Bit difficult to post in such seasonal sensitive threads, as it will all be outa whack,so I hope nobody minds if I start this thread for the southern hemisphere.

In the last 6 weeks, 45 cu metres of peaty soil was delivered.10 cu metres has now been spread for the veggies, 25 for bulbs and 10 stock piled for potting irises and some liliums.

My garlic was the first to go in, 3 different varieties and it's up and racing.

At Christmas time, a very healthy brown onion was allowed to run up to seed , some of which was saved and that too was sown a few days ago.To compare onions with onions, a named commercial brown onion packet of seed was sown at the same time.
2 pics, garlic and unripen onion seed heads.

Great idea for a thread! That soil sure looks wonderful!

By the way, lovely carnations behind the onions!

@vanozzi, I'm pretty sure no one minds having you post about what's happening in your garden!! I'm curious about your garlic... since it's spring here, I'm assuming it's autumn where you are ? When do you harvest your garlic? I plant mine in mid to late autumn, it doesn't start sprouting until spring (maybe 5-6 months later), and harvest about 9 months after planting, in the summer. Do you get cold winters? What latitude are you at?

Sorry for all the questions; inquiring minds just need to know!!

G'day Sandy--here is my latitude/longitude in different formats

Format Latitude Longitude
Decimal -38.46861° 142.75029°
D° MM' SS" 38° 28' 07" S 142° 45' 01" E
D° MM.MMM' 38° 28.117' S 142° 45.017' E

I'm at 54 metres above sea level and about 3 klms from the ocean and we have about 740 mm rain.It's a beautiful climate, with no frost- everrrrr
Usually the garlic is planted around the Autumn Equinox, this year being 21 st March, but that new soil was late in delivery.Worth waiting for though!!Should have had more peat in it from a local bog, but I'm happy with it.Wanted to rotary hoe it into the existing soil, but didn't.I'll explain that later.The harvest is 6 months after planting, a little later if I want to save seed, which I did 2 years ago.There are quite a few, like hundreds of seedlings rowed out, this being their third year.I'm looking forward to digging those seedlings and seeing their quality.
Can't help myself--gotta grow stuff from seed!! Probably some type of medical condition
Your garlic must be quite different to mine, able to withstand a Michigan freeze?
One type that I grow is called ''Lune River'', favoured as a crop in Tasmania, where I lived for 12 years and had a small cherry orchard.I left Tassie 7 years ago.

The soil IS great Arlene and only cost $20 cu metre plus cartage. Had to pull down some of the fencing to gain access and dig out a fence stainer post by hand! That post went almost to China !

Thanks Arlene for your comment on the carnations.You may have noticed how I supposedly cleverly positioned the picture of the onion head with carnations directly behind to distract you from the background iron fence that definitely needs attention.
Those carnations are all seedlings,the type is known as English border carnations, not pinks, not sims and not annual types.I've been breeding them for quite a few years, one goal being scent in a perpetual flowering plant. Oops--don't want to hijack my own thread ..too early.Somebody should start a thread on carnations.

Yes, your climate is definitely a bit warmer than mine!! Probably much, much closer to Arlene's gardening conditions... but at any rate, garlic grows very successfully here, even in the open garden, and I'm experimenting with growing it in an unheated hoop house; just planted a small amount in there last fall, but it's considerably ahead of the exposed plants.

Always very confusing to me to think about the seasons being reversed in the southern hemisphere... but then I get confused just going from one time zone to another, so no surprise there!

Your posts about gardening in the Southern Hemisphere
are interesting for us in the Northern Hemisphere!

I do envy all that rain! We are very dry here this spring.

I had to go back and look for the fence! I hadn't wven noticed it.

I nteresting about the carnations. I love carnations for the scent and it's hard to get many good ones. I hate that the stems flop but I love the ones that do have scent so I tolerate it. They are hard to get though. I don't have any growing right now.

