Learn to love what you don't like.....

Sometimes in life you just have to suck it up and love what you don't like.

I grew up believing that dandelions were a pesky weed.

I grew up believing that Mason Bees were nasty bad insects that would sting you if you went near them.

I grew up believing that Mynah birds were a horrible bullying bird and my mother used to tell me they stole food from all the other birds making them go hungry. 

I grew up believing that Brassicas and Carrots were temperamental, hard veges to grow.

I thought onions and garlic were only for the 'rich' families - it wasn't until I was an adult that I found out my mother just hated them so we never had them.

These beliefs and memories stay with you, and it is hard to break the thought pattern that has been with you for decades. 

Knowledge and listening to others have led me to the real facts, and now I look at so many things in the past that I would have shied away from and see the good in them, that they are not difficult or bad and how they fit into the web of life.

My garden is getting hammered at the moment from blackbirds. 

I have planted out my first Hugelkulture bed with many seedlings and the black birds are going there and digging it up searching for bugs and grubs.

I have an entire new mindset now. In the past I would have looked at ways of deterring these birds - scarring them away - but realise now they are so beneficial as they are great pest catchers - I just don't want them attacking this area in the garden right now. 

I went to the beach a few days ago and brought back a heap of big branches planning to use them as support frames for plants, but have used these to prop against the hugelkultur mound along with a lot of small branches that I had trimmed off a bush where the black birds are digging. 

It appears to be working. 

No new holes to date. 

I walk around my garden so many times a day. I am continually pulling out the Kikuyu sprouts that have poked their heads up to get light, and I am always accompanied by my little Piwakawaka friend. Yesterday I also had a little sparrow sitting on the fence watching me. So cute!! 

Kikuyu may become another plant like Oxalis (which thankfully I don't have) that I will have to learn to love and garden with, instead of against. I am hoping that when my plants have got well established and there are thick layers in the forest, the Kikuyu may struggle and become a weak plant and decide to leave - or if not totally leave, it will be there but un noticed and not invasive. Time will tell. 

There were 5 species of birds all in my developing garden area when I looked out yesterday.  The little Piwakawaka, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Mynahs and Waxeyes. 

I am loving the Mynah birds. They are full of character and personality. 

They are not horrible nasty birds that I grew up believing.  They fit perfectly into the food chain and have definitely got their pecking order sorted! I love watching how all the birds feed together outside. 

The chooks are the boss, then come the Mynahs and the Sparrows.  The Blackbirds look out for worms and other grubs that may surface with all the birds on the ground, and the Piwakawaka flits about getting any insects these birds disturb. 

What a perfect system.

Having my chook run in the corner beside my new garden has certainly attracted many of these birds in.  It is great to share the excess scraps that we feed the chooks to all the other birds. This will help keep unwanted rodents away as there is nothing left at the end of each feed. 

I never noticed all these birds before in my garden at one time. 

Perhaps they all were there but I was looking out seeing with my eyes closed. 

The Birds & the Bees

Let me tell you 'bout the Birds and the Bees

and the flowers and the trees

and the moon up above.

And a thing called "Love"

I have always remembered this song by Jewel Akens, and it seems fitting to quote these lyrics now as I love everything about the birds and bees and the moon up above me. 

I truely believe when we provide for the bees, they will provide for us. 

I can't believe the bird and bee life that has changed already in just 3 months since I started work out the back. 

We now have a resident Pīwakawaka (fantail) who appears to be on it's own with no mate,  and follows me the entire time I am outside flitting from tree to tree and nearly landing on my shoulders.

We have wax eyes feeding off the small bugs that are around the flowering camellia and other trees and plants.

I love birds so much and my main goal is to have a garden that a Tui will want to visit! The Tui is my favourite bird and that will be the icing on the cake for me to look out a window and see one in one of my trees. 

There are bees and other winged insects flying around continually. This is all in a matter of weeks from a plain grass lawn expanse to a mulched area with fruit trees and many small plants planted. I can only imagine what it is going to be like in a couple of years time. 

The bees work tirelessly on my open flowered camellia's, flowering rosemary bush and my wild flowers that are scattered around the garden. 

Everything I plant out in the garden is either for the birds, the bees or us. 

Just before Christmas I brought some Leafcutter bees and a house for them.  Leafcutter bees are amazing pollinators, they don't sting, and don't make honey. They are a solitary bee, cutting perfect wee circles from petals and leaves to make their nests to lay eggs in. Rose petals are their favourite to cut holes from. They only fly about 300m from their nest so will stay in your garden which is so awesome for pollination. Sadly none of them have chosen to come back to the house since hatching but some mason bees have built their clay nests in there. Mason bees are good pollinators as well so I am happy. I am sure the leafcutter bees have found another nesting area close by as I saw little round circles cut in my beetroot leaves over summer. 

In the fridge I have a couple of dozen leafcutter cocoons that I harvested in early autumn and will lift out in late spring and will pop them in the big tube in their house and hopefully they will hatch. 

Below is a couple of images of the mason bee nests in the leafcutter bee's house. I am fascinated how they collect the clay to line the nest to lay their eggs in, with a spider caught and paralysed for food for the hatching babies. 

Just mind blowing!

A food forest is so much more than just an area to feed us. It is an entire ecosystem within my garden where we can all live harmoniously.