsia. The old fashioned name comes from that fact that the flower changes colour as it ages ie; yesterday it was purple, today its mauve, tomorrow it will be white. It doesnt work exactly on that timeline, most of those flowers are more then 3 days old and it takes a few days for them to fade to a noticeably lighter shade. They grow best in full sun, as you can see in the picture the part of the bush that is covered in the most flowers is the part that cops the most sunlight. They are very hardy however and will grow in part sun and dappled shade. I would like to note that Brusfelsia's have a bad habit of looking very bare and uglyish during the winter. Most of their leaves fall off and they just look sick. Its all worth it in the spring though, when they turn into a massive display of purple prettyness!

Ninja Fluff

The baby coots have hatched and are looking adorable! Well, fluffy to say the very least. I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, understandably the parents dont want me too near their babies. They hatched out about a fortnight ago and the little balls of fluff are growing quickly. These two photos are taken about a week apart, the top one is the most recent. Unfortunately they seem to have lost 2 of their babies as they started out with 7 and only seem to have 5 now. The father coot is extremely protective of his young brood, he chases away or attacks any other bird that is near to where his babies are swimming. I have never seen the babies leave the lake, which is probably a good thing as the ravens are renown for turning baby chicks of any species into a quick meal. Overall, Id have to say that coots are amongst the better parents that Ive observed water bird species. On average most of their offspring survive, both parents help raise the chicks and they are very protective of them. Its uplifting to watch the chicks grow and survive childhood because so often I have to watch the harsh reality of 'thats nature'.

Whirring Trees

Today's mission, remove the suckers from the base of the trees around the park. Some of them the suckers were so thick that it was beginning to resemble some strange form of small shrub. Then I got the shock of my life when I began cutting away the suckers to have the base of the tree start whirring at me. Trees dont normally make whirring noises of any description so I knew something had to be in there, but couldnt figure out what. Then as I moved a clump of leaves it whirred at me, Got Ya! Now the thing about cicadas is they are so bloody hard to see. They are darn good at camouflage, I almost didnt see this little guy. Then when I finally spotted him and tried to move him somewhere safer he didnt want to leave. Im cool with that, cicadas arent crickets! They can hang about me all they like and I dont mind the singing cicadas. They are a sound of summer to me and all the fun times and adventures associated with summer. Whats not to love.

Kangas

These are a couple of different Kangaroo paws that are in bloom at work at present. Tis the time of year for them really. I love the different variety you get with evergreen kangaroo paws (that is the type of kangaroo paw in the pictures). The colours can vary from  green, yellow, orange and red. The heights of the flowers vary alot too. The top photo is not even quite knee height, so very short, while the bottom photo is well over 2 meters high. They are also brilliant for attracting birds into your garden, nectar feeders love them. They also go really well as a cut flower, I use to use them alot when I was studying floristry. They would last a good 2-3 weeks in a vase, however they are very thirsty and I would have to keep an eye on the water level other wise they would suck the water dry within a day.

Blooming Timing

This is one of the roses at the other War Memorial we look after. They are all looking amazing at present, an absolute mass of blooms. Only problem is that next month is Remembrance Day, and most of the flowers will be spent by then. On the plus side though, the Kelmscott Show is on right now, and they definitely look beautiful for that. Everyone I speak to seems to have different 'rules' as to how to look after roses and I like to call them all 'Rules of Thumb', as once a rose is established theyre usually pretty hard to kill (they are killable though, if youre really determined). This doesnt mean they dont revel in a little loving. I was always taught you should fertilize your roses a little bit each month, say a small handful of blood and bone around the base of each rose. Try to use fertilizer with a bit of body to it so it breaks down and beefs up your soil, such as blood and bone or dynamic lifter, etc. If you need them to look really good for a particular event, then mix the fertilizer with some sulphate of potash and add a little more around the base of the rose (say a handful and a half or so) approximately 1 month before the event. For example if you want them looking nice for Christmas, fertilize in mid-late November. From what Ive observed, it takes about a month for the plant to use the potash, turn it into flower growth and look beautiful.

