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.