Late winter is a fastastic time to be in the garden - chilly mornings are followed by perfect days, and the going is easy. And even though this "polar vortex" is about to hit us tonight with its cold blustery weather (and snow on the range), it's obvious here that spring is about to burst forth.

While some plants (and weeds thankfully) are still struggling along waiting for the soil to warm up, others are in their element and powering! Growth rates in lettuce, carrots, spinach, beetroot, chard, etc are increasing. Tomato, capsicm, egglant, cucumber, zucchini and squash seedlings are up, and snuggly tucked away in our seedling house absorbing all the rays they can grab.  

But in the bush, things are tough this time of year, and we are having to share with our neighbours. Currawongs have migrated down out of the mountains. Bowerbirds and Wood Ducks are making morning and evening raids into the garden to eat choi, lettuce, broccoli, etc. Early spring bugs are waking up, the rats want to move inside and chew everything, and in spite of our best efforts to persuade them otherwise, the mice have eaten every single one of the 1000's of pea seeds we have planted over the last 2 months. Aaaargh! Sorry about that...

But soon, in just a few short weeks, as the sweat drips off my eyebrows and stings my eyes, and when the weeds grow so fast we can't keep up with them, I will look back endearingly to late winter and all of its little trials as a time of relative ease.

Rod