Spring is definitely here.

The coriander, rocket and basil have been flowering. The borage has popped up and is blooming…and if you are quiet when you are near these plants you can hear the buzz of the pollinators.

One reason I love living where I am is that at this time of year the days are sunny and warm while the nights are quite cold. When I say warm, I mean it – we had a day that hit 28 degrees in August! And it’s not unusual for nights to hit low temperatures.

Because the days are getting warmer – I decided to start some of my summer crops in August. Eggplants, bush beans, corn, Thai basil, cucumbers, zucchinis and capsicums have all been sown. When I did this mid-August, we had a few mild nights in a row and I thought the cold nights were behind us…however, this wasn’t the case (hello 2 degree night!)

My poor little seeds!

Did they survive the cold nights?

Some did, some didn’t!

Last week I thought, “I’m going to give up watering the corn seeds soon” …then the most wonderful thing…I went to water them one morning and noticed a little green shoot – I could have cried…seriously!

Then I noticed more green shoots!  – I did a happy dance and carried on watering.

Three out of eight bean seeds have germinated

Four out of five zucchini seeds have germinated

No cucumber, capsicum or eggplant seeds germinated.

My snowpeas have been very bountiful the last few months. They are starting to die off though and I reckon I might get one more month of snowpeas out of the plants that were the last to go into the ground.

Broccoli is the plant where I have noticed the warmer weather affecting it the most. The broccoli heads are going to flower and we have been eating broccoli most nights as well as giving it away. The ‘broccowee’ (as someone called it because we planted it in an old toilet for fun) was one monster head of broccoli.

Kale has been a most useful addition to my veggie patch and I have enjoyed using it in a variety of ways in the kitchen. One reason I like to grow veggies I have never tried before is to experiment with them through recipes. Portuguese Kale Soup was a successful experiment!

The carrots that I had sown in June needed to be thinned in August. We had a nice little feed of fingerling carrots. The lesson I am learning from growing carrots in a trough is not to sow too many carrot seeds – by not having them in rows, the tops have tangled up in one huge mess. This isn’t necessarily that bad – I just need to gently de-tangle the tops before pulling.

I have been watching with interest a plant that had sprouted from a seed that my little one put in a pot of soil a few months ago. Where she got the seed from I could not work out until I remembered that she was playing with the packet of snowpea seeds. Mystery solved! However, the plant has not developed into a snowpea but I think it’s a broad bean plant instead.

My other exciting veggie patch venture has been to create a new veggie patch on our side nature strip. This is where corn, zucchini, beans, beetroot, nasturtiums, marigolds and Thai basil have been planted. Part of my excitement has been visioning how it’s all going to look eventually. One of my favourite parts of the day is when I’m out there watering and talking to the seedlings – it’s very therapeutic! I look forward to sharing more with you about my new veggie patch.

What have been your August happenings in your veggie patch? We would love to hear your story. Please share in the comments below!