Missing Dahlia

When I posted the picture of my first dahlia flower of the year it reminded me that I hadn't seen my favourite dahlia appear so far. There are a few other plants in that part of the garden, but the dahlia should have been popping up above them by now.

I went looking for it and this is what I found:

A whole bunch of chewed-off stems. I don't know if rabbits or snails are responsible for munching each shoot that has come up. But hopefully the fact that there are still a couple of tiny leaves means that the plant hasn't given up completely, and a bit of protection will allow it to get growing.

I cut the bottom off a 3-litre milk bottle and pushed it into the soil around the plant, and some snail pellets were dropped into the bottle.

Hopefully the bottle will stop rabbits, and the pellets will deal with snails. When I looked at it later after some rain there were slugs on the bottle, so they may have been the actual culprits, but the pellets will deal with them too.

Creatures, Welcome and Otherwise

I mentioned recently that there are constant rabbits in the garden this year. They are hard to photograph though, because they tend to either wait until the light is quite dim to venture into the open, or be a long way from the house so I can't get a clear picture. However this one was out on the front grass at 6:00pm, when it is still quite light:

A brazen bunny!


A nicer critter to see owns these two big eyes, captured on the wildlife camera early on Thursday morning:

It is hard to guess what it is when that is all you see, but here it is on a previous visit when it sat further from the camera:

It is an Australian owlet nightjar, Aegotheles cristatus.

Spring in the Garden

Plum blossom:

Apple leaves:

Lots of flowers:

Lots of planting:

And, would you believe it, aphids!

How did they find the roses already?

Spotted!

Captured by one of our cameras at just after midnight this morning:

A fox casually strolling down the driveway, between the shed and the orchard. Fortunately the chooks were locked up securely for the night.

Creeper

To thank the neighbour who has been helping to cut up our firewood, we offered to do some weeding on his block. Here's why:

That's bluebell creeper, Billardiera heterophylla, choking everything in part of his block. It's not easy to deal with when it gets like this.

Here's one little part I worked on today. Before:

After:

That's a spindly acacia which was being strangled by the creeper, and a young eucalypt in front. I actually cleared the creeper from the eucalypt yesterday. Before I did that I thought it was just a huge clump of creeper, so there's no real "before" photo. As the creeper is removed, lots of small trees are being exposed to the light. That should give them the chance to actually grow, rather than being killed by the creeper.

Weeding

While doing some weeding further down the block (mainly pulling up bluebell creeper seedlings), I came across these two blackwoods (Acacia melanoxylon) being strangled by bluebell creeper (Billardiera heterophylla, formerly Sollya heterophylla) that I must have missed when it was small:

It's not obvious in the photo, but a lot of that greenery doesn't belong to those trees. Compare the picture below, where I had removed all the creeper I could from the first one:

There's still some creeper in the tree, but it is up higher than I can reach.

Here's the second tree before I tackled it:

Looks quite green and lush, doesn't it? But that was what alerted me to the creeper in the first place. A blackwood shouldn't look like that! Here it is freed from the creeper:

Hopefully both trees will now grow and thrive.

Shed

I spent a lot of time today pulling up bluebell creepers. Here's why this will be a constant battle:

That yellow marker on the tree is the property boundary. Our land is in the foreground. The background is the next-door neighbour's place. The bright green undergrowth is bluebell creeper. They have let the weed go, to the point that it is choking everything else.

While I was weeding, the shed guys were doing their thing:

By the end of the day, it only needed a roof:

That should happen tomorrow.

A Scary Insect and Some Walls

Not a nice find so close to the new house:

Termite!

The carpenters were busy today, as the house began to be vertical.

One wall:

Three walls:

A few walls:

It is very exciting to see it going up!

Dahlia Disappointment

This is the second of my dahlias to go from looking very healthy one day to being gone the next. The first one lost all its leaves, and I assumed snails had got to it. I sprinkled some iron phosphate snail bait around to protect the remaining ones, but today a second dahlia has bitten the dust. This one has had the stem chewed through, but the leaves are untouched. Is this normal for snails or slugs? Or is something else the culprit?

Former Lemon Tree

The remains of a lemon tree in a nearby front yard, showing evidence of an extreme infestation of citrus gall wasp:

Last time I walked past it there were a few leaves hanging on, but now it is completely bare, and appears to have died. I don't know if it was the wasp that killed it. There is a cumquat tree in the same yard which looks quite healthy and has no sign of gall wasp. Presumably the wasps like lemons much more than cumquats!

I've had a small number of galls this year, which I am cutting out as I see them. But when there are trees like this in the neighbourhood, there is no chance of eliminating the wasp all together.

Biological Control

I was horrified to discover a few gorse (Ulex europaeus) plants on a different part of the Lal Lal block from where we have been trying to eliminate it for 10 years. However this is a welcome development:

Gorse spider mites (Tetranychus lintearius) on one branch.

