It's freezing out but I'll be gardening today. Anyone else four season garden??

LOL, you must've seen me coming, Fenika!

I'm Down Under, and the weather here is a far cry from snow... But I'm not bragging. I'd actually prefer a little snow - it's too hot here. I'm in Adelaide though, where we get massive heatwaves in summer.

As for gardening... I don't really garden much myself, but down here most people do a little bit in each season. Like, because we don't get below 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point) very often, the plants don't really hibernate much in winter.

So it's general clean up in winter, clean trim and water in autumn and spring, and water in summer. That's the "basic" amount that needs to be done here, it seems.

Oh, and pulling out weeds all year round. *headdesk*

Just don't grow too many poppies, or the fuzz might need a word with you.

I love gardening - any time of the year. Of course, it's summer here now and everything is burgeoning so it means doing a lot of weeding, planting annuals, dead-heading roses and mowing the lawn. I have several very big trees on the property so I've cultivated a shade-garden. For the first time ever the zantedeschias are in full flower and looking super.

With the exception of a geranium, I've had no luck with herbs. I plant them with such hope. They grow for a while and then just keel over. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Maybe the ph of the soil is wrong for them. But even the ones I put on the windowsill in the kitchen just died. There must be a knack to this that I don't know.

I'm a firm believer in organic compost. My hubby and I make some of it ourselves and some we buy from the plant nursery. Also, my daughter started a little worm farm in her backyard - to get my grandson interested in the process - and now I have 'vermypost' (not sure of spelling, sorry) and also 'worm tea', which I believe is fantastic for plants. I plan to start using that tomorrow when, hopefully, the rain eases up.

Being in the southern hemisphere (and with a north-facing house) the north side gets no sun in summer but lots of sun in winter. Great for sweet peas, iceland poppies and pansies etc.

I think I'll have to make a closer study of each individual herb and plant them where they'd do best. The soil around my place is very clayey as we're on what was a riverbed. The roses love it, though.

ETA. Oh, my kitchen window is north facing. So it will start getting sun around the middle of March.

I'm lucky - we don't get snow, though we get some frost.

We try to eat mostly out of our backyard, so yep, still gardening! We've got spinach, beets, swiss chard, peas, sugar snap peas, snow peas, broccoli, mustard greens, cabbage, chinese cabbage, collard greens, lettuces, arugula, carrots, kohl rabi, bok choy, broccoli raab, brussel sprouts, and leeks.

I'm trying to grow tomatoes indoors. They're flowering right now, but I think I started them too late. Lettuce is difficult to grow here in the summer, so it's tough to get tomatoes in my salads

GaliD - I've found that clay means death to a lot of plants. Lavender and garlic will do fine in it, though, as well as chives - if you're looking for something you can put straight into the ground. We live on a bunch of clay as well. We've had to do raised garden beds and buy a soil/compost mix in bulk. Now we just amend that soil every six months with compost and rabbit poop.

Fenika said:

You wouldn't want to take pity on us North Hemi folks and post some pics?

Click to expand...

It is my before-2012- resolution (no pun intended) to get myself a flickr account and figure out how to get pics from my pc to here. I'm on it.

Chives!!! Yes. Why didn't I think of that? I've got lavender and wild garlic so, of course, chives would do well too. I love chives.

Andrea, I thoroughly enjoyed your suburbansustainability site. My garden challenges are partly the clay soil but also the amount of shade. But if it grows in shady conditions, I'll plant it. I would keep chickens too, if we were allowed to.

PS I have one corner where I think I could plant tomatoes in a container. Yep. That's what I'll do. You inspired me.

You should totally plant tomatoes, Gail! I think in terms of return on investment, tomatoes are the best. They taste so much better than store-bought and are fairly easy to grow. I pop 'em like candy in the summer.

And...we're actually not allowed to have chickens either. Shh! Don't tell the neighbors!