The productive compost heap

Sometimes I wonder why I bother planting seeds when I see some of the produce that turns up in the compost heap without any help from me. The other day some pumpkin vines in the compost died off and revealed a huge Queensland Blue which had been growing underneath them. Mind you, I can't even remember the last time we had cooked up one of these pumpkins but have a vague recollection of a neighbour giving us one a couple of years ago. I never buy them as they are so huge and are hard to store with all the wildlife around the place.

It is not ready to pick as yet so hopefully it will ripen unscathed. 

I am not sure if it is another Queensland Blue but there is another vine that has grown right up to the top of the macadamia nut tree which is above the compost heap.

 I had planted some Golden Nugget pumpkins earlier on but, of course, they are a much smaller size and I was a bit disappointed that some of the vines died back when they were extremely small. We had such a crazy summer that it surprises me that anything grew at all.

 

 Also growing in the aforementioned compost heap which is one of two huge heaps, are lots of chillies....

 ....and macadamia nut seedlings which pop up everywhere....

 

 

 ....as the cockatoos enjoy knocking the macadamias off their stems every day when they are having breakfast and afternoon tea.

 

 

 All the lettuce went to seed in the heat and now our watersaver garden is full of lettuce just in time for the colder weather when we don't eat lettuce as much ;-) Some people are hard to please eh?

 So far the wildlife hasn't attacked the passionfruit also growing in the compost heap and I have already been able to pick a few.

 Just to finish on a soapmaking note...a soapy friend said she had bought some Blue Cornflower Petals from Green Living Australia so I have been looking out for when the seeds and seedlings became available and recently I came across some punnets in Bunnings and they are growing really well. I should have enough dried cornflower petals to supply most of Queensland I think. LOL! I still haven't planted the packet of seeds I bought as well.  Perhaps I should just throw them in the compost heap!!

I believe the weather is finally starting to warm up in the Northern Hemisphere which will make everyone who lives there very happy I would dare say as it seems to have been a long and cold winter. Here it is still very warm with days in the high twenties even though we are halfway through Autumn and it is usually cooling down by now. I had a look at my blog archive to see what the weather was like this time last year and Aussies were recovering from Cyclone Debbie so thankfully this has been a calmer year where we live in SE Queensland.

Have a great week everyone!