Month: December 2024

Altruistic artichoke

The broad beans have finished and new plants are in the garden. I’m using the four stage rotation system and planted a tomato plant and a green zucchini where the beans were, and dwarf beans where the silver beet was. Beyond them, you can see how much the runner beans have grown since I posted about the bean frame recently (Old school tools, 9 Nov). The artichoke (on the left in the photo) takes up a lot of room in the garden but it is sculptural and interesting, even if I have found the artichokes pretty much inedible (Artichoke, anyone? 29 Dec 2020) or, at least, not worth the effort.

Artichokes are forming on the plants now and give the impression of bobble-headed stick figures throwing their arms upward as they ‘dance’ in the breeze. I’ve posted about their antics before (Wind-ravaged 21 Dec, 2021).

Having this anthropomorphic view in my subconscious, I was interested to see the artichoke had leaned across with one of its leaves as if to shade the zucchini plant from the sun. When the sun moved off that part of the garden, the leaf lifted up again.

From this, to this?

NZ Gardener

A photo in a magazine shows sweet peas growing on a greenhouse frame. This gave me inspiration. The greenhouse I put together in September 2020 had lost most of its plastic sheeting which I’d replaced with shade cloth. The lettuces I tried to grow in it this year were ravaged by white fly.

After seeing the photo, I ripped out the last of the plastic (now washed and ready for soft plastic recycling) and removed the shade cloth. I’ve planted dwarf sweet peas in the relined, replenished hanging basket, tall sweet peas in the black bucket and alyssum – to ward off white fly – in the other planter. A bit of old trellis softens the harshness of the iron fence a little. I doubt if I’ll achieve the lushness of the magazine photo with this dry, hot weather, but here’s hoping for some flowers.

In the bathroom window

It’s rare to see ladybirds, so I was pleased to see this one on the bathroom window frame this morning. However, having looked on the iNaturalist site, I can see there are many species and some of them are not so helpful. The Green Goddess site waxes lyrical about ladybirds until you scroll further down to the information on the Harlequin Ladybird and other pests. My visitor is possibly an Asian Lady Beetle, but it could be the Harlequin as they seem to have a variety of colours and markings. It had flown away before I had discovered it might not be such a welcome visitor after all. Like everything else, however, it will have to take its chances in my wild garden*.

*Like the little bird which rests on the fisherman’s boat in In the Old Man and the Sea.

It’s summer

Today there are cherries in my local fruit and vegetable shop so it’s official: it’s summer. There have been blueberries for a few weeks and, more recently, apricots. Asparagus is well into its season. And, because it’s close to Christmas, all sorts of tempting treats are offered and proving irresistible. Less healthy for the body, but great for one’s state of mind in my opinion!

Fading beauty

‘O Rose thou art sick…’ William Blake, The Sick Rose

From this…
…to this

This summer, the westerland rose is not as it was. Huge multiple blooms are this year a third the size. Only one or two pale flowers on each stem will bloom while the others wither away. Small stems sprouting from the branches blacken and die. This is despite my efforts to prune well in winter and to remove any dieback. I have fed it and watered it – perhaps too little too late.

In contrast, the iceberg has formed an arch across the drive. I can walk under it and smell the roses at nose level.