The spider mites were first released in Victoria in 1998 to combat the spread of this horrible weed. (Details here.) I'm happy to see that the mites found this plant before I did!

Surprise Package

On Friday I found in my letterbox a notice that I had missed a courier delivery. I had the whole weekend to wonder what it might be, as I hadn't ordered anything and wasn't expecting any deliveries. This morning it arrived:

A fascinating book that hasn't even been published yet. It is due out some time in November. So why did I get an advance copy?

The answer is on page 143:

That's my picture of a citrus gall, as seen on this blog in June. The publishers asked if they could use my photo, and the book (which will retail for $45) is my reward.

This is the second time one of my photos has been published (the previous one is here). It is a fun side of blogging that I never anticipated!

Invader

Tonight I happened to look up at my kitchen ceiling, something I obviously don't do often enough.

That is the pink trumpet vine (Podranea ricasoliana) making its way into the house through the exhaust fan. I've mentioned before what a weed it is, and that it would pull down the house if left to itself. In the last year I've had it growing through a window, through an aircon unit, and now this. I will have to ask someone to go up into the ceiling and deal with this bit; I am no good at climbing ladders.

Seedling Check-Up

In just under a month the TreeProject seedlings will be going to their real owner to be planted out. Most of them are looking ready to go:

Black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) with the usual wattle leaves in front, wirilda (Acacia retinoides) with more vertical leaves in the middle, and swamp gum (Eucalyptus ovata) with rounded leaves at the right rear. Behind all of them, manna gums (Eucalyptus viminalis).

Today I started pruning their roots for the last time. It was also an opportunity to have a close look at each plant. I found (and removed) two different varieties of aphids:

Sorry the photos aren't clearer, but these insects are absolutely minuscule. I would not have seen them at all if I hadn't been wearing my glasses.

Citrus Gall

In 2009 my lemon tree was so heavily infested with citrus gall wasp (Bruchophagus fellis) that I cut off every branch.

It has grown back into quite a nice tree, and thanks to the bees, it is covered in fruit. But today I noticed that the wasp is back:

I've pruned out all the galls I could find, but will have to keep a close eye on it to keep removing them before the adult wasps emerge towards the end of August.

Aphid Mummies

There's been a surge in aphid numbers in my garden lately, but here's some evidence that predators are active too:

These swollen-up aphids have had an egg laid in them by a predatory wasp, Aphidius rosae. The wasp was introduced to Australia as a biological control agent for the rose aphid in the 1990s. Its larvae eat the aphids from the inside, then pupate inside the "aphid mummy" - the swollen empty shell of the aphid. When they are ready, they leave by cutting a round hole in the abdomen. No holes yet, so the larvae must still be inside.

Unwelcome Visitor

My sasanqua camellia "Showa No Sakae" is in flower, and looking very attractive:

Unfortunately what it is attracting here is a European wasp (Vespula germanica), rather than one of my bees.

Happy Spring!

This morning was a bit cool and grey, but by lunchtime the sun came out, and it really did feel like the first day of spring.

Here's one of my bees about to make sure I get lots of blood-plums this year:

And here's some less welcome insects making a nice colour contrast with the new red leaves on my roses:

Yellow

The wind was cold, but the sunshine was lovely today. Not quite golden sunshine, but definitely yellow:

Another dose of lime sulphur for the swamp gums (Eucalyptus ovata) which are still suffering from powdery mildew.

A Big Day Out

Headed off early with a list of interesting places to visit; a new quilt shop, a quilt display, some junk places. Scheduled in afternoon tea with my folks, and a trip to Lal Lal to check on everything.

Had fun visiting everything on the list, and a few others beside, but all the photos are from Lal Lal.

The weather this year has been great for insects, and now the birds are having a great time. The block was full of the sounds of birds. I think we saw at least 6 different species of "little brown birds", but I didn't manage to photograph any of them. The birds moved quickly as they chased insects high in the trees, and the light level was very low. Here's the best I could do; some variety of fantail darting about high overhead (and you can see how dark the sky was).

Other forms of wildlife are also enjoying the insect boom. The golden orb spider at home has gone, but here's one alive and well:

It has also been a great season for plant growth. This tree I always think of as the "duck tree", because a duck nested in one of its hollows the first year we owned the block. Since then it has lost a lot of branches, but this year is covered in new growth:

Unfortunately the weeds are loving the conditions as well.

This bluebell creeper (Sollya heterophylla) is one of many that have shot up this year. A major effort is required to get rid of all of it, but we noticed that a neighbouring property has huge uncontrolled clumps, so it will keep coming back.

In autumn and winter clumps of snow lichen (Cladia retipora) appear through a lot of the block. You can see some of it in the picture of the duck tree above, but here's a close-up of its delicate structure:

Isn't it lovely?

Fungi push their way up through the leaf litter:

It was a lovely day, except for the last five kilometres of the trip home.  Freeway roadworks caused a huge traffic jam that took an hour to negotiate. It was a relief to finally get out of the car!