Winter at the Holt

June has passed and we're now in mid-winter, which like in the Northern Hemisphere means that plant growth slows, the weather is colder, and the ducks build in numbers. Currently we have over 80 ducks on the dams, mostly Australian Black Duck, but with a dozen or so Wood Duck and a lone male Mallard. At this time of the year most of my work around the garden is clearing and maintenance, so the chainsaw, mattock, bow saw, puning shears and brush cutter get a real work out.
  As you can imagine I am attired in the pinacle of garden couture when I head out for the latest project!

It's a time for clearing the fuel load (precaution against bush fires), cutting back the old grass, clearing the fallen branches and taking down the old and dying trees and shrubs.  Hard graft all in all, and it's a pity my son is swanning around in the military as I could do with a hand with some of the bigger stuff.

Despite all the clearing work it is a great time for birds as the Grevilleas are flowering still and a fair spread of species migrate in.

I grow a range of Grevilleas such as this favourite 'Ice Cream', and others including Honey Gem, Ivory Whips, Fire Sprite, Cherry Pop, Robyn Gordon, Peaches & Cream, and the best for the small birds, Marmalade.

Our Marmalade Grevillea is a large shrub, almost 3m high, and throughout the day is host to a real party of smaller birds including Scarlet, Yellow-faced, Brown and Lewins Honeaters, Eastern Spinebills, Double-barred Finch, Silver-Eyes, Yellow-Rumped Thornbills and the ever present Rainbow Lorikeets.  Here's an assortment:

Eastern Spinebill

Brown Honeyeater

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Scarlet Honeyeater

Lewins Honeyeater

Rainbow Lorikeet

And of course the observant may have noticed that none of those birds were actually sitting in the Marmalade Grevillea, which is because they seem to hop around so much it's difficult to photograph them in it.


Although much of the native growth has slowed, there's no such issues in the vegetable garden as the cooler weather means I can grow European veggies.  So I recently unearthed the Sweet Potatoes, cropped the pumpkins, and the beds are now planted with cabbage and lettuce (continuing good crop rotation practoce by following root crops with green leafed crops.  Once these finish I'll re-fertilise the plots with horse manure and aged compost before starting the hungry crops of tomatoes, corgette and capsicum once the warmer weather arrives.

The first load from the Sweet Potato crop that eventually filled 2 full sinks!

and a couple of pumpkins to go with the roasts.