"Rod Speed" writes:
Stawberrys too.

Have you noticed how strawberries have maximum flavour if they have
not recently been wet? i.e., pick and just brush off any soil before
eating, rather than washing. And after wet weather, wait a day or two
if possible, before picking.

I dont see many of either. Quite a few pewees and another
backbird sized bird with speckled feathers and nothing
special beak color wise, dunno what this one is.

starling

Yeah, noticed Woolys was flogging bags of 'beetroot shred' as 'aussie lettuce'

I've never heard of that.

Maybe the native warrigal greens, but I haven't tried. Pig

Oops. Just read that warrigal greens *must* be cooked before eating, to
remove their oxalic acid and another nasty.

The pototoes are really bounding out of the ground, looks like I
will end up with a hell of a glut because I basically planted half
of the sprouted tubers I had instead of chucking them out.
The latest lot had green shoots in 5 days and the first lot
are quite decent plants now, 15 days from planting.

Yes, potatoes are like that, and are an excellent crop for a new garden
bed. Keep an eye on them, for if you didn't plant sufficiently deep the
tops of some spuds will show through and grow green. If you see this,
mound up the soil and cover with mulch. You can spread plenty of
straw and mulch over the whole bed, in any case. There is no need to
wait until all the plants have matured and died down, you can start
scratching around under the plants and collect small spuds as soon
as they reach suitable size. With butter and salt and pepper you will
be amazed at the flavour of home-grown potatoes. So long as the
soil drains well, you should have no problems. The only pest I've had
is a plague of ladybirds; they eat the green off the leaves and leave
them looking like lace. But I'd caution against killing any ladybird on
sight, as those with a certain number of spots are good guys, Wait
until you see them congregating on ruined leaves before you squash
them.

If you plant sprouted spuds in early spring, you can get two crops during
summer. Cover with a heap of loose straw to protect from late frosts,
but even if the emerging shoots do get frosted new ones will soon
emerge, so it's not all that much of a setback.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)