Archway antics

You might remember that we pinched the wonderful Selena's idea of using $10 garden arches as gates into each paddock.  We planted a climber on each archway and they are growing with varying degrees of vigour.  They have also become a handy perch for birds.  This is lovely to see, except when they are sulphur crested cockatoos who are their to pillage the mandarin tree!!!  In the pic below, you can see the creeper growing up the left hand side of the archway and that's a self-seeded cherry tomato on the right. Then that's the mandarin tree wearing a pretty little skirt as that seems to be the only thing to keep the cockatoos off.  Tragically, they ended up getting all the fruit from the top half of the tree and we're still harvesting from the bottom (some may say that's fair, but errrggg).  The interesting part is that the girls love hanging out inside the netting.  They've always enjoyed the tree for a spot of shade but they feel particularly sheltered and safe inside their little tent.  I wonder if they'll get cranky when it comes down.

Then here are two welcome visitors to the archway ( I say that, but they are probably making plans for the lovely plump peas)