Busy Like A Bee
By bushbernie
9 comments
It was quite blustery outside today. The wind was blowing at around 21 km/hour for long periods of time over the day. The sky was overcast and dreary and it was a slightly cooler 23 deg C for most of the day. Today I was resting up after a hectic day out in the garden yesterday.
We spent quite some time clearing out the dreaded Siam Weed from a couple of the garden beds on our property. It had spread all through one of the front garden beds and was creeping onto the verandah, as seen in the photo above.
Siam Weed is classified as a Category 3 invasive plant here in Queensland and this is the first time we’ve ever spotted this nasty invasive plant on our property and we also noticed our bush paddock has quite a bit of it. We’re going to have to keep an eagle eye out for it in the garden from now on as it has a phenomenal growth rate.
There were also quite a few other things that needed removal, including Poinciana saplings, the native Passiflora foetida (Stinking Passionfruit) and various other unwanted pests!
The Passiflora was spreading quite vigorously and starting to cover large sections of the property.
It was a big weeding / clearing out day!
Thankfully there was some bright moments in the day as well. My gorgeous double Gerbera has recovered and is blooming well again, after it appeared to have died off.
I also spotted a fabulous female Xylocopa (the Great Carpenter Bee) busy in the garden. Xylocopas are the largest bees in Australia and the females have a wonderfully bright yellow waistcoat!
17 Sep, 2024
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Comments
Meadowland, we have just discovered Siam Weed this year but we have a number of invasive plants that we're always on the lookout for - the African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata), the Chinee Apple (Ziziphus mauritiana), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Lantana (Lantana camara) and Passiflora foetida (Stinking Passionfruit).
17 Sep, 2024
That looks like a nightmare plant. Sadly all human responsibility of looking for interesting plants and bringing them across continents. But wouldn't our gardens be dull with out plants from around the world.
Good look with the battle.
I battle British natives and they are bad enough: bind weed, enchanter's nightshade and sow thistle.
18 Sep, 2024
Best of luck with your battles as well Seaburngirl. It can become quite tedious and sometimes it looks like the battle will never be won. We do our best to undo mistakes of previous generations.
18 Sep, 2024
Nice to " meet you" Bushbernie.
You definitely have a challenge living there and makes our complaints about the weather seem very small.
21 Sep, 2024
Lovely to "meet" you too Rose. Yes we do have some challenges here that's for sure, but that's true for all gardeners. The weather here is definitely one of the biggest challenges I have to come to grips with here.
21 Sep, 2024
That passion fruit looks so beautiful! I bet you hate it! My hat is off to you for even trying to grow in your environment. Think I’d have a eucalyptus forest and hope for Koalas. :)
22 Sep, 2024
Yes I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of the Stinking Passionfruit! It's just a weed here and comes up every year after a wet season.
There are Eucalyptus growing here but our conditions prevent the existence of a beautiful forest full of them. We tend to have more of the 'woodland' type of growth and sadly, there are no Koalas here on the mainland. There are a small number of them over on Magnetic Island, which is about 13 kms off the coast.
28 Sep, 2024
Thanks Bernie. Magnetic Island sounds interesting!
28 Sep, 2024
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You did have a busy day BB..the Gerbera is a plant I've never grown...looks quite healthy. Are you just discovering these invasive plants or is it a job that has to be often repeated ? We have just recently done the same with Vine weed...thought we had conquered it last year but no it's back again but not so bad.
17 Sep, 2024