Getting the Herb garden in order

My poor garden was a little neglected whilst I was pregnant (being sick all day, every day) and afterwards, when I was caring for a new little person.

One of the things I was missing was my fresh herbs.

And one of the more sillier things I did was plant paw paw trees in this garden, which completely took it over.

I cut back the passionfruit vine, removed the paw paw trees and went herb shopping.  The shopping was the fun part!

A $15 hose from Aldi meant I didn't have to find time to water the garden every day.

 I came across this 'memory herb'.  A few sprigs each day is supposed to assist with your memory.  I definitely need that!

Stumpy Is Getting Bolder

This Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard is getting bold!  It no longer hisses at me but tries to jump up on to my hand instead of waiting for grapes to be put down on the concrete in front of it. I didn't even know they could jump!

 Mmmmm grapes!

 Swallowing grapes and dribbiling.  They crush grapes up in their jaws then wait until they have two or three lined up, then gulp them all down.  It freaked me out at first because I wasn't sure what was wrong.  You can see a mass on the outside of their neck moving down internally.

 Trying to eat hair and struggling.  I pulled it out and it gagged.  Are they even supposed to have a gag reflex? - gross!

 Back to grapes.  Much better.

These were juicy grapes.  They squirted whenever 'Stumpy' crushed them.  I hope it's tail heals.  It is still weeping a little, and I'm not so sure that's a good sign.  It seems happy enough though, and will continue to be looked after as long as it visits.

Friends Becoming Bolder

My friendly Blue Tongue Lizard came back for a visit.  To tell you the truth, I can't figure out if this one is a male or female.  I know that the males have pointier 'noses', and the females have wider heads.  This one's nose looks pretty pointed to me...

I do know that the males are the wanderers, and the females tend to stay put.  I also have a massive Blue Tongue that likes to sun bake between my retaining wall and my front steps but she's very skittish. If I can catch her sun baking, I'll take a photo.

 Out the back of my yard, lazing away in the sun and waiting for grapes.

 "Grapes, I said.  Not cassava melon!!"

Bluey's back leg appears to have healed nicely, and its tale has healed too, although I think it might take a loooooong time to grow back.

 "Excuse me human, have you got any grapes for me today?

I certainly did.  Bluey ate 8 grapes.  I had to chop them up in thirds, of course.

Dear Bluey, how can you even fit that many grapes inside your body?

Bluey was a very content lizard after all those grapes.  He/she was so keen on grapes, it was licking my fingers before I even put the grapes down.  For a lizard who was hissing at me 3 weeks ago to being this tame is a slight worry :D  If it stays in our yard, no harm will come to it.

Yard that is.  Not the house ;D

Valentines Flowers...My Garden Loves Me!

I don't get flowers from my husband from Valentine's Day.  In fact, we don't celebrate it...another commercial day that Phil and I don't need.  He says we don't need a particular day of the year that tells him he must buy me flowers.  He can do that any time he likes.  Or I just go and get my own anyway ;D

My garden has mostly loved the rain we've had, apart from the flooding which has killed off plants.

 All the snapdragons in flower at the moment are purple.  On four separate plants.  Odd, but I'm not complaining!

 More sunflower buds

 A red impatiens peeking through. It nearly drowned!

 I don't remember what this is called any more, but it's very pretty!

 Another mystery plant that I used to know the name of but can't remember any more.  It is thriving where the capsicums used to be.

 Not a flower, but I'm so glad this ginger root is growing.  Mr Storm sat on it after he chewed the top off.  I thought it was gone forever!

My least favourite thing on any day of the year...those green grubs chewed my bean plants and apple cucumbers to bits.  My Daughter found this one on the basil.  I asked her to check every leaf carefully, so she did and found 3 more even smaller than this one.  So small in fact, that my camera wouldn't even focus on them.

My February Garden

It has been raining so much lately that when I went out to look at my garden, all I saw was mud. Perhaps a reflection on my mood this week (I like sunshine but not heat...sunlight keeps the depression away).  Then I had a closer look.  There is beauty...I just had to look for it...

