It always surprises me that while we’re in the height of summer and enjoying blazing sunshine in the day, that come February the mornings are already so dark. I have the privilege of being woken before 6am most mornings by little voices and hands. In the last week I’ve noticed how much longer it takes for the sun to lighten the sky in the morning. 

Growth in our summer garden has slowed down. We did a bit clear out of the plants that had gone to seed in the unusual humidity we had in December and January and made way for some new seedlings. In Northland we’re on high alert for the tropical army worm, so the clear out means we can more easily spot any intruders.  

We’ve been enjoying almost daily harvests of green and yellow courgettes and telegraph cucumbers. Our strawberries are making a valiant effort to continue what has been a bumper season for us since November, however I think they are pretty much done.  

The raspberries on the other hand are just about to start showing off. The kids eagerly devour them as soon as they’re ready, but I have my eye on a few branches that will probably ripen all at once over the next week or two.  

We're waiting impatiently for our next round of sweet peas to climb their way to the top of the simple bamboo frame and start flowers. A hack we learned is to plant seedlings and seeds at the same time, so that as the first lot of plants come to the end of the cycle you have another set just about to start producing. 

On the weekend I overheard Mark telling his niece, Laura, about how he had always assumed that growing vegetables was easy because his family had a market garden. But now that we’re growing our own veggies, we’ve had so many hard lessons to learn we have a new appreciation for just how challenging it can be. 

That just means that when I carry in a trug load of produce, it makes it to the plate with a side of pride that the hard work has paid off.