Season summary for my food garden in Ballarat (Victoria), Spring, 2024. This is mainly of relevance to food gardeners in the Ballarat area, but it might be a useful comparison for those living further afield.
Spring was very warm and dry this year. It started close to average with September being .5 degrees above the long term average but October was 2.1 degrees above and November a whopping 3.9 degrees above, making the overall maximum spring temperature 2.2 degrees above average. The nights were also warmer, the average spring minimum temperature was 1.2 degrees above average. The last frost in our garden was on the 11th of October.
Rainfall for spring came in at just 61.8% of the long term average, making it five consecutive seasons of below average rainfall. The last season that recorded an above average rainfall was Autumn 2023. Which means that the deep soil moisture level is low and we are at risk of going into a drought period. Though the bureau of Meteorology’s long term forecast is a 60 to 80% chance of above average rainfall. Let’s hope so, or we are in for a long dry summer.
The official weather statistics for spring as recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology’s Ballarat airport site. Click HERE to see a higher resolution PDF of this weather chart.
vegetables
The spring vegetable crops were excellent this season, I had the best lettuces in years, a great pea crop and the broad beans were good. All the summer season crops that were planted this spring are off to an extremely good start, particularly the tomatoes and capsicums, though a couple of my eggplants planted in the greenhouse are showing signs of a fungal disease.
Bush and snow peas, photo taken on the 31st of October. Although the area planted out is small the plants have produced a lot of peas.
Some of the All Season lettuces that I grew this spring.
My broad bean plants as of 14th August. These were planted in the third week of April. Broad beans can also be planted in August but I have found April/May plantings of broad beans will mature much earlier than August plantings.
Lots of fruit setting on most of my pome and stone fruit trees, the one exception being my five crown apple which only put on a handful of apples. The cherry crop is reasonable and the Morello cherry tree has produced surprisingly well, considering that I don’t water it and it has been a dry spring. The question is: will these developing fruit survive the onslaught of birds and possums? Only time and vigilance in maintaining the nets will tell! This time of year the only citrus trees with fruit on it is my Eureka lemon and Wheeny grapefruit. But this is not unusual as both these trees have fruit on them pretty well all year round.
The berry bushes have been fabulous with great raspberry, strawberry and loganberry crops (all still being picked). And although we haven’t started picking the thornless blackberries there are plenty of berries forming on two of the three bushes.
The lemon crop on my Eureka lemon tree is much larger than last year, after a period when we were short of lemons we are now back to giving lemons away.
My citrus Juicing season finished on the 8th of November when I harvested the last of my Tangelos, using them to make tangelo cordial, and preserving them in my Fowlers preserving unit (LEFT).
chickens
My five hens averaged 4.4 eggs per day this spring, which I am pretty happy with.
No sign of pests or diseases. I dosed them against coccidiosis with Amprolium 200 Coccidiostat as a preventative. Coccidiosis is the most common threat to my hens, probably due to sparrows faeces contaminating their drinking water.
My Hyline hens getting stuck into some macaroni laced with meat meal and dried cat foot to boot their protein intake.
Their bum feathers are dry and fluffy, which is a sure sign that they don’t have coccidiosis. The coccidiosis bacteria create diarrhea like symptoms resulting in liquid faeces smeared backsides. It can reduce egg productivity and, if severe enough, can even kill the chicken. It will not go away unless it is treated.
