The things you find when you weed....

So not only have I been quite slack on writing blog posts for a few months, I have to admit I have also been guilty of letting my garden get away from me.  I planted a few seedlings about a month ago, and I did attempt to repair some issues with my irrigation system, but it seems that all that happened was that I provided water for the weeds.  

Finally today I decided that it had gone too long.  I could almost do my own ads about "Who is going into the jungle" (can't say that I really watch "I'm a Celebrity", but I do like speculating about just which "celebrities" will be on)  just when someone went out in to our front yard.

So some hard yakka was in order.  I am going to be in serious pain tomorrow.  That couch grass is nasty (and was everywhere!).

I didn't actually take any before photos (it was really too embarrassing) but lets just say that after a few hours I have filled up my 240L green bin and I haven't totally finished. It looks so much better though.  And I found some hidden surprises while I was there.

Turns out the chilli plants I put in have half survived - and I even have one decent size fruit!

My raspberry canes have flourished (even after I pulled some out to give to my niece in an attempt for some propagation - haven't heard how they went yet) and I managed to find some new fruit peeking around and almost ripe.

Still some couch grass there - but in between the raspberry canes that is a single tomato plant.

A runaway tomato plant has self seeded from somewhere or other and looks healthy.

The oregano is going well, and the apple mint and spring onions seem to have also spread and grown well under significant weed cover.

I also saw two lady bugs, which were cute, and three types of spiders - not so cute.  Especially when I thought one might have been a funnel web (thank goodness for leather gardening gloves - and then when I looked up this spider chart on www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au I realised it was probably just a Common Black House Spider.

This spider chart comes from the website www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au

So now I just need to keep the weeds under control - hopefully the thick layer of sugar cane mulch I spread around helps.  And eat those raspberries!