I have read and re-read this thread but felt unable to add anything remotely life-enhancing. This is often an ambivalent time of year for me since rather than lolling around in floral bliss, this half of the summer usually heralds many hours of painful, slightly boring fruit and veg gathering. All well and good and at least I can see (literally) the fruits of my labours. But what then. Well, I will remind you that this bucolic interlude is followed by something much less idyllic - a massive and endless cook-in. Even now, at this moment, I am disturbed by the horrid smell of burnt redcurrants (whilst I sat typing away, the notional jam has reduced to an evilly sticky toffeish mess on the bottom of one of my better pans). The many blackcurrant bushes are laden to the ground....which is where I will be crouching for the concievable future, wresting minuscule fruits of hard to reach stems....and I haven't even started on the brambles yet. Tomatoes - in order to have a years supply of our own, admittedly superior ketchup, will have to be paraded around every day between now and september, tying in, rubbing out side-shoots, weeding, more weeding, feeding, watering.....and then, the Dickensian kitchen nightmare as the house fills up with vinegary smells for weeks on end. So folks, before I bring you all down even more, I am off to town to laze in a cafe, read a newspaper, maybe buy a book, possibly some bright hair ribbons (I had hoped to start a trend with cheap multi-ribboned plaits but no takers!) and put all things garden related, especially food related, out of my head for at least a few hours. Cheerio, enjoy your gardening.

What a fascinating story:) Good luck gardening with your new friend. Together you can make the world safer for the Monarch and other vital pollinators. John in Wisconsin

Mark - Malabar spinach is an ornamental for me too, I don't like the slimy texture but for sure it looks pretty! I have to see the u-tube video from Echo, it is a good place to visit at least one time, interesting. Tom - Smarty seeds will follow. About the callaloo, the ones that I originally planted were kind of green and Maxine told me just sprinkle, I didn't think they were going to come up but they did, seeds are very small. Now I have them coming up by themselves where I had them before. I think you can use them fresh(green) or mature and they come, just sprinkle them where you want them to grow, you can probably mix them with fine starter medium or peat moss and just put them on top, press so when you water the seeds don't run. Louie was recovering for over a month and gained weight,I told him welcome to the club,lol. He said too many pringles and not enough vegetables plus he was bored,lol. Silvia

I've noticed a few of these the past couple of years. Since I saw this one, I went out and checked each day and it's still in the exact same spot. I think they are neat with the 'stitching' pattern on their backs.