A Cold Swarm

This is a swarm of bees. In spring a new queen is born and takes half the hive with her when she goes off into the big wide world. It takes them more then just a day to find a new place for a hive, so they have to stop somewhere overnight and bees dont like to be cold. So they bunch up like this to stay warm, when the day heats up they spread their tiny wings and continue on their way. The reason I could get such a close photos of them is it was quite a chilly morning so they are way too cold to be mad at an inquisitive gardener with a camera phone.

Little Ducklings Lost

You know, no matter how good your intentions, you just cant save every duckling. While walking past the west drain (the one that the water feeds out of the lake on Minnawarra), I noticed a raven and a duck, then I heard the cheeping. Another mother duck had her ducklings sucked down the drain. This one has a grate over the top and a small walkway. There were 5 ducklings when I ran to get help and only 4 when I got back. After having to lie on the grate and scoop like buggery, we could only catch 2 ducklings. The other 2 got sucked away through the drain and we have no hope of saving them as it empties on the other side of the shops in a fenced off section controlled by the Water Corp. Mother duck was very happy to have 2 of her ducklings back and seemingly oblivious to the fact that 3 of them were missing. At the end of the day I spotted mother duck with only one duckling. I tell you, how on earth does this species survive? Its frustrating and heartbreaking at times.

The Great Duckling Rescue of 2012

Today I got to save a bunch of fweekin ducklings! Im a god damn hero! Want the whole story?

At smoko, my coworkers mentioned that there were 4 ducklings swimming without a mother around Minnawarra Park. I didnt take much heed to it as the mother usually finds them, or they attach themselves to another mother duck on the lake. When we saw they were still swimming and squawking it dawned on me, they were swimming up the top end of the lake! The lake in Minnawarra Park has drains at either end of it. The one at the west end is called the spill way and its where the excess water drains away, under the road to the other side of the shops. Where the ducklings were hanging out was the east drain, which is two huge round tunnels where the water feeds through from Sanctuary Lake. Lightbulb moment, perhaps the ducklings hatched in Sanctuary then fell into the drain at the bottom end of the lake and slipped though to Minnawarra. So we drove round to Sanctuary to see, and there was Mumma duck standing on the wall of the drain looking down into it. Now the drain in Sanctuary is like a concrete box that is about 3m high (2m where the water feeds through), with the entrance of the 2 large round tunnels that feed under the road and into Minnawarra. We got the bird net and the crab net (yes, for some strange reason we have a crab net) and tried the catch the little buggers. In the end the guy I worked with had to take his boots off and wade into the concrete floor of the drain entry and catch them with the net, as every time we tried the ducklings kept swimming to the middle and out of our reach. We threw them in a bucket and drove over to sanctuary to release them. Those are the 4 little ducklings you see in the photo. As I managed to coax them out of the bucket, we noticed there were more in the drain in Sanctuary. Now Ducks obviously cant count, but if they can hear their babies squawking then they will know one is missing. Turns out there were another 6 Ducklings stuck down in this side of the drain and if we didnt get them out, then chances are the mother would keep going back to the drain and have the babies sucked down there again. The solution, me hanging upside down with a net trying to scoop them out of the 3m drain and now that I think about it, not very OH&S of me. I could only just reach them (my shorter coworker tried and was about 10cm short of getting them), it took a couple of go's but we got all 6 out and reunited with Mumma Duck. And they all lived Happily Ever After :)

Lady Luck

I was standing at the bunker today, killing time and basically waiting for the day to end, when out of the blue this lovely little fella lands on my hand. Ive actually been reading up on ladybird beetles alot of late, and some of the popular culture states that if a ladybird lands on you then this is very good luck. What the hey, I'll take that. He hung around for a good 5 minutes or so just wandering around my hand til he flew off. We dont have as many ladybirds as we did last year, I couldnt remember when I had seen so many before in my life. These insects breed in spring when food is abundant, so it isnt uncommon to have several generations in one season then nothing til the next season. On the plus side its still relatively early in the season, so they still have time to get their numbers up to last years. Breed little ladybird, breed! I demand another army of tiny, spotted, ferocious beetles, annihilating the aphid population!