 Like these tiny, delicate rose buds from my climbing rose

 Storm realising that his 'broom friend' was inside, and he begged to be let in to play.  He was told a very firm "NO!".  So he took his frustration out on my unfortunate door mat (he is chewing it...bad bunny!).

 This injured Blue Tongue Lizard decided to scare the living daylights out of us and wait for food right outside our back door.  Its tail has been chewed off and a  hind leg damaged, but it will be safe here.  It has developed a fondness for watermelon, and yesterday was the first day it didn't hiss at me when I placed bite-sized morsels of watermelon in front of it.  It started licking at it before I had even taken my fingers away :D

 My Frangipanni tree is in full bloom.  It smells delightful.

 It's not as much fun when the flowers all fall in the pool...

 and turn into this.  All clean now.

 I found this on my new bean plants.  How could one fat caterpillar...

 do this much damage?  Decimated my plants :(  I hope they spring back quickly.

 I smiled when I saw this.  Somebunny decided to sit their big fat furry behind in my plant pot, just like his Daddy.  I planted some more spring onions in there.  Charcoal demolished my spring onions just before he passed away, and now Storm appears to have developed a liking for them.  Surely spring onions can't be good for bunnies!!??

 My passion fruit vine is loving the rain.  Will we actually get any flowers though?

After a hard days' work, I feel the same way.  Storm flops down very suddenly on his side when he is content.  It freaks me out, because when they have their eyes closed, they look dead.  Notice his ear flopping down?  That's a sign of a very relaxed bunny.

Rain and a Backyard Flood

Well, not a big enough flood to cause any damage.  Yet.

 No need to fill up the pool for a while.

 It poured!

 Eek, getting a little too close to my kitchen door

 My mini flood

 A Tarp to protect the boy bunnies from the sun and the rain.  It works!

 Luckily I cleared the drain before it started to rain.

 The cleared up corner

 Storm staying dry.  Clever boy has learned to put himself back in his hutch when he doesn't want to get wet.

 Just as well, because the water was getting rather close to his hutch!

Lots of rain!

You know what the biggest shame is?  I don't have a rainwater tank yet.

Gardening With Some Hopping Help

Just before the rain hit, I decided to clear out a corner of my garden that has been bugging me for about 6 months now.  There is so much to do, and so little room left in my green bin to things into.  I was able to salvage some of this rich dirt, but the top bits weren't good.

 All swept up now

 A 'before' shot.  With a little help from Storm, this is now all clear too

 A few posts ago I mentioned Storm and the new love of his life...my broom.  Here they are together :D

 Bunny kisses!

After a hard afternoon's work, it's time to relax and guard the escaping worms. That worm did get picked up, and put back into the garden.

It is so fascinating to watch Storm learn and grow.  It has been a fun-filled holiday having him out every day, and he is now confident enough to approach us and flop down in front of us if he wants to be patted.  He even bounded in circles around Phil's feet when he came home from work yesterday.  For a bunny who would get mad at Phil for being anywhere near me to hopping around his feet happily is a big thing!

I got one on Storm. Tee hee!

Yup, Storm tricked me by putting himself away in his bunny hutch for a few nights, then decided to hide at night time so I couldn't find him.  Grrrrr.  I gave up and figured he could be eaten by a large cat...see if I care! (well I do really, but don't tell him that!)

When I got up this morning, I found a hole leading to the back part of our garage.  I'm glad Storm was in there and not me, because I know there are some fairly large spiders in there! *Shudders*

This is what we got up to...

 Storm's shallow burrow

 Mwahahahaha he can't get in now!  I filled up the hole and placed some bricks there.

 So he decided to 'help' me with some pruning.  Doesn't everyone have the best intentions of getting stuff in the green bin, then it gets filled up before you can put what you actually want in there?

 Helping some more...

 by chewing some of it.

 Oh yes, he's a great helper, or a big furry distraction!

I didn't get a photo of us playing with my broom.  It was hilarious.  I have a straw broom, and Storm has taken a liking to it.  I gently chased him with it by making it 'hop' around me, and Storm chased it.  I am turning into a Maypole more and more each day.  Storm decided to 'hide' from the broom, then spring out and mark it.  I wasn't keen on that.  It's my broom!