I’ve been quiet recently. Not quite true, there’s posts and updates elsewhere, but it’s true to say that I’ve not been writing a lot. In part it’s because we’re just recovering from two long weekends in a row and a sustained spate of spring gardening.

First of all we had Family and Community day, unofficially known as Fish and Chip day, and then Labour day last Monday. By chance they fell on subsequent weekends this year so I took the opportunity to take some days off in between to get on with the garden, which was rapidly turning into a verdant jungle

Unlike last year, when the start of spring was unseasonably cold, in fact it snowed on what was officially the last day of winter, this year it has been warmer and wetter than usual with the result that the weeds have taken off without the decency to wait until I was ready to deal with them

However, I got a load of bark delivered and we’ve managed to get control of around half the weeds and put down bark as a weed suppression mulch and the front is looking half decent, even though bits of the back are still a jungle.

I totally failed to get any seed potatoes – the unexpectedly warm  early start caught me out, and I’m only now putting in our spring an summer veg and starting off seeds, but hopefully if it stays warm and wet things will catch up. (I’ve also managed to find some seed potatoes for sale online from Tasmania so hopefully they’ll be fine).

The apricot and fig trees are already setting fruit which probably means we’ll have our annual invasion by possums – a native animal the size of a cat that while vegetarian is aggressive and has a reputation for decimate fruit trees.

They also go for parsley – last year J had some parsley in pots and we came out one morning to find it all neatly clipped off at about 5mm by possums.

The cat is scared of possums – you always know when they’re about as he comes in and cuddles up to you for protection – I think he’s had a couple of confrontations and come off worst but no obvious injuries …