King Parrots in the Pigeon Peas

by Linda on March 23, 2012

Oy!! I want them! I’m planning pigeon pea dahl, not parrot food!

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Lizard Eggs

by Linda on December 19, 2011

Aren’t they cute? I found them when I was recycling potting mix from some seedlings that I didn’t need to plant out.  There are two different kinds.  I think the larger ones might be land mullet eggs, and the smaller ones the little skinks I find in the shadehouse and garden.

I shall try to put them back as close as possible to the conditions I found them in and hope they hatch.  Lizards are fantastic pest controllers in the garden.

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An Ominous Bump

by Linda on September 20, 2011

Spotted this morning snoozing under a coffee bush just two metres from the chooks.  Quick count of the chickens and they’re all there.  Whew.  The roost design is holding up.

The bump is likely either a bush turkey or a bandicoot, or maybe even a little padimelon wallaby.   After what that wallaby did to my nasturtiums and mint and asparagus the other night, I’m feeling quite ok about the snake!

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The Snake’s Awake

August 2, 2011

The snake has woken up.  They don’t actually sleep all winter here – we do occasionally see carpet pythons sunning themselves even in winter.  But this, the biggest one, seems to be decidedly awake.  This will test the new chook roosting system! I was contemplating whether to post this, when I read a blog post [...]

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We Have Chooks Again!

February 27, 2011

This has been practically the longest period in my adult life without chooks!  Back in September, our very large resident carpet snake got the last one.  She had taken to roosting in the bay tree.  I actually saw the snake heading up the tree in the mid-morning, and made a mental note to catch my [...]

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Why I Don’t Use Chook Domes Any More

February 27, 2011

It was bandicoots. One morning in 2000, I came out and every single seedling I’d planted the day before had been dug up.  It was the beginning of the end for a style of gardening that had served me very well for over a decade. I swore, replanted every morning, erected little barricades around newly planted beds, [...]

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Lorikeets

November 4, 2010

I plant callistemon and grevillias ostensibly as a permaculture strategy to encourage insectivorous birds and insects, because insectivores often also eat nectar as a source of carbohydrates. A good population of insectivores hanging around keeps the population of plant eating insects like grasshoppers and fruit flies down at a tolerable level. But like most “sensible” garden strategies, [...]

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A Short Lesson In Exponential Growth

February 12, 2010

A wallaby got into the garden last night, and demolished my newly planted sweet potato patch. I spent my whole mowing session this morning devising recipes for wallaby – Turkish wallaby stew, marinated baked wallaby, wallaby kebabs…. I checked the fortress fence for holes, but I think it got in across the verandah through the [...]

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