It’s New Moon in July. It stirs my blood. Even as cold winter clouds hang low, and the midday temperature outside battles to lift from the low teens, I feel eager and excited: Spring is coming. Exactly 50 days to 1 September. And even then… even then, I’ve come to realize that true Spring in New Zealand actually only happens much later. And every year it is different – are we in for a long and dry spring, a cold and wet one… what do the weather gods have in store? Better go have a look at MetService Monthly Outlook…

Still… the new growing season beckons, like a lover, half hidden in shadows.

Of course commercial seed growers know this, and the seed catalogs are starting to come in fast and furious, building the dreams of summer harvests to come. There’s always the old favourites, the must-grows, and then a few new things that you just have to try. Earmarked pages attest to this.

This also means the electronic garden planner is being fired up today. Putting my dreams to digital paper. I love the subscription based one Rick bought me two years ago on Mother’s Day – Growveg.com.au It has everything I need, or at least I can configure it to have everything I need, even the really unusual lot of herbs I grow. It’s even got design elements for chicken coops (not that I’m allowed chickens in my urban rental), and pergolas, compost bins, and an array of hardscaping. Best of all? It is Southern Hemisphere (the .com.au one at least) and has important-to-me planting ideals like ideal plant spacing, crop rotation and companion planting, and it e-mails reminders of what to sow, or do, to make your garden plan a reality. FYI – I don’t get affiliate kickbacks from this endorsement, but can’t keep something that good just for myself!

So today and tomorrow I dream and I plan. Perfect gardening tasks for the first few days after New Moon according to my Moon Calendar.

And then, the big sow-down will begin.