New Guinea bean

I've been busy preparing for another garden club edible weeds talk on Wednesday.It will be the same talk I gave recently but still it needs some preparation. Weeds for the talk are Purslane, Sowthistle, Gotu Kola, Dock, Chickweed and Warrigal Greens.

Meanwhile here are 3 photos:

The first is of a dried New Guinea bean (Lagenaria siceraria) that we grew for the first time this summer.As it dried it has developed amazing patterns from fungal growths on the shell of the gourd. It was quite nice eating as well and was quite prolific, growing readily and relatively pest free. The other beans we harvested were straight and up to 1m long and as thick as a forearm.















I'm going to spray varnish it to keep it as an item of interest - it looks a bit like a snake!

The next photos is of a Camellia flower- we have 3 bushes of Camellias outside the study - they are tough, although they do have a bug a present that is damaging some leaves.














Finally our Brassicas are growing apace - here's a cauliflower almost ready for harvesting- they have done brillantly the past 2-3 months in the cooler weather