SPRING HAS SPRUNG! It's hard to explain the excitement I feel. Like the birds, I'm all a flutter - my throat lifts toward the sun, imagined wings flying behind me into the blue skies no longer sharp with winter, but brushed with tinges of warmth. I'm trying not to get too over the top - I mean, there's still possiblity of frost, so no way can I plant tomatoes or eggplant yet, but not long now - weeks!

As the sun goes down the birds go NUTS. A lot of the grevillea are out and they just love it. Check out the sound of the birds in this bush - if you're lucky you'll spot the tiny new holland honeyeaters and hear the pretty warble of a magpie. I promise you'll like it - do press play!

Things that sustained us through the winter months are now going to seed - kale, broccoli and bokchoy all are beginning to bolt. We've eaten a lot of it, that's for sure - that, and silverbeet, which goes in every meal. Lots and lots of parsley, though it's shot through with grass which is entertaining as I prep dinner. J. looks at me sternly and says: 'I hope you are getting all the grass out', stating the bleeding obvious.

The garlic scapes aren't out yet but the garlic crop is looking GOOD. All winter I've been eating the garlic tops like chives - I plant the whole bulb (the little ones no good for seed crop) and there's so much of it that it's a totally bounty. Sadly J. can't eat it, so I eat it sprinkled over things or in my own mini bowls of noodles or eggs.

For the first time this year the loquats survived the frost. I'm not sure if it's because it's a little microclimate in there now or whether we just didn't have the hard frosts this year. I suspect we didn't. They're calling a long dry summer and that doesn't surprise me at all. They're also calling a hard winter in the US. Looks like we are in for some global struggling - its a real worry. However, a lot of our trees have their roots down into the water way below, and they're providing shade for the other trees, so with a bit of water wise gardening we should be okay.

The raspberry rows are now mulched and fertilised and weeded - I put a drip line under the straw as we lost a few last year as I didn't water them much. This summer is meant to be a hot one, so it's ALL about mulching. On the weekend just gone, we did that whole area of the garden, weeding and top dressing quinces, a japanese plum and the apricot, as well as fertilised the olives with well rotted chook manure from up the road. The gum tree to the left has a bee hive under it, but there's no sign of the bees - must ring our bee keeper to come round and smoke a spliff and tell us why the bees left us.

The lemon and lime also survived the frost - the microclimate of artichokes helped I think. We're going to have so many artichokes and I'm excited about preserving them. The pink blossom is the nectarine. The pear and plum blossoms are also out, but the birch tree and the oak are tardy with their leaves - they usually are. The crapapple has beautiful dark purple flowers - I love her.

I'll leave this for now, as I'm going to be totally spamming you with garden updates over the next few months. Hope you've enjoyed this update - @simplymike started an awesome hashtag called #gardenjournal2018. A great way to connect with other gardeners and to keep a log of what's going on in your magical gardens. Go check it out - it's totally inspiring. Oh, and @simplymike - I bought those cucamelon seeds, so am going to get on that this weekend too!

I totally love our garden - it's a way of resisting the terror of supermarkets, chemical sprays on your food, food miles and production pollution, and gives us a real independence. I'm sure we could do a helluva lot more if we didn't have the committments of work, but we're doing alright. Being out in it in Spring is pure joy.

Oh, and this is the first time I've used the GHSC banner on my posts - its damn pretty and those guys are a pretty amazing collective. I kinda wish we had a local Australian one as we're doing different things in different parts of the world, but I do like the good folk there and learn a lot from them. Thanks for being amazing, GHSC.

Lots of Spring Vibes to All of You, No Matter the Season!

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