Autumn Pleasures

Delight! The hugelkultur lives! We have visible fungi – and therefore must have more that grows around the wood we buried. I’ve been waiting and waiting for this moment.

It may not seem to have much to do with bees, but it means that the foundation for this part of the garden, the wild experimental area, is becoming better quality. So next year the flowers for the bees will also be better quality.

I don’t know if our fungi’s edible, but plan to check soon, with a fungi-grower, the Fun Gi (!), out in Lower Hutt.

As you can see, the fungi shares space with shards from the midden that we’ve been clearing for three years,  purple cauliflower seedlings, protected from birds and cats by wire netting; and tiny new land cress!

I think it also means that we can consider some small bushes on the hugelkultur, blueberries maybe.

Visible dead wood on the zigzag is also sprouting fungi, a cherry stump on the left and a who-knows-what on the right.

It’s seed-collecting time, too. All that land cress to be winnowed from the stalks. Parsley heads to shake.

 

And seeds for more phacelia next year. So bee-loved, this one.

And then there are the bordoloi beans. Descendants of those ones that a New Zealand soldier brought back from Italy after the Second World War. Probably enough for a soup as well as to sow in spring.

bordoloi beans ripening near the harakeke/flax

And this great round pumpkin is maturing, like others. It will be soup, too. And seeds for next year.

And then there’s the last of the annual blooms.

Bees and other little flying things are very happy. And so am I, doing the autumn weeding and planting. Lupins and brand beans to come.  That’ll please the bees, too. I hope: Nothing is certain.