Another week’s slipped past in no time at all, with various achievements achieved out in the gardens.
On the food gardening front, tomatoes are in, with several larger varieties and a hanging basket as well. I also have a punnet of smaller plants still to do something with. I didn’t really need them but they’re a favourite variety (Lemon Drop) and I couldn’t get any larger plants of that type. I saw the punnet and wondered if I could get them started a bit later than the others for an extended season. I should probably get them at least transplanted into temporary pots in the meantime – once they all grow into one mass of roots they may not take too kindly to being separated.
Some bigger changes out in the frog pond this week. A new and much larger shade sail arrived and I got that up. Bigger than expected and much heavier than the old one, I had to do some serious MacGyvering to get it to sit happily high enough not to plunge the pond into total darkness. So far so good but it hasn’t yet faced any fierce winds. I also decided I needed to get on with removing the tarp that was supposedly only a temporary addition to one side of the pond. I no longer think frogs will need it to get in and out, especially if I provide some other pathway to replace it. And it seems a waste to let it slowly disintegrate in the water, and I also think its helping evaporate the pond water with a wicking effect – something I definitely don’t want.
So over a period of days I’ve removed it and am building a replacement inspired by some ideas for repurposing pallets I’ve seen online this week. My ideal result is to conceal the pond with plants, which means a way of having plants growing at various locations and levels along the front side. At the same time I want access at regular intervals around the pond so I can access all parts of the pond with a lean-in (to move plants or whatever I need to do. You can see my new direction developing in the photo gallery below. I’m a little concerned that the frog calls I was hearing every night from the pond have stopped the past couple of nights, since I hauled the tarp out of the water. Hopefully I’ve just freaked the adult frogs out a bit ad they’ll return to normal soon. Lots of other life in the pond continues – tadpoles, including smaller ones that I haven’t seen for a while, fish, huge amounts of blood worms revealed when I pulled the tarp up. Bugs and plants too. A plant shelf accident dumped a pot of rushes which allowed me to see they are rooting really well too.
Also some minor accessorising with a couple of solar powered gadgets added – an aerator arrived that I ordered from China some weeks ago, and I found a small solar fountain pump in the front yard that wasn’t doing anything (in fact had seemingly up and died). But it came back to life OK with a clean and a new home.
Various work on other plantings and rescuing of neglected plants continues gradually as well.
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