Softening Hardscapes

Moss! I would like to state I have made several attempts to photograph flowering moss and this is about the best I can do so far. I will keep trying but I think it will be like chasing a unicorn,  its just never going to happen. The moss flowers in this picture are very old, when they are fresh they are a light green and about the same colour of the leaves of the moss. Unfortunately it also becomes a tripping hazard so most of the time I have to kill it. I do so begrudgingly as I like moss. It 'softens' hardscaping (stones, paths, etc) by making it a little green and gives it life. The moss in this picture gets to live as it is growing on top of a wall and lets face it, if youre walking on top of a wall that you arent suppose to, then hey its on your own neck. Its also doing a lovely job of visually softening the old limestone that its growing on.

Its A Hard Knock Life.

This pretty little petunia hasnt had an easy life in its beginning. It was planted in the sun to replace some dead annuals. We were given more annuals to plant the area in uniformity and as it had only been planted for a month, it was dug up and moved to an area where it wouldnt get much sunshine but would pretty the area up. Then we needed to lower the soil level in that area, so it was dug up for a day while we removed the top 5cm of soil and replanted. So the poor thing was planted, dug up, planted, dug up again and replanted in the same spot. All I can say is Seasol and Vitaplant are marvelous things. They are liquid fertilisers, Seasol in particular does alot for root growth and as a result, helps to reduce plant shock. So, result! The petunias look quite prettyful and healthy now, like they have always been there.

Sour Flower

We have two beds at work that are full of lemon and lime trees. It is very hard to tell the difference between the two. Im fairly certain this is a lemon flower as the leaves are slightly serrated and I remember taking the picture of a larger tree, and in those beds the limes are smaller then the lemon trees. These trees have a bad habit of turning yellow before flowering so make sure you fertilize as soon as the yellowing starts. If you are having trouble getting your lemon or lime to hold fruit, add sulphate of potoash to your fertilizing schedule. Its really useful in plant reproduction and should help things along. The fruit at work however never manages to make it to maturity. The problem with being in a public place, its always picked when it is nowhere near ripe and thrown about the parks. Sill, the flowers are quite pretty and smell delightful.

Munch munch munch

This is the caterpillar to a cabbage white butterfly. So they are an introduced pest in this part of the world. At present the geraniums at work are infested with the dratted things, at home my poor veggie patch has been somewhat decimated by the little monsters. Easy and eco friendly way to keep them out of your veggie patch, use Flour (plain or self raising, doesnt really matter). Dust the leaves of the plant theyre attacking with it and if you can, dust both sides of the leaves. Its more effective if the leaves are a little damp when you do this. You will need to reapply after rain, etc, but the caterpillars eat the flour and it swells inside them and kills them. So you dont have to worry about a snow ball effect of poison if something decides to feast on the dead caterpillars. It wont kill the entire populous but it will knock down the number enough for your veggie patch to recover. Good luck.

Just For Me

This is my own private rainbow. Sounds like Ive gone a bit mental doesnt it? Well, perhaps a story? I was having a bad morning. There was poo on the bunker (yes, you read that right) that is usually left me me to clean up, I was arguing with a coworker (he is normally a nice guy, but there are some days when I honestly just want him to be bloody quiet) and I was feeling a bit lead on by a boy I had met. Then I looked up and saw this and it just made me smile. I asked the others if they saw the rainbow and they had no idea what I was talking about. They missed it as it wasnt around for very long. So I like to think of it as a rainbow that was shining up there just to make me smile. It worked.

Bubblegum

Hard to believe, but this innocuous looking flower smells like bubblegum! You know that old fashioned bubblegum flavour of bubblegum? That smell! Its amazing and I love it. The flowers you actually have to look for as they are about the size of my thumb nail, so you tend to smell when the tree is in flower before you see it in bloom. Its a small tree called a Port Wine Magnolia, it doesnt really grow much more then about 7 meters or so and it has lovely rich, glossy leaves, so its nice as a background but not so much as a feature tree. We have about 10 of them forming a lovely backdrop in the memorial park. There are perfumed roses planted underneath them so to be working there at present is such a delight for the senses.

Quack

Ok, the most common duck you see at your local pond. They have a name, they are called a Pacific Black Duck. They are honestly not particularly good mothers, the father has no role with the ducklings and the mothers tend to take their babies too close to danger. In the case at work, there is a spillway, which sometimes has a strong current with it and the mothers love taking their babies far too close. Many a duckling hasnt made it. I often wonder how ducks survive as a species. They dont seem to have the best survival instincts out there. They love to walk across a busy road, rather then the much safer route of flying! You have wings you silly birds, use them! On a positive note, the one in this picture has a nest very near to this location, and it was interesting to watch last years ducklings try to climb up the small rockwall. Hopefully she will have better luck with them this year (She seems to nest in the same place every year).

