They look good. Are you going to be able to eat all the melons yourself, or are you sharing them around?

They look good - you will have to show us some inside pics too. What area are you in and how many vines do you have?

Why do zucchini have to be so scratchy? I’ve just been out trimming and tying up my plants and have scratches all over my arms. They are being quite prolific though, I have a load of slices in the dehydrator to grind for flour and took 8 up to the local food cupboard. The button squash have not grown so well, but it looks like I miight have one soon. Better than nothing I guess.

I have also harvested my first beans of the season - only four today, but I suspect I will be swamped soon. The climbing beans are paticularly rampant this year, so once they start producing I will definitely have more than I can handle. The tomatoes are still not ripening, but I have a lot of green fruit and flowers. I guess it just needs to hit the right temperature for them, and then I am going to be overrun with those too.

I am extra excited that I have some capsicum fruits, I’ve never had much success with those before. The same with the eggplant, they have lots of flowers which will hopefully become fruit, something I’ve never managed before.

I don’t think I’ll be getting any loofahs this year - the vine is alive, but has been growing so slowly I don’t think it will get big enough to produce anything. Not sure why, the pumpkin nearby is going really strongly (although my plans to grow it onto the top of the shed are not going to work out as the leaves that get that high are being eaten, presumably by possums). Another pumpkin variety in the front yard is now growing onto the roof of the carport, leaving the lattice on the side of the carport for the sweet potatoes which are growing very strongly, and hopefully forming lots of nice tubers under the ground for me.

Surprisingly I have some wombok growing really well in spite of the number of cabbage moths around this year - I’m not sure how long it takes to form the heart, but it is definitely starting to form.

I suspect rats of eating all of the sunflower seeds and my carrrots last year. Little bugger also stole all of my chilis - I located it’s nest and it was stuffed full of them! I’ve done a lot of clearing of areas they can hide in, so I’m hoping to have less problems with them this year. My tomatoes are still subbornly green at the moment though.

Birds primarily. I have netting drawstring bags that I put over each bunch of raspberries once they start to get a bit pink. It’s a bit of pain to constantly put the bags on and off, but without them I wouldn’t get any raspberries at all.

I am still waiting on any tomatoes to ripen. I keep seeing other people posting about the tomatoes they are picking, but I think I’m still weeks off any ripe ones here. There are a lot of flowers, as well as fruit starting to develop, so when it does get there I think I might be a bit overrun! It will be nice if I am, I can donate excess to a local food cupboard so it won’t go to waste. I’ve also planted a row of mixed cherry tomatoes along the front fence to allow people to pick there own on the way past.

My raspberries have mostly finished round 1, but I keep finding occassional stray berries still. I need to make more bags to protect the fruit before round 2.

My dog really likes grass, and will want to stop and graze every time we go past a juicy overgrown patch while walking. I don’t have any lawn, so this is the only grass he can get at home.

I discovered today that corn does not need the full kernel to sprout. I had some corn cobs that I stripped the kernels from and threw into the compost bin, and today there were shoots coming up from it everywhere. I am a bit intrigued and have planted it in the garden to see what happens. Mr Woof will be very happy if it continues to grow as he has taken quite the liking to my corn plants, they are apparently very tasty.

It’s been too horribly humid in Melbourne to want to do anything in the garden, but most of the plants seem to be enjoying it.

I have discovered the reason my corn plants are looking so tatty - Mr Woof thinks they are very tasty and has been munching on them. I might have to plant a patch of snacking grass for him.

The wind in Melbourne is pretty wild at the moment. My biggest tomato plant has been blown over, but fortunately it looks like it’s not broken the stem so it should be ok once re-staked with a stronger support. Fingers crossed everything else holds up ok and nothing gets flattened when the rain arrives.

My current setup is every available bit of space in my small yard being used to grow food. I have just pulled up some brick paving to put in some raised garden beds, and am pulling up a narrow strip of brick paving to plant alont the side of my house. I’m also trialling growing pumpkins up onto the shed roof and carport this year.

My dream garden would be much the same, but bigger. I’d like space for a few more fruit trees and a chicken coop, as well as a small native habitat area for birds etc.

