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sproing is sprunging

There was a nice bout of sun and warmer temperatures and the plants that wake up or start serious new growth when the weather is warmer started stirring.

flowering jasmine
budding mango tree
flowering plum tree

The jasmine smells awesome by the way.

And then along came a REALLY cold snap that was so cold that JJ declared it was the coldest he's ever been when walking the dog and that he saw frost on cars and the road and grass was "glittering", and two of our four young chickens died :<

young chickens looking for bugs in newly raked soil

The ones no longer with us are Mosaic (bottom-most of the three near the fence) and Pearl (mostly white).

I kind of rattled off insulation plans in JJ's general direction and he "maybe'd" all of them, the cheapest option we could think of was stringing up some cardboard over the door to cut down the wind chill. Later that same day JJ came back and said he suspected that it had always been fine before because the jasmine plant and two passionfruit plants had completely covered the coop before so there was a lot of protection from the elements. Some time back our neighbour accidentally killed a large part of the jasmine on the fence while cleaning up (they did apologise, they hadn't meant to kill it) and we were glad to find out the following growing season that the bit over the chicken coop had somehow survived, and more recently JJ pulled out the mature passionfruits as they had stopped fruiting and replaced them. So we're hoping by next winter all the new/regrowing plants will have grown enough cover over the chicken coop and no more freezing winters, though we will still need to consider stopgap measures for the next time he decides that the passionfruits need to be replaced again.

The Calathea that I transplanted into the tree bed is still hanging on by a single leaf but it's not dead yet.

Calathea hanging on by a leaf

The phoenix Hypoestes is rising from the corpse of its predecessor (or putting on new growth I haven't figured out which way that went yet).

Hyoestes that grew out of a rotting Hypoestes

I found more bugs!

ladybug on white Impatiens
ladybug on lobelia
caterpillar on lavender

The camera did not want to focus on the ladybugs and I have no idea what the caterpillar is. I think that one is the same one grown a little bigger and not that far away in the insect patch chewing on a plant I had been uncertain about pulling or not. Also that lavender decided to flower, it did not have any when we bought and planted it.

Speaking of the insect patch, it's still going good. It would not surprise me in the slightest if every single seed I threw in that area had actually come up.

plants in insect patch

And not much longer after I took that photo I found flowers!

first flower in insect patch
second flowerbud in insect patch

Unlike the chicken forage patch where I think some grass is struggling up and I can't tell if some other sprouts are "weeds" (some have been at least loosely identified as wild lettuce, chickweed and four-leaved allseed) or stuff I planted. I transplanted some of the surprisingly numerous chickweed into it, two of them had all their leaves eaten probably by caterpillars and one shrivelled up like it was too dry but they otherwise seem to be doing alright.

I'm really getting on JJ's case about transplating the not-sunflowers as they need to go in before the nasturtiums get moved. I get that there is a correct time to be doing it even though we are doubtful that the poor things will survive the transplant but the situation with the nasturtiums and the aloe vera is beyond ridiculous.

nasturtiums have completely swamped the aloe vera patch

At least their flowers complement I guess.

close up of red aloe vera flower
close up of red nasturtium flower

He eventually started after it looked like spring was definitely springing and weeded the sleeper bed before transplanting some of the aloes into pots and beginning the transfer of the rest of them into the fence bed.

aloe veras transplanted into pots, one with hitchiking nasturtium
aloe vera transplanted into another part of the garden with hitchiking nasturtium

I did have a brief moment of HOW YOU PLANT when I saw the first aloe in the fence bed before realising that none of the aloes are straight.

I happened to notice that what I thought was more Easter lilies growing in a "random" spot (not that random, there was another undefined garden bed somewhere around there once upon a time) in the cottage garden had produced these cute tiny bell flowers.

full shot of Summer Snowflake plant
close up of Summer Snowflake flowers

Them not being Easter lilies will explain the lack of giant trumpet flowers at the same time as the actual Easter lilies which would be why I took so long to notice them. PlantNet reckons they're Summer Snowflakes.

