It's a little bit odd, but also a bit thrilling, to be in springtime again, only 6 months after the last one started. It'd be tempting to move hemispheres more regularly.
The trees in Auckland are in blossom, lawns and meadows are rich with healthy daisies and buttercups, and the garden shops are full of fruit and veg plants. The overnight temperatures are much higher on average than at home, and there's plenty of sunshine mixed in with the showers.
So it's all perfect conditions for starting anew in the garden, and fortunately Pat's given me a rich strip of bed to play with. She's already underway with lots of veggies - cucumbers, broccoli, garlic, tomatoes, peas, bok choi, spinach, iceberg lettuces and some very healthy herb clumps - so I've gone for a strip of leafy lettuce plants (little gem and royal oak - picture below, with Pat's existing crops in the other section) that we'll use as cut-and-come-again rather than wait to form heads, giving us a regular supply of salad leaves until the rocket and mixed leaf sowings are through. Leo helped me out and we'll make a gardener of him, no doubt.
The growing season here looks like it's going to be longer, which is terrific - plants can be sown earlier, so the more difficult chillies might do better here, and we can look forward to some early cropping tomatoes and beans in the years to come. I guess there's a chance that plants which might be annual at home might overwinter quite nicely here, too.
Next stop: success with basil and mint - both have defeated me many times so far.
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