Affection Hussy

Then I have days like these! I loves my job, I loves it good. We were picking up branches around the parks today, the easterly winds have managed to dislodge all the dead limbs. I thought my leading hand had temporarily lost her sanity when she told me that there was a dog in the fenced off lake section. Turns out she was right. This beautiful little girl was poking her head out from a ditch. After quite possibly the smallest ammount of coaxing I've ever seen, she came up to us for a pat. We rang the boss to call the rangers. She had a registration tag on, but no name tag. So if the owners details are up to date, then she should be going home within the week. She was very happy and affectionate. If we stopped patting her, she would rub her head against us to make us continue. She must have been lost for a while, she was starving for attention and when we rubbed her body, you could feel her ribs and hips. Nothing a good meal cant fix. She was certainly a lovely way to kill an afternoon.

Mutant

This is a mutation. Plants arent meant to grow this flat. This is a type of physiological mutation called Fasciation. It can happen to almost every type of plant out there. It is where the stem grows abnormally flat with the occasional leaf growing out of the stem and a cluster of smaller shoots on top. I wouldnt panic if you see this. Its just the plant being a freak, if you research it there is no cause to it, the plant just does it. In my 9 years of gardening experience, Ive found that spraying Roundup near a tree/large shrub can cause this, but its hit and miss. To fix it, you just prune it back to normal stems. Ba Na! Problem solved.

Tread With Care

Dont piss these guys off! EVER! I remember being stung by a bulldog ant when I was a little girl, I remember it hurt alot. When you have a big ant that highly aggressive (it will chase you if you come too near its nest, Ive seen them try to take on a whippersnipper head while its spinning!), you expect them to pack a bit of a punch. I learnt something new too, they are also known as Inch Ants in different parts of Australia, for the obvious reason that they are about an inch long. We have a couple of nests about the areas I work in. This little guy is guarding the entrance to a nest, they have converted an old service box of some description. I feel sorry for the technician who has to get in there.

Dont Kill This!

If you ever see these guys in your garden, for all that is good and wholesome, LET IT LIVE! This is the larvae of a Ladybird Beetle. They are insectivores! They decimate your aphid population. They also eat other pests around the garden, such as mealy bugs, so they are very useful to have. So please, dont kill it. They be most awesome.

Colours Of Age

There are a couple of species of flowers out there that change colour as they age. The one in the picture is a little Seaside Daisy. IT has one of the coolest botanical names ever, Erigeron Karvenskianus! By emphasising the last part, it became very easy to remember for tests when I was studying horticulture. It can become invasive and seed everywhere in your garden, so be prepared for that. It does have this neat trick that when the little 1cm big flowers open up, they are white but as they age they turn pink. So you end up with this multicoloured flowering plant. I think cute is the best work to describe it.

Another Allergy To The List

May I introduce my next allergy on the list and yet another reason why my body is highly unsuited to my job. Bee stings! Im lucky though, I dont do the whole anaphylactic, stop breathing thing. I only swell from the sting, and I do mean crazy swelling. Six years ago I was stung on the upper knuckle of my right ring finger and my hand swelled up so much that I couldnt move my fingers and the swelling extended half way down my arm. A couple of months ago I was whippersnipping the bollards along the main road and this thing flicked back and landed inside my collar. Few seconds later the sod stung me, took me a bit to figure out it was a bee. That was an unpleasant couple of days. I dont mind bees though. Im certainly not afraid of them or being stung by them. Im quite happy to pick up a lost bee and send her in the right direction (well, at least get her off the pathway). Bees seem to know that they die after they sting you, so they tend to play it cool, theyre happy as long as they arent trapped. Wasps on the other hand, nasty buggers. They can sting and keep stinging and Ive been on the receiving end of that far more often then I would like.