Just like the Easter lilies they're horribly dangerous (to dogs, cats, chickens and children if nommed on) so of course I'm going to be moving them to the porch bed as it seems they will survive the occasional roof runoff flooding that's seems to happen when it rains.

Now I'm wondering what the tree bed might contain as they still haven't flowered.

Right next to the Snowflakes were these daisies.

some kind of daisy

PlantNet very loosely identified them as either Cotula turbinata or Roman Chamomile. I visited a friend and noticed she had some in her garden and asked about them and she said they were horrible prickly things that made the lawn horrible and prickly and uncomfortable to walk on barefoot and promptly ripped out the patch that I'd noticed so I guess they're going seeing as the plan is for the cottage garden to be barefoot friendly. They can at least go into the sleeper bed according to the internet.

And then there was this thing in the corner which again I only noticed because there were "suddenly" bright red flowers. I had observed it as an unusual grass tussock for a while and as it was conveniently located and not spreading like the rest of the grass I decided it could stay where it was.

possibly a Chasmanthe aethopica 'cobra lily' - red tubular flowers with grassy leaves

The things one finds when actually interested in outside x_x It's maybe a Chasmanthe aethiopica. Whoever had this house before really liked lilies. Or maybe just bulbs in general and the more delicate bulbs didn't survive us.

I told J the tree bed must have been celebrating the Dockers season as one of the violas somehow ended up with these immense purple flowers.

purple and white violas
purple violas with very big flowers

I tried to take the photo of the purple and white ones at the same distance to show the size comparison of the flowers but it was a very inaccurate judgement as I also had to keep an eye on the chickens who were mowing the lawn at the time.

The tomato that JJ had temporarily transplanted into the wall bed and not expected to survive or fruit survived and put out some flowers.

unexpected tomato flowers

And I finally made myself start the gravel path in the food garden.

placing bricks for edge of gravel path
first load of gravel on gravel path

It is going to be improperly done with as much compacting as me tromping on the ground can manage and not a grain of builders sand or weedmat/lining to be seen and the internet reckons I am very definitely going to regret these terrible decisions in a few years' time.

The aquaponics plans have been pushed back to next year or the year after as my mum wants to do a massive family holiday to Malaysia next year for a milestone birthday so the aquaponics money went on that instead.

plans

  • ⬜ move beehive and birdbath (which is primarily easy water source for the bees) into bee garden
  • ⬜ replant birdbath pockets
  • ⏸️ relocate and set up aquaponics properly
    • ⏸️ two ponds need replacing and we might be getting another one
    • ⏸️ pvc pipes
    • ⏸️ shubunkin (5-20 apparently)
  • ▶️ transplant chickweed to chicken area
  • ⬜ transplant not-sunflowers to chicken area
  • ⬜ transplant nasturtiums to chicken area
  • ⬜ trans/plant sweet potato to chicken area
  • ▶️ transplant aloe to pots or fence bed
  • ⬜ dig out tree stumps
  • ⬜ attempt to transplant the apparently immortal Crapemyrtle to where the bigger tree stump was
  • ⬜ make seed mix out of creeping thyme, kidney weed and white star creeper and go ham
  • ⬜ separate Easter lilies, replant big bulbs and whatever smaller bulbs will fit, cure some small bulbs for friend that requested some
  • ⬜ dig up whatever the hell is coming up in the tree bed and transplant to Easter lily patch wherever is appropriate
  • ⬜ replace all ice cream containers and buckets with bird bath dishes

side quests

  • ⬜ desktop aquaponics
    • ⬜ Youngest's old fish tank setup
    • ⬜ really small dwc raft or materials to make one OR modified planter for constant flow system as suggested by J
    • ⬜ heater
    • ⬜ betta
    • ⬜ see where neighbour got shrimp and snails from or if they have a population excess to rehome
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