Behind that threatened fence, is this sheltered house area, where most of my soft fruits are grown.All this row was planted 3 years ago, except for the first tree, a nectarine.This tree is quite old, produces only about a dozen fruits which unfortunately I share with the possums.Last year I gave it a half prune as I needed the shade for some oriental lilies and some choice species.The shade house across the back is erected now, so I'll heavily prune the rest of the tree shortly and cut back last years new growth by a third.This will produce abundantly this coming season.
Continuing down the fence line, in order, are 2 different peaches, 3 different japanese plums, a two way grafted apricot, a 2 way grafted pear and last year I put in another plum, this time a narrabean.
Beyond the shade house, close to the dis-used dairy, is the apple orchard.

Wow, I'm impressed! You have a lot going on.

vanozzi said:...
I'm at 54 metres above sea level and about 3 klms from the ocean and we have about 740 mm rain.It's a beautiful climate, with no frost- everrrrr
...
Can't help myself--gotta grow stuff from seed!! Probably some type of medical condition
...

I have the same medical condition myself: O. Seed D.
"Obsessive Seed Disorder".

One question: Zone 8b? But no frost ever? Wouldn't that make you Zone 10 or warmer? I'm Zone 8b and expect an average winter to go down to 15 or 20 F (-7 to -9 C?).

I believe I have that same condition -- O. Seed D.

Thanks for raising that question Rick. US weather zones in Australia are pretty much alien to me and going by the colour representing your US zones on the Australian map, puts my location with an 8b rating.I know that colour map is wrong, because that 8b rating also is representative of Alice Springs which is in the desert in central Australia.Going up to a 9 rating (by that colour map) makes my location tropical, the same as far North Queensland--and we certainly aren't tropical.It was about 5 AM when I updated and put my full location/zone in two days ago and I hadn't been to bed, so that also adds to my excuse.
So going by these weather statistics at the closest station (Warrnambool 30 klms away), what is the correct US zone for Nullawarre?
mean max 19C
mean min 8.4C
Thanks--hope you can clarify for me

Warrnambool Ap Long-term Averages
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ann
Mean Max (°C)
24.5 24.8 23.1 20.1 16.6 14.2 13.5 14.5 16.2 17.9 20.4 22.4 19.0
Mean Min (°C)
11.7 12.3 10.8 8.8 7.4 5.9 5.5 5.9 6.8 7.3 9.0 10.1 8.4
Mean Rain (mm)
34.1 31.2 49.3 53.9 66.8 81.4 82.9 97.5 69.0 64.3 53.1 48.8 731.2
Median Rain (mm)
27.2 28.0 37.2 40.4 56.4 68.2 68.0 80.2 69.2 54.0 47.0 46.4 699.2
Mean Rain Days
8.9 8.4 12.6 14.8 20.5 20.3 21.7 21.8 20.0 18.5 13.8 11.9 184.4
Warrnambool Ap Daily Records
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ann
High Max (°C)
44.0 44.8 40.7 35.6 27.9 22.4 18.0 22.9 26.3 32.5 38.3 41.0 44.8
Low Max (°C)
16.0 15.9 14.9 13.0 9.0 10.0 8.6 9.0 9.1 10.6 12.5 13.6 8.6
High Min (°C)
24.0 26.0 21.4 17.3 14.7 12.0 11.7 13.0 15.0 18.0 20.3 21.0 26.0
Low Min (°C)
2.3 1.8 2.0 0.0 -0.7 -3.4 -1.9 -1.4 -1.0 -1.4 0.8 1.3 -3.4
High Rain (mm)
56.4 39.2 61.6 74.6 37.0 36.0 38.2 61.0 31.0 42.2 73.6 63.8 74.6
Warrnambool Ap Monthly Records
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Ann
High Mn. Max (°C)
27.0 28.7 26.9 23.2 17.8 15.4 14.4 15.8 17.7 19.5 24.4 25.1 19.6
Low Mn. Max (°C)
20.9 21.9 21.1 17.4 14.7 12.7 12.5 12.8 14.4 15.4 17.8 18.5 18.3
High Mn. Min (°C)
13.1 14.3 13.1 10.8 9.9 7.3 6.5 7.3 8.4 8.7 11.5 11.3 9.1
Low Mn. Min (°C)
9.7 10.7 9.6 6.6 5.9 3.6 4.3 4.8 6.0 4.9 7.0 8.6 7.5
High Rain (mm)
110.6 73.4 90.0 130.2 141.0 133.6 144.6 204.4 113.0 129.2 129.4 120.4 944.4
Low Rain (mm)
3.6 1.6 16.8 1.2 22.2 26.4 46.6 32.8 34.0 26.2 12.6 1.6 518.6

