​Season of twists and turns

Mysterious things are happening in the garden.

By John Coldebella
 
SUMMER has officially arrived and most vegetables in the garden are finally thriving after some cold days and nights made for slow progress in the latter part of spring. This has been the case for the last two or three years. The season of rebirth in the plant world saw some unusual behaviour in trees and vegetables, things that had not been seen by gardeners who have been at it for over 60 years.
 
Some growers of garlic found that as the stem of the plant began to die off, each individual clove had produced its own long, green stem inside the main one. This was observed in at least three crops in Wonthaggi and one on Phillip Island. 

This did not affect the final outcome as these stems dried off and the cloves ended up resembling normal ones. Some put it down to a wet spring but I've seen plenty of those without this happening.

​The second unusual event involved the late blooming of certain deciduous trees. In a normal year, walnut trees begin to produce leaves around mid-September. When we got to the end of October and the branches were still bare, I began to be concerned that my two trees had died. One had the long tufts that produce the pollen but nothing to pollinate, and the other had nothing at all. A walnut tree owner in the next street reported the same thing.
 
Eventually, in mid-November, some life began to appear. Even then, it was only on a few branches. Now in mid-December, other branches are waking up. Normally, there is a uniform bursting into life and not the staggered blooming that this season has shown. 

A two-year-old seedling in a pot had the same two-month delay before coming out of dormancy. This year's crop will be greatly reduced as a result, but I take comfort in knowing the trees are still alive.

​Around the neighbourhood, two other non-food producing deciduous trees whose names are unknown to me also waited till mid-November to start making leaves and a grape vine that produced leaves in July now has bare branches.
 
A third surprise, but not so mysterious, involved some cosmos flower seeds that came from a bush that had produced white flowers. I must confess that I wasn't overly impressed but I planted them out of respect for the gardener who gifted them to me. I didn't expect the variety of colours that came from these seeds. Some were white like the plant that had produced them, but there were some delightful variations, thanks to the good bees of Korumburra where the original plant was grown. It would seem they had found some pollen from other plants and threw it into the mix.
 
On a brighter note, it was another good year for raspberries. The green stink bug - Plautia affinis - which covered the plants and fruit last year was noticeably absent. Another encouraging sign has been the number of frogs getting about, along with a new generation currently brewing in the pond. The frogs may have been responsible for ending a short-lived infestation of tiny black, aphid-like insects that were chewing holes in the leaves of bean plants. This is another pest I've never seen before.
 
Finally, another blackbird story. In November, the most inept nest builder I have ever observed began construction on a ledge above my shed window. The first thing I noticed was how much material this bird was able to fit in its mouth to take to the building site, easily five or six times the usual amount. The second observation was the slow progress. After four days, there should have been a bird sitting on eggs. Instead, there was a bucketful of loose, dry grass on my work bench and only a few strands on the ledge where the main event was meant to be happening. Work stopped for a week before re-commencing. I toyed with the idea that the bird had attended a TAFE College for some tips.
 
The second attempt was much more efficient, and after a month, I went into the shed to find the nest was empty. On the previous evening, four chicks had still occupied it and were now in various corners of the shed, hiding and chirping behind all manner of disorder. Some immediately took the open door to liberty, while others took till mid-afternoon to gather the courage to go out and face the big wide world. Over the next couple of days, I encountered the young fledglings around the garden, hiding under plants where their mother continued to deliver Uber worms.
 
Before I forget, carols in the chook pen has had to be cancelled due to widespread broodiness, though a limited nativity scene is still in place.
 
Peace on earth, goodwill to hens!