Spring has Sprung!

Well folks, it seems that spring has sprung here in Melbourne. Even though there is every chance that it might coil back up again tomorrow, there's a sense of excitement in the air, and it's catching.

I couldn't possibly stay indoors today even though I had emails to send and job hunting to do. So I went walking, and went scouring through the rubbish that's out for verge collection at the moment. I found a whole heap of plant pots, seedling trays and a piece of a fence that I can use to train my cucumber plants up. Yesterday I found a shelf with slide-out trays on my street, so I took it home to use as a linen cupboard. Hard rubbish time is great! Some people throw out really great stuff. Its a bit shocking really, so much of it should be going to op-shops or being recycled, rather than becoming landfill.

One tip when picking up verge collection items: watch out for spiders! As I was cleaning the shelf yesterday, I felt a sharp pain in my finger, and there was a spider latching on and biting me! I quickly pulled it off, and luckily I had no reaction. Phew!

With the lovely weather, I'm very inspired to keep gardening and growing more food. I found some great info and inspiration here .Here are some shots of my clam garden (my old burlesque prop that I turned into a veggie patch) It's just a kid's paddling pool, with some holes drilled in the bottom for drainage, and filled up with potting mix, compost and a bit of slow release fertilizer.

My veggie clams with their new seedlings. Garlic, bok choy, onions, parsley, broccolini and lettuce.

Progress on the veggies after about a month. We had some steamed bok choy with salmon and it was lovely and juicy!