I go crazy trying to keep straight what kinds of "average" people mean when they talk about weather statistics.

For example, someone printed that these were "means".
mean max 19C
mean min 8.4C

Does that mean that the AVERAGE daily low in some season is 8.4C?
(Collect the daily low for every night in some season, then average those?)
Like "an AVERAGE winter night has a low temp of 19C"

Your collection of stats starts out by saying "Long-term Averages". That makes them unsuitable for figuring the USDA Hardiness (your stats are much more generally informative than USDA Hardiness !

The USDA "Hardiness" stat is different (and has only limited usefulness). It looks at the very coldest temperature reached in one whole year. The extreme temp reached, not an average of several lowest DAILY temperatures.

After accumulating those "very lowest temp of the year" for 20 or more years, they count the number of years where the temp ever went below "X". Then they try different "X"s until half of the last 20 years DID go below X and half did not.

That's all the USDA Hardiness Zones mean: if a low temp of "X" will kill your plant, expect half of all winters to kill that plant. Not very informative for annual crops, is it?

It's wildly unlike a description of a climate. For example, parts of Texas are Zone 8b but their summer heat kills most of their tomato crop off before my weather gets mild enough to even transplant tomato seedlings outdoors (Coastal Pacific Northwest maritime climate, cool-Mediteranian). Koppen Zone Csb.

Thanks Rick, I'll ask the mods to remove that zone rating, the system doesn't allow me to remove it, only change it. Once that's done, I'll just put my yearly average max/min temps since 1897.Then it's quite clear for those interested.

The winter veggie seedlings planted on April 21 are beginning to stir.
This is what's in that particular plot
8 Savoy King cabbages
8 Sugar Sweet cabbages
8 Green Dragon broccoli
4 Tuscan Kale 4 mini red cabbage
bit of parsley
14C today

Nice!

I don't use the USDA weather zones as they only give the low temps a plant will take. I use Sunset Western Garden zones because of our diverse climates in California. This link does not refer to Australia, but you might read the weather patterns in each zone, and compare to yours. And the temps are in both F. and C. http://www.sunset.com/garden/c... Many of us use this method, and I believe there one for the east coast now, or at least the south east. If nothing else, you may figure out what your USDA zone is from reading it. Just a thought.

Actually, Paul, you can make a pretty close estimate to your USDA Hardiness Zone by asking yourself "what's the coldest winter nighttime low we get, in a normal winter?"

You can at least bracket it by picking the low that you hardly EVER get lower than.
Then pick a low that you KNOW you reach in most years.
Your "Zone" is somewhere between those two.

That won't be a statically precise number, but it is the exact "spirit" of the hardiness number. Which is, as Carol implied, not very useful.

Here are the thresholds for some "Zones". If you never or almost never have frosts, you might be "Zone 10".

(click to expand)

Here's another possibility, that will tell you more than the USDA Hardiness Zone will.

If you find your Koppen Zone, you can find other spots in the world that are REALLY similar to your climate (if there are any other such spots).

Which is your Koppen zone on this map?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

Thanks Carol and Rick.I think I will settle for a 10b and a valium.