Thread: What's in your garden?

^ you know nature looks after its own "rubbish", its called decay and in the UK after the great storms of 87' it was found that the woods and forests that were left to naturally regenerate with deadfall did so much faster than those "tidied" by man, not to mention the wildlife that lives off all the rotting ecosystem.

^Well I think it all ends up as C02 one way or the t'other. But since I am a certified pyromaniac my bio-waste is going up in flames


I was bewitched by the sight of bioluminiferous fungi in the forest as I cycled back to the house in the dark tonight

Spooky and magical. Maybe Santa makes tea from this for the reindeers to power the sleigh

Tree came down and nearly took out the wee shed

Must have been the wind earlier in the week

Must have happened a few days ago and I did not notice as the leaves are already brown

RIP tree

Close shave Loopy luckily as you shed your inhibitions, the inhibted tree "skirted' the shed

Lovely stuff , you seem to have a nice property there, are there any wallabies or wannabies nearby?

^Heaps of wallabies Dave. One was munching the grass under the fallen tree as I approached with my chainsaw today. He had obviously seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre as he hopped it sharpish.

During arboreal dismemberment I noticed that the tree had fallen on one of the Jacaranda saplings that have sprung up round the shed from seeds from the tree.

It had been stretched to breaking point but spared by the grace of God from snapping so I released it and it was badly bent over but a bit of reverse bending had it standing proud and perky.

And a curious creature on my glasses.

It is a treehopper nymph which has an explosion of cotton protruding from the arse-end of its green cone-shaped body.

Originally Posted by Looper

Tree came down and nearly took out the wee shed

I was so chuffed at the tree having fallen in between the powerline and shed that I completely failed to notice that the tree had had 2 trunks and the 2nd trunk had also fallen and had in fact fallen dead onto the power line.

Climb up the power pole and gaze in wonder at the meagre 13mm J-hook that somehow did not snap. Thank my lucky lordy's I decided to go for kosher hooks back in June, instead of my home made hooks from bent jumbo screws.

Trim the dead foliage to get a clearer view of the situation.

Add a rope to prevent the cable from suddenly flying up like a mediaeval catapult (or rather Ballista!) when I make the final cut

Make the final cut and watch the rope arrest the energy before any damage is done to the hooks

Gradually allow the cables to rise back into position

This is critical since this span is 80m from pole to pole with a 14m slack drop in between the poles so the cable is very long and heavy and contains a lot of kinetic energy once it starts to move.

Tip top job Loops!

^Still can't believe that hook did not snap!


The striped agave decided to shoot it rude little sprout in response to the warm weather

Poor Bandy Bandy came cropper at my front gate

RIP

I dismembered the monstera plant that was putting down aerial roots and blocking the septic tank drains and transplanted the bits recently and I was surprised to see this cutting bursting into flower so quickly.

It obviously survived the transplant with vigour. Maybe from all the sewerage nutrients it had been absorbing.

Can't you plant it against a tree and get it to go up it?

^They are climbers and I have planted one of the cuttings beside a dead tree so I will wait and see if it climbs.

But the dead tree will fall down in the future so this gardening experiment could go a number of ways

These Umbrella Trees are considered an invasive noxious species

But they do and amazing flower show.

The date seeds from my Arabian Nights Persian tea parties before Christmas finally fertilised and sprouting forth in abundance...

Originally Posted by Mendip

Is (was) that a bad one, Looper? You have a few nasties in Oz, I believe.

It's an Elapid snake. Elapids have small fixed fangs instead of longer extending fangs.

Elapid snakes have a type of neuro-toxic venom which is generally more dangerous than other snake venom but the Bandy Bandy is quite a small snake so it is not considered dangerous.

Very striking in appearance though.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Who can spot it?

I.

Do I win a cuddly toy?

^ No, you have won Yogi!

Winner collects, by the way.



Oh, bring a muzzle!

I can swap him for 5 beautiful puppies.

Originally Posted by Shutree

I can swap him for 5 beautiful puppies.

They're all beautiful when puppies!

But then they grow up.

Betchya can't guess who this little darling grew up to be?

Was he the prototype for the 1980s Pound Puppies?

Telstra rope in Thailand???

^^^Who would have thought that wrinkled scrotum would grow in to such a handsome specimen as Yogi!

Originally Posted by Looper

Elapids have small fixed fangs instead of longer extending fangs.

Somewhere in my garden near my house is a 1.5m long Eastern Brown Snake*. The second deadliest snake in the world after the Inland Taipan. The Brown is also an Elapid snake with fixed fangs.

*Or at least he was 1.5m long prior to his most recent shedding.

Using glyphosate to control the Singapore Daisy had a detrimental effect on my Monstera. I will stick to a mechanical line trimmer

I am liking the lime green hue of this cypress

I was ailing in a pot on my balcony but is thriving in the wild

The photo colours look like a Samsung algorithm but it really looks like that

A tree fell by the power line and narrowly missed taking it out.

I am going to start looking at solar options to go offgrid with a battery. The day is coming sooner or later when a big tree falls and takes out my power, and getting the poles fixed and the very hefty 95mm2 double cable restrung will likely come with a pretty hefty price tag.

Solar batteries can be hard to justify, but when they remove the reliance on a 250m long powerline through a forest of falling trees it can become fiscally feasible not to mention financially fruitful.

If I can get my solar skates on I could possibly avoid a proper spanking.

It's going to be a good year for mangoes this year. Most of our trees have blossomed and the fruit is most advanced on this one.



This longon tree is about 10 years old and has never borne fruit.

Last year a main branch broke off in a storm and nearly split the trunk in two and I thought that was the end of the tree.



And strangely enough after all that trauma, this year is the first time the tree has blossomed.

Looks like it'll be longons and mangoes for breakfast soon enough.