I think climate change is already making things a bit harder, as it makes the extreme events more common. I think it makes less direct impact on the plants with a food garden as they are mostly annuals which already need a lot of extra care like water and shade. There are some areas that the range of fruits that can be grown is decreased as some need sufficient hours of cold weather over winter. But the impact on insects and things which the plants rely on is a big concern, both the decrease in pollinators but also the increase in pests - this year there was a big increase in cabbage butterflies due to the early warm weather, and Qld fruit fly is getting steadily closer. I may need to look into insect netting for some plants in future. Some of the summer plants that need a long growing season may be more productive, so a lot of “future proofing” will be more a matter of altering the mix of plants and varieties. I think increasing the number of varieties is also important, as the increased variability in the weather means that different plants are likely to be more successful than others depending on the exact conditions each year.

Exciting! I have some passionfruit seeds in pots that are not doing anything at the moment, and a long history of dead passionfruit vines, so you are way ahead of me.

I think the jalapenyo is past saving - it is only a young seedling and has completely wilted. I do have another seedling planted that is growing well and another that overwintered and is regrowing strongly, so it is not a great tragedy.

I am pleased with the garden’s progress at the moment. I picked my second zucchini of the season, and the raspberries are still producing. The climbing beans are beginning to climb their supports, and a couple more snake bean seeds have sprouted so I have hope for those too.

Unfortunately the jalapenjo in the front yard looks like it has given up on life, possibly because my dog peed on it.

It always takes a while after winter to get back into the habit of thinking about sunscreen again.

I can’t say I’m having much success with my spinach at the moment - one lot was growing well initially but has now gone to seed, and I have one plant that is growing really slowly, it’s barely bigger than a seedling and it has been in the ground for weeks. Fortunately the lettuce seems to be doing much better - I have some under the climbing beans, so hopefully the shade will keep them from getting too hot with the increase in sunshine.

Rosemary is fairly hardy, so hopefully your cuttings will go ok. I have a prostrate rosemary which was growing up some lattice so that it looked like a standard bush, but it has now thinned out at the bottom and is just branches with no leaves, all the leafy growth is at the top of the lattice. Fortunately I have another plant growing in the ground from a branch I pegged down which is taking over as ground cover, and I have bought a pink flowering and a white flowering bush to fill in the middle (the original is blue flowering) so I will hopefully have what looks like one rosemary bush with multi-coloured flowers.

With many days of rain forecast in Mellbourne I don’t think I’ll be doing much gardening for a while. The plants are loving it though - there is a lot of new growth happening outside which is great to see.

I have a parsnip flowering at the moment, and I hadn’t realised how tall it was going to get - it’s taller than I am! The bees and hoverflies are enjoying the flowers at the moment, and once the seeds set I may be in danger of parsnips taking over the garden.

I always feel bad when I have to throw out extra seedlings I don’t need, especially when they have grown well. I ended up planting a couple of capsicum and a chilli in the front garden so at least they have a chance - and if they do grow I get an honesty test of the neighbourhood, as they are right next to the footpath.

I’ve had seed from a couple of different sources and not had success germinating them. I soaked the last batch in water overnight before planting and had the two sprout, which is an improvement on previous attempts! I think they might need a lot more water to sprout successfully, I am going to try a bit longer soak and watering more often. I don’t think all the warnings about not watering beans after planting to prevent the seeds rotting in the soil apply when you have very free draining soil.

I always find carrots are quite unsatisfying for the space they take up. I much prefer radish and beetroot. Radish are quick to grow a useful crop, and can be left to provide quite pretty flowers if you have the space. Beetroot have lovely coloured leaves which are tasty (and don’t have the prickle factor of radish leaves). A few feathery carrot leaves in the garden provide a nice backdrop to other plants, but they are just not one of my favourites.

I’ve had a lot of success with basil indoors in a sunny position. Even indoors the coriander is pretty fickle. I’ve not had a lot of success with either basil or coriander in the garden, but am persisting in trying to find the right spot. I am hoping to get a couple of self-seeding patches of coriander growing if I can find the right spots.

In theory you can use varying micro-climates in the garden to extend the growing season, so I am trying a shady spot next to the house that will hopefully keep corriander growing a bit later in summer (but may be too shady over winter) and will try another position that is sunny over winter and hopefully get it producing earlier in the season (but will send it to seed earlier over summer).

The parsley I mostly just let self seed - I have found that the flat leaf and curly leafed varieties seed at slightly different times, so I will usually have one of the two growing well. They also grow at different times in different spots, and there will often be seedlings popping up in new spots while other plants are more established - having crops at different stages is mostly a matter of selective weeding rather than specific planning with parsley!