Taro flower

These guys are beautiful. It is the first time they are flowering and they are all doing so profusely. They only last for a few days but for the last month there have been flowers non stop on all of our taro.

As they are the screening for our bathroom our whole bathroom smells sweet.

Teamwork

Teamwork!!!
An old culvert was blocked and after a few days of excavation we found most of the old concrete had broken.

Working with royalty

It is very powerful to know you are an important part of a system.

This is a newly hatched Queen bumble bee in my garden. I have attempted to define the roles we play below.

She will; pollinate a few plants while she builds up her reserves for overwintering and then in early spring when out of dormancy, build up a brood of worker bees that will pollinate my garden all growing season.

I have made; nesting boxes for her 'mother' and then her to raise their brood, sure there are overwintering sites for her, made sure there are food sources available for her and her mother when they need to build reserves (early spring and autumn), sure of a diversity of food crops throughout the whole growing season to support the whole nest of workers, there is clean water and no pesticides or herbicides used.

A touch of purple

In my sea of green Hyasynth bean vines provide a splash of colour. They ramble up trellises and fences.

The pods of the bean are not very nice to eat but the flowers have graced our salad bowls all summer and provide endless bee food.

Austrian Hulless pumpkins

Austrian Hulless pumpkins.
These guys are for seed alone and need to sit for a few weeks to 'cure' before I open them and dry the seeds for winter. I have started growing these again as I have a new garden now so can grow more variety and still save seed.