R.I.P Broccoli

Mr courgette flowers bring all the bees to the yard

Today, we feast on courgette.

A small feast is still a feast.

Progress pics 25tth June

Beginning with overview shots...

Courgette flower and courgette

Tomatoes coming

Lavender bought and planted out.

Got some potted lavender yesterday as it attracts pollinators (also called Bees), look nice and smell nice.

Planted it out today.

Lavender in pots, amongst the Broccoli, Courgette and Tomato

Lavender planted out

Cat has no respect for boundaries

Courgette flower opening

🎜 There's ants in the courgette, dirty little monsters 🎜

🎜 Farming all the aphids, drinking all the nectar 🎜

So I've been learning about ants farming aphids.  Fascinating.

The aphids feed off the plants and produce a sweet nectar as a by-product.   The ants love this, so they farm the aphids to keep the necar flowing.  This involves the following:

• Protecting the aphids from predators.
• Immobilising them via chemicals or in some cases, biting their wings off (harsh).
• Carrying away dead ones to remove risk of disease.
• Relocating them to other plants when necessary.

Very impressive and interesting.  I've managed to find a natural calcium spray which helps the plant and also makes it bitter tasting so apparently they will move on naturally.  We shall see.

Here's a close-up of some ant on aphid action I found on the web.

Progress pics (16th June)

Sunflower (Tall)

Sunflower (Tall)

Courgette

Courgette

Tomato

Tomato

Tomato

Broccoli

Overview

Its happening!

These shoots will become courgette flowers, some of which will become courgettes!

Cometh the flower, cometh the tomato!