Lovely gardens, Janie - something to be really proud of. Its summer here in Oz, and although I have a lot of vegies growing, it is still pretty wild in a lot of places. Admittedly I've only been here a few months, but the main thing that is frustrating me lately is that we have had, and look like having for a while, continuous hot days - I mean REALLY hot - in the 30's C every day (90-100 plus F) and high humidity too. It's too hot to be outside doing any meaningful work in the garden, and in the late afternoons I am not home.

I know some might say get up early and do gardening before the heat of the day, but there are two drawbacks to this - the nights have been pretty warm to hot as well, sometimes only dropping a couple of degrees, and also I am not a morning person. I have tried changing, but with limited success. I've always been this way, and my desire to change is not all that strong, to be honest.

So I can try to make the most of my time on the weekends, and hope that the weather cools down a bit soon. The main concern lately for the garden has been stopping it from drying out in this extreme heat - I know, mulching and all that. Last night we had the mother of all thunderstorms, and it continued raining for much of the night, so no need for watering today, anyway. I'm looking forward to nice mild sunny late autumn days, our best time of the year, IMO. Roll on April - June!

Jenny