I went up to my Mum and Dad’s on Sunday. They live north of Melbourne, about 60km from Coburg in a place which is, on average, about 4 degrees cooler. In fact if I check the temperature gauge in my car just before I set out I can almost always predict what temperature it will be when I get there. This 4 degrees can be a bad thing – winters there are pretty chilly. But it can also be a good thing – their parsley has yet to bolt whereas mine has been sending up flower stalks for weeks.
What it also means is that a lot of the fruit tends to be a bit behind Melbourne’s, but looking at their trees they have a lot coming on. Cherries tend to do well in that part of the world and their 3 year old tree has some beautiful bunches developing. The figs are also developing nicely and actually look to be further along than mine.
But it’s the stone fruit – the apricots, nectarines, plums and peaches that I am most jealous of.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to have the space to grow all these?
It’s great to read about what is happening with our seasons inverted – I just add-on six months and try to imagine what is happening then in my own garden here in York UK.
Good to hear about your parsley. I just about get parsley all the year round although I have to look pretty hard in late January and February! So now yours will be soon self seeding….?
It self seeds very happily – my struggle though is filling the gap between it going to seed and the next crop reaching edible size. If I sow too soon it bolts, too late and the gap is too big. I should sow weekly to pinpoint the date I guess.
I found some chilli seeds you sent me a couple of years ago. I now have seedlings.
🙂
Thanks again.
That’s brilliant! Very pleased – hope they do well for you.
Lovely! I would trade my spacious apartment to have a place like this where I can grow plants and flowers. I have been working with Melwood Garden Sheds and whenever I join the field installation, I would simply stop and appreciate the beauty of our clients’ gardens.