Saturday, October 10, 2009

Plotting for a food garden.


Week 2.
I was out in the garden bright & early (well early for me!) on Wednesday to fill up & start to seed my ‘magic square’ garden. Sad to say it only lasted about 20 minutes before I was surrounded by a cloud of midges or sand flies that started to BITE. I had put some repellent on as well as covering up but I still got bitten & now I have big itchy lumps.
Today I put so much repellent on I could hardly breathe. I just had to get these seeds in, ‘they’ forecast rain. Two hours later, all done, I put the last seeds in as a light rain fell. Covered the plot with a few branches to keep Ebony out.

Along the way I found a few worms, a large winged cockroach & lots of other creepy-crawlies including a redback spider.

Go here to find out more.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You've made a great start! I am a bit of a way behind, my seeds and seedlings will go in tomorrow. I am desperate to find asparagus!

Anonymous said...

Ewww, is that one of those really poisonous spiders? Scary!

Stephanie V said...

That spider is so beautiful.

Our critters (cats, squirrels , raccoons) never seem to be deterred by branches - even thorny rose clippings. Hope they leave your seeds alone to grow.

Mo said...

This activity is way too dangerous. Take up an indoor activity.

DeniseinVA said...

I've been enjoying all your photos. I get bitten a lot by mosquitoes and get big itchy bumps from them too. The spider is beautiful and I was wondering if it was one of the poisonous variety over there? I'll have to do a google.

Angie said...

Fr those of you who asked - YES she is dangerous! Here is something to amuse you "Male Redback Spiders do not produce a web, but may be found on the fringe of a female's web, especially during the summer mating season. The male has to make overtures to the female to discover whether she is ready to mate, which can prove fatal if she mistakes him for prey. It has been found that in order to occupy the female's attention during mating, the male spider offers her his abdomen by standing on his head and 'somersaulting' his abdomen towards her mouthparts. The female begins to squirt digestive juices onto the male's abdomen while the first palp is inserted. If he is not too weak, he will manage to withdraw, and then insert the second palp. She will continue to 'digest' his abdomen. Most males do not survive this process, which seems to be unique to Latrodectus hasselti."