Rescued from the marauding cockatoos

These sunflowers I rescued from the cockatoos.  I enjoy them in my outside garden but they will last longer in a vase.  Some I have left, covered in netting to allow the seeds to mature.  The netting should deter the screeching marauders but their beaks are strong and I only hope they are not that hungry that they will remove the netting.  The cockatoos even uprooted a sunflower plant which is not puny by any means.  One must have landed on the plant and in the process of breaking the big flower head away, pull out the shallow rooted sunflower.  I will plant more next year, or rather in October this year.  It is so pleasant to see the bright faces of the flowers.  Anyone needing cheering up should walk in a field of blooming sunflowers.  Maybe Van Gogh painted some for that very reason.
The garden is not at its best at the moment.  The tomatoes and eggplants are providing me with vegetables for the table.  The silver beet will look better in a couple of weeks, though I have been picking a leaf or two when in need.  The butternut pumpkins are growing bigger.  The roses are blooming.  And yet, with all these I Can see the patches of slow growth and unhealthy looking specimens.  One of these is the kale which shot up to glory and then suffered from caterpillars invasion.  I should have acted immediately but the large leaves are curled in and on inspection I will find tiny caterpillars all over and trying to remove them is not that simple.  Perhaps I shall pull out the kale and chop it up for compost.  I must remember to chop up some comfrey leaves to help with the composting.  Comfrey is so easy to grow, from division.  I had the tiniest of plant from my previous garden, which was languishing in a pot, but picked up very quickly when I transplanted it in the ground with plenty of compost.  They are in flower at the moment, looking quite pretty.  The self sown borage are still too young to flower but I expect to have more of those cheerful blue flowers soon, before the end of summer.  The single borage flower, (see picture), looks good floating in a jug of water, or punch or in a salad.

Borage does not like being moved.  I have put a few seedlings in a pot for a friend and I will advise her to leave them in the pot which should then be placed in a spot where she would be happy for the seeds to drop.  The bees love them and what could be nicer than listening to the humming of bees when working in the garden.  I should also say, when sitting in the garden, but it is a rare occasion when I can just sit and enjoy my planting.

In the heat

I fear for the garden when the temperature soars.  Last Monday it went to over 40 degrees Centigrade and I could do little until the storm brought some rain the next day.  Wednesday morning between 6 am and 8 am I am allowed to water, with my hose, using main water.  The rain of the previous day did not go down deep enough but the wet surface helped the watering.  Before the temperature rose I covered the delicate plants and carrying buckets of water from the rain water tank I gave such plants as the Jerusalem artichokes, the basils, chillies and eggplants a good soaking.  I forgot about the pointsetta in the front verandah, sitting in front of the glass window.  I suppose I did not think it would suffer, being under shade.  As the blind was down I did not notice the plant desiccating and when I found it in the evening the red leaves were dried and curled up.  If that has happened to a pet I would have rushed to the vet.  I was not going to give up so the pot of shrivelled pointsetta, sitting in a ceramic potty I bought from an op shop a few decades ago, was taken to the bathroom and I filled the potholder with water and soaked the soil.  I left it there, afraid to see a non responding, dead thing.  After the storm, with the house much cooler I found the pointsetta, happier, with only a few burnt leaves.  Not quite the show it was when it was given to me, but pretty enough.
There are still beauty to be found in the garden even though the heat seemed to have left the place looking wrung out.  In the early morning the chattering lorikeets visit the different trees looking for food.  The cockatoos seem to prefer the evening. Where do these birds hide in the heat of the day?

There are spaces in the vegie boxes, with the lettuces and radishes harvested.  The tomatoes are looking a bit straggly, having been left to their own devices for a few weeks so they need a bit of staking and pruning.  I have been enjoying the roma and cherry tomatoes.  In the outside garden the tomato plants which have sprouted out of the compost are doing very well and I think the butternut pumpkin leaves are giving them some protection from the heat.  I have counted three butternuts and I hope they will survive to ripeness.  I have been pinching the shoots and cooking the tender leaves, to encourage lateral growth, rather than have one very long snaking vine.

The two zucchini bushes are not doing too well in the heat.  A couple of the fruits go yellow at the tip and I pick them, still, saving the good bits.  The weather man says to expect rain tonight, and rain or shine I will do some watering in the morning to give the garden a good soaking.

The outside garden

I call it the outside garden as it is really outside my property but I am responsible for its maintenance.  The north west facing area is too good to be wasted so I am slowly taking over the lawn and putting in all sorts of plants, from succulents to the water hungry and they are doing so well passersby have stopped to talk to me about it if I happen to be working amongst the plants.  I had harvested potatoes from the area and when in need of sage there is a thriving plant with large healthy leaves and the oregano seems happy too.  The broadbeans have been replaced with a zucchini, which is definitely loving the sheep manure I added to the ground after pulling out the beans.  Two zucchini plants will ensure I will not run out of vegetables. The zucchini is the inside garden have a few fruits ready for picking if I want them young and tender and I must watch them or I will end up with some the size suitable for the Big Friendly Giant.  What I am most please about my outside garden is the patch of sunflowers.  I had broadcasted the seeds in the prepared bed when it was full moon last October.  Someone told me a while ago that sowing the seeds at that time would give you the best results.  Last year I had some beautiful sunflowers, some the size of a dinner plate, (see picture).  This batch of sunflowers are too close together because I did not get around to thinning the seedlings.  Only a couple of flowers have opened and they are not impressively large, but I love the bold yellow.  The plants are tall and stand well above the fence line so I can see the flowers from my window.  The cockatoos will come to feast on the seeds when they are ready.  I shall save some for seeds as I did last year and let the cockatoos enjoy the rest.  This picture was taken last summer and the cockatoo knew where to perch for a good feed.