Pesky Possums

Was very disappointed when I harvested the corn last weekend to find more than half had already been enjoyed by the possums! Then of the 7 untouched corn cobs, only 2 were good. In the remaining 5 cobs, the kernels had insufficiently developed. Not sure if that is a result of poor soil, poor pollination or what....

As for the rest of the garden, well it is mostly doing ok. There a few capsicum, chillies and eggplants growing; the tomatoes are continuing to ripen and the sweet potato vine looks healthy. The raspberry plants have flourish and I look forward to next year when they produce their first crop. Despite the zucchini plants flowering we still are yet to be inundated with zucchinis.

We have planted peas, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccolini and coriander. So far they have survived the possums, warm weather and bugs but it's only early days really!

While planting these last weekend, this black bug with iridescent blue wings caught my eye...it was wondering around in the mulch.

With a little help from google, we discovered this was a Black Flower Wasp, a native wasp. Although these have stingers, they are not aggressive as they have no nest to protect. Instead the female digs in the mulch to find a beetle which she temporarily paralyses before laying her eggs in it. Thus the growing larvae has its own food supply!