Putiki Garden - Plants and Creatures as Summer Draws to a Close

The market garden has produced well this summer. Quinoa and  pumpkins are thus far counted among the successes. The yacón (Peruvian ground apples) are growing extremely well, but remain yet unharvested so their tuber production is currently a mystery.

Unfortunately the oca (yams) did not fare as satisfactorily. They started well enough, produced lots of oxalis-like foliage and flowers, however, all but two clusters have rotted just below ground without producing any tubers. Will be interesting to see how the remaining plants produce.

There are plenty of creatures around at the moment. Below are some pics of a visiting White-faced Heron that was feeding on insects hiding in the drainage ditch around the potato patch. We also have a nest of Kingfisher chicks up in a hollow willow-tree branch. The noise they make is very strange, sounding almost "synthesised".

Whited-faced heron  Egretta novaehollandiae. The potatoes didn't do so well this year either. With some improvement to the soil the new crops of zucchini, cucumbers and red onions are faring much better

There are also plenty of monarch butterflies around. The trade-off for their welcome presence is either (1) having to remove all seed pods from the large numbers of swan plants around or (2) the annoyance of having to pull out tiny swan-plant seedlings from all the garden beds.

Monarch Caterpillar. At Putiki their food plants, swan plants (Gomphocarpus fruticosus), are all very denuded at present, yet they will survive through winter to put on foliage for another round of hungry caterpillars.

Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus just emerged from the chrysalis. It only takes moments for their abdomen and wings to reverse in size

As mentioned before, it's been a good year for pumpkins. Below are examples of the two main varieties grown. The pinkish-orange ones are called "Brodé Galeaux D'Eysines, which translates as “embroidered with warts from Eysines" (Eysines is a small french city). The greenish-grey pumpkin at the front-right is Marina di Choggia -"Sea pumpkin from Chioggia" (Chioggia is a small seaside town in Italy). This pumpkin is traditionally used for making gnocchi (great recipe via blog entry here). Each of these pumpkins weighs between 9-10kgs.