I like to always be one step ahead in each season. Here I am building soils, raising areas to direct water and store water right where it falls. I do it by cold composting bales on site. Once they age I then plant into them. These will be ready for planting this Autumn and winter. I have been doing this for ten years now, works on all soil types. Have you tried it, still do, had success or going to try? Once they are spongy they are ready to plant

This is great forecast for the coming Christmas, definitely going to hot in my part of Australia. I am just planning for Autumn now as it's my best time if the year for gardening and making compost

Full disclosure, I saw this on Instagram and decided to create it myself. FB Marketplace always seems to have free filing cabinets and I found this in my local village. I drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, removed the drawers, filled it half full with logs from the garden, then used soil from mole hills to fill it some more, and then good compost. The first photo shows it after I planted my herbs and the second one shows it yesterday. The flat leaf parsley has kind of taken over but the sage is still going strong. I also have thyme, chives and mint in there (although I don’t like the flavour of the mint so I will replace it in spring). I was going to spray the cabinet but actually the brown fits in very nicely.

Living near bushland i come across snakes in my garden on a regular basis. My formally trained snake catcher neighbour tells me there are plenty of brown snakes around and has identified a few of them for me. I find the fact they are around disturbing and it does alter my gardening habits and prevent me from doing certain jobs at certain times. They are pretty skittish and if I stomp about and make my presence known they rush off and hide. In the hotter months I garden early morning or late evening mostly unless my husband is about and we have the mower or power tools out. Then I feel a bit braver. My husband has requested i dont plant pumpkins and sweet potato as ground cover as its a perfect hiding spot for them and that we have these thick bandages for immobilising a limb in case of a snake bite sitting by the back door at all times. I'd love to know tips or tricks from those of you who garden around snakes🐍. Particularly venomous ones. I just want to live in harmony with them. Preferably with them living out in the bush and not in my garden, but I have limited control over that.

I have a 75 litre pot that I have over planted, but it is working well. It has a tomato, a capsicum and basil with marigold and sweet Alice / alyssum