Yellow buttons, Striped Marsh Frog, Rhubarb

The main purpose of this post is to outline my attempts to keep our rhubarb plants alive over summer.  We have the green stemmed variety.

I have been giving them a regular drench of phosphoric  acid which is a treatment for phytophtera but both plants in the vegetable garden have been going backwards -as in getting fewer and smaller leaves. They have also been wilting badly each day but recover overnight.  I have another three plants in pots in the shade house which seem to be doing ok so far.

Recently on a local bush walk, in an area that I don't usually use, I discovered a chest type freezer had been dumped.  The idea occurred of modifying it to form a cooler microclimate for the rhubarb - including placing frozen water inside it on the hot days.  I think the lid will be needed as well on the hot days to keep the temperature down.

Here is the finished "product":

The photo shows the rather sad state of this Rhubarb plant.

It will be an interesting gardening experiment - I have never managed to get Rhubarb to survive through summer in Brisbane.

There's not much in flower on Mt Petrie at present  - the above is yellow buttons

or  Chrysocephalum apiculatum.  It is not a good photo -  there are some nice 

mats of this plant in only a few places.

This striped marsh frog had found it's way into one of the aquaponics tanks:

It was  removed and placed in amongst some moist and shady vegetation beside
the shade house.