There's been a bit of a blog hiatus, primarily due to the loss of my camera which I'm still hoping is in the house somewhere and will turn up where I least expect it.
But my days have been filled with gardening adventures, and I thought I'd report in.
The back garden is currently sporting a healthy crop of chives, both regular and garlic, which I separated and am pleased to say seem to be doing well and have flavoured many a carbonara dish. The parsley continues to do well, and I've added an Italian parsley which suffered badly from a predator for the first few days, but has recovered after I provided an egg shell moat. My attempts at greek basil and marjoram have failed, but I still have thyme, rosemary and oregano growing strongly.
My single pot of spinach intensively planted in compost has done wonderfully, providing the base for many a poached egg. It is still producing well and has convinced me that good soil is worth finding as the spinach I planted in garden soil with a little mushroom compost and dynamic lifter has not produced nearly as well.
I have some broad beans growing behind the trampoline and noticed flowers today, but as the winter sun has left that garden bed, I'm not hopeful of any actual beans. I also planted some turnips in the hope of getting a quick crop before the end of the sunshine, but I think I'll be disappointed.
My lemon tree in a barrel is absolutely covered in blossoms, and as there has been a smidgeon of bee activity, I'm cautiously hopeful that we might get more than the sole lemon we picked last year! I've mulched around the outside edge of the barrel with mushroom compost, and have planted some coriander and rocket - I'm not sure which have germinated but there seem to be a few.
The front vegetable garden has been a bit of a disappointment, primarily because I didn't know better when it came to sending my dh off to the garden centre for soil. We had a first trailer load of some sort of "compost" that was full of twigs and absolutely no nutrients. The next load of mushroom compost has been better, but really doesn't seem to be enough to grow good vegies.
We are currently eating broccoli, spring onions and silverbeet from the front garden, with potatoes on the way (one self-seeded from last year, and another few from an old organic potato I recycled from the bottom of the potato box). I have some rather miserable tomato seedlings waiting to be planted out, and a very healthy looking shop-bought heirloom tomato plant that has some promising flowers, as does the capsicum plant next to it.
My celery and onions are growing like snails - I think the first batch of soil got them off to an irredeemably poor start, but with any luck they'll be useful at some stage. I tried growing peas from seedlings again this year, but I just don't seem to be a pea-grower as 4 out of 6 seedlings have already withered and died.
I started a new vegetable bed with dwarf beans underneath Possum's bedroom window, and after a first fevered period of growth, they seem to be consolidating. I'm just hoping this doesn't mean I didn't dig the bed deep enough.
Another new vegetable bed contains rockmelon, mini-pumpkin, butternut pumpkin and zucchini plants, all of which seem to be growing respectably.
The Meyer lemon tree I planted in about April has gone through stages of looking very unhappy with curling leaves, but is now showing new leaf growth and a respectable bunch of buds.
So, life in the garden is getting better. Slowly. I do think we'll have more to harvest than last year, but I'm disappointed that I haven't made more progress.
I'm feeling quietly pleased with this year's garden. We've got just a few more shoots to eat off the broccoli (front) with a plant a day going to the chooks, the celery is a good strong colour and ready for eating and juicing, and the beans are finally flowering after good early growth then a hiatus.
I cut a potato into six pieces, hoping a couple would grow, and have been thrilled to find all six growing strongly. I've been building up the ground over them with mulch, compost and some cow manure so I'm hoping harvesting won't be too much digging.
And look - my first actual growing zucchinis! 
What a sweet puppy! She'll be even sweeter when she's fully toilet trained and has learnt to resist the chew-everything-in-sight urge! I'll be particularly grateful when she stops the juice box search and destroy missions!
