You know the very best thing about this year? I get TWO SPRINGS. YEP, the best season of the year and I get TWO of them. Two bee filled, blossom loaded, green, blue skied gorgeous Springs! It's not because I am a time traveller, although it might seem that way since I live in the future of anyone in the Northern Hemisphere, but because I went to the UK in March for two months. I frolicked across hill and down dale and through woodlands and meadows, gushing and effusing about the incredible bounty of flowers, wild edibles and medicinal plants, from nettle and primrose to oak and ash. What a magical time it was.

And then yesterday, I'm sitting in my garden having a well deserved wine and I look left toward the Japanese plum and the quince, and the new apple trees (one is a Cox's Orange Pippin, which I've wanted for ages, a well loved English variety) and right towards the pink flowering nectarine and further into the distance, the crapapple and plum trees, and thought - what the actual flying banana? It's Spring AGAIN!

^{Blossoms on the nectarine tree. All our fruit trees (we have about twenty) have been pruned, fertilsed and mulched this year.}

If you've been following me you'll already know about my pride and joy of a polytunnel. It's beyond exciting for me to go in there five times a day and check the temperature and watching the seedlings burst through the soil.

^{A romanesco zucchini unfurling - these are a ribbed heirloom variety}

It's almost like watching them unfurl in real time - I'm getting down and talking to these babies as they nudge their way up through the hot damp earth. Hello zucchini! Hello tulasi! Hello pickling gherkins! Hello button squash! Hello chamomile! And it's all in this luxurious heat when it's pretty cold and windy outside still. I just love sitting in there and sweating, honestly, with a podcast on and some lemon water (the lemons and limes are positively dripping off the trees!)

^{26 degrees in hot house, not even 20 degrees inside. Outside it's about 16 degrees with intermittent sun.}

I've got a whole heap of heirloom seeds this year and I had to giggle when I was sorting them all out - looks like I had a bit of a purple thing going on when I was ordering this year!

We've mulched a few new garden beds, cutting down on the amount of mowing that needs to be done, and we've put in a bathtub worm farm and I've been sorting out my organic homemade fertilisers, wicking beds and watering systems. That's the beauty of being at home - you just get so much done!

I'm trying the straw method for potatoes this year, which I've never done before. I've got three or four separate beds around the place. As usual, most beds look bare (except for the garlic and broad bean, and the kale that's begun to self seed) at this stage, but come late Spring, I'll be running out of room to plant things. I didn't get many brassicas going - the house sitters didn't plant them when I was away and when I got down to it the slugs and earwigs just decimated them, and the chooks broke in and ate the rest, so I gave up.

^{A freshly mulched native garden and the back of chook shed. This is where I pot up and keep my worms - it's south facing and cool}

Food wise, we've been surviving a bit off kale, beetroot leaves, parsley, broad bean tops (you can eat them in salads or even stir fries), garlic shoots, spring onions, calendula flowers and broccoli flowers from two plants which didn't fruit but went to seed. I'd usually have more but you CAN make a tasty brown rice dish by sauting the above and eating with lime pickle - simple and delicious. I'm looking forward to not relying on the green grocers again. As I wasn't here for harvest I missed my chance to freeze tomatoes or store pumpkins or even make my usual hops tincture. Part of me was regretting leaving when I went off travelling, but I slapped myself and picked up my backpack - I wonder if the garden was telling me there was a pandemic coming and I should stay home instead?

Well, I may not have listened but I DID score two Springs, one of which has just begun. Honestly it's stunning around here - the parrots are going crazy, let alone the rest of the birds. We planted ten more olive trees and fifty more gum trees. I wish we could afford more.

Planting trees at the bottom of the 5 acres.

Jamie bird watching. North of him is the house and cultivated gardens.

Camping in the garden when we're not allowed to go elsewhere - view to the mini lake to the west.

Well, in a months time I reckon I'll have a lot more gushing to do. As you guys in the Northern Hemisphere continue your harvest, I'll be sowing. Such is the poetry of the global gardening world!