Heart Of A Lion

Willy Wags Tails! Most awesome bird EVER! They have absolutely no fear, Ive seen them take on anything that they decide comes too near. Its one of the most amusing things to see a crow being harassed and swooped by one of these little guys. In a place I use to work, there were a couple that became quite accustom to the gardeners. They would swoop down and run amongst the soil I was weeding/turning over so they could grab all the little grubs I upturned. There were two of them that use to occasionally fight, so one would spot me, fly down in front of me and warble at how awesome he was, the other wag tail would hear him and swoop down to chase him away, so the first would run behind me, warble again so the other ran behind me to chase him away. He would then jump on my back and down to the front of me and peck the bugs while the second one would be behind me trying to find the first one. This would go on for a while until the second one would wise up and finally catch the first wag tail, then it was on for young and old. It was always amusing to watch. Seriously, if I get the choice to be reincarnated after this life, Im totally coming back as a willy wag tail!

A Perfect Blossom

This is my image of a perfect flower. Its one of the camellias growing at the Depot. Its a good example of a double flower and I just think it is beautiful. There are some camellias you can get that still have stamens amongst the petals of the bloom, personally I just think it looks messy. These camellias confused the hell out of the bees as well. Small things amuse small minds, and smaller minds look on as the saying goes.

The Devil!

I apologise for the picture quality of this photo. It is zoomed in as opposed to getting close to the subject like I normally try to do. The reason for this is I have a ridiculous fear of these little beasts and I just wasnt willing to get close enough to the little monster incase it jumped! Dont ask me where this fear of crickets, grasshoppers and locusts came from, Ive had it since late primary school. I dont like the look of them and I freak out when they jump. Even typing this up is making my skin crawl. I had to get my nanna to save me from a locust once (she was the only one about and the flyspray just wasnt killing it quick enough, and lord knows I didnt want to let the thing out of my sight!). Suffice to say that my workmates find it hilarious. Ive had to get them to save me from them on several occasions and right now its the season for the monsters, so the bunker we work out of is infested with them again. So a shriek can occasionally be heard in the parks when I close the roller door to the bunker and a dozen of the beasts fall on top of me. Yeeck!

Stumped

I honestly have no idea what this is. I saw it this morning while I was doing the rubbish run and thought it looked pretty. I *think* it may be some sort of lily, possibly related to a fringe lily, but I cant seem to find it anywhere in my books or in the puddle on knowledge hidden in the back of my brain. So lets just go with its pretty, its purple, and its in flower next to the lake right now!

Sweet

This pretty little thing is a Robyn Gordon Grevillea. It is a hybrid plant and does not set seed (if seed forms, they will not become Robyn Gordon Grevilleas), it is only reproduced asexually from cuttings. It is one of the most popular grevilleas on the market and I am honestly disappointed that we dont have more of them around the parks. They are magnificent for attracting birds, lowish growing, hardy and can handle a jolly good prune. I remember when I was a little girl, I use to pick them and suck the drops of nectar out of the flowers (and I do mean drop). Use to keep me entertained for hours. My mum use to love and loathe it, as it would keep me quiet for a good hour or so, however when I was done there was this mangled pile of grevillea flowers where I had been sitting.

Totally Thought This Through

You know, if I had thought about it, I never would have become a gardener. I have a few 'quirks' that make my job interesting to say the least. First of all, I have a fear of crickets, grasshoppers and locust, but I have a picture I wish to upload on that topic, so I will leave it at that for now. I have some pretty awesome dermatitis in my hands, so at any point I need to have at least 5 different sets of gloves for different tasks around work. I have general gardening latex dipped gloves, plastic gloves, heavy duty plastic gloves, cotton gloves and anti-vibration gloves. Im suffer from minor hearing loss in one ear and cant wear ear plugs for longer then 5 minutes unless I want an ear ache. Im accident prone and have managed to cut my knee 3 times with a hedge trimmer (separate occasions). I burn easily, so the guy in stores is adamant that Im selling sunscreen on the black market, I go though that much of the stuff. I also have some pretty awesome hayfever. Right now Im just about living on antihistamines. Right now the thing in the picture is making my life a living hell. That is the flower of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum). Grasses are a bugger for adding to the pollen count. Its also one of the reasons I hate mowing days. Those fine little hairs cover large patches of the parks at work and when a mower comes along it disperses the pollen quite magnificently, which really doesnt help my situation. However, its only for about 2 months a year that the hayfever is that bad, so I still wouldnt trade my job for the world.