Month in Review

Boing, Boing, Boing

Spring is on the way, balmy days in the high 20s, clear skies, cherry blossoms bursting every where, magnolias on show, this pretty much sums up the last month.

So i may have skipped over the days sub zero earlier in the month, the snowfalls in the Blue Mountains, the return of the August winds, and those lovely possums hell bent on deforesting my garden of any spare magnolia buds and fresh growth, but that all comes with the change in seasons.

The past month has seen the gardens become a hive of activity, below is a summary of just some of the highlights.

• The Community Garden took out 1st place in their category in the local garden comp. Thanks to all concerned, volunteers, gardeners and supporters.
• Chester Hill Neighbourhood centre visited with 35 x 70-90yr old visitors, a great day was had by all concerned.
• Macarthur Farm Fresh Tour visited again with a dozen people on their regualr farmgate tour.
• The herb garden and the garden in general had a tidy up, see pic above, approx 15 gardeners all chipped in and lent a hand after an early breakfast supplied by the committee on site at 8am. (next one is the 15th of September)

Late Winter Blast

Camden Snap Frozen

If you woke up this morning early enough you would have been witness to the 4th day sub zero in August for Camden and a sizeable frost (-3.8), collectively through June and July we only had 2 days under the zero mark, i thought we were over the hump and getting warmer, obviously not, a bit of a worry if you were looking at getting those spring crops in, it might be worth just hanging off a bit or worth getting some cover sorted out for those susceptible to frost. If your garden is looking a bit dry the rainfall figs or lack thereof may be the reason, only 19mm of rain for Camden in July and 46mm in June.

Last year saw several gardeners lose Tomatoes, Zucchinis and Beans, looking for a good planting guide try the following link Gardenate.com note the different climatic zones.
You can also check out your local "big box" retailer or local garden centre and ask the experts.

individual rows of seeds germinating undercover

If you want to get an early start on those spring seedlings rather than buy established stock check out Greenharvest for a few ideas, similar items can be found across most retailers, and are well worth it, importantly use succession planting, if you put a whole packet of seeds in you will get everything at once, you want constant produce so by planting a few seeds every couple of weeks you will have produce cropping all the time. The other way around this is share the seedlings with your neighbours.