Spring in the southern hemisphere.

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Whilst you take your winter break in the snow country we are preparing and planting for summer in South Australia.
Strawberries were planted in mid-winter and are now starting to flower. Some of these were last year's runners, some last years plants. I didn't buy any certified runners this year. Most are Tiogas and new a new type whose name I will eventually recall.
The tomatoes have been planted in the past month and have started well. There is no pesticides, snail pellets or pest control of any sort applied so far. I will have to lay snail pellets to kill the Portuguese millipedes, an oil bath for the earwigs and a bird netting tunnel over the strawberries to keep the birds off the fruit.
Otherwise no pest control. We will see how it goes over the summer months.

 

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Like any organic gardener I love my compost. Spring is weeding time and I have done a lot of weeding this year. The photo shows the compost in the right-hand bin being turned into the one alongside. Once the rain stops, I stop making the compost and leave it for a year until next autumn. The compost in the lefthand bin is ready for use now and is about twelve months old.

 

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broad beans are ready now.

 

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The temperate climate zones provide non-stop food production. Even though Spring is often a time of scarcity elsewhere we are picking a massive crop of lemons and some small new potatoes, good, fresh asparagus and then there are the eggs. My mother used to say, "any old chook lays in spring". She was right - we are getting eight eggs a day from nine hens.
Beginner gardeners asked what do you plant now? In Spring there are two main food groups to plant - the Mediterrean crops (tomatoes, basil, capsicums, eggplant, zucchini and cucumbers) and the three sisters (corn, pumpkin and beans).

 

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Beans are the most versatile of all the garden greens imo. You can cook them with mash spuds, add them to fried rice, cover them with peanut sauce and have them starring in a Niçoise salad. I will be planting more Hawkesbury Wonder dwarf beans but currently the Purple King and Golden climbers are doing okay.

 

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Spring turned out to be cold and wet and definitely not as predicted.
The lemon verbena (p1) and the grapes (P2+3) loved it.

 

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Zigo actus (P2), strawbs (P1) and toms (P3) are doing well.
The rest are late, and beans are not doing well.