This year I shall plant rice!

Our veggie garden has grown over the years. We started with our humble patch of six garden beds (those who know me well will know why 6) and grew our own strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and herbs. Oh the joy of growing vegetables in a climate of ample rain and hot but not scorching weather!

Slowly it grew - 2 beds outside the original enclosed patch. Then the green house. Then the TARDIS shed (it’s bigger on the inside). Our latest addition is Ruprecht’s hydroponic house. It all looks marvellous. One of the advantages of gardening being your day job is the luxury of growing your own vegetables.

We’ve had our successes and our abject failures. The strawberries and raspberries bolted to the lead in the early years but more recently have been very reluctant to provide us with a decent feed. One outstanding failure has been carrots. You can hear the seeds laughing as I put them in the ground. The other plants have a bit of a smirk too. But I am not giving up …. I've already bought more seeds.

I have been building up the greenhouse to provide us with early vegetables and we have been enjoying snow peas and spring onions since early September. I’m also going to have a go at growing ginger - a challenge for Tasmania - wish me luck! I've also done my best to snake proof it, but that’s another story.

Ruprecht’s hydroponic house is like stepping into Queensland and he’s had some early successes. He’s quite smug about his lettuce and brocollini and is not so quietly chuffed that his tomato plants are growing better than mine. All our tomatoes are self seeded - in the hydroponics, the greenhouse and the veggie patch. If we don’t have a freezer full of tomatoes at the end of this season we're doing something wrong.

So we have a lovely corner of the garden where we grow all things edible. It nestles in the cottage garden so the bees will get the hint and pollinate our baby vegetables but this year there’s a catch.

This year it has rained and rained and rained. Everything is late but still alive. However, one garden bed is so waterlogged that growing rice is not as silly as it sounds.

Still, that's the enjoyment of gardening. You can never guarantee what mood Mother Nature is going to be in, and you go with it. (Or give in and drink wine, either works for me.)

I am delighted that some of our beautiful garden is also functional. You can't beat the taste of freshly picked fruit and vegetables. Ruprecht’s daughter has embraced the value of self sufficiency and is building up a farm in Bali. Things seem to grow quicker there for some reason. She’s spreading the word through her new venture Thriving With Nature. It’s worth a look. It has lots of useful tips, information and discussions on the way forward.

Anyway, must go and plant those carrot seeds. I can hear the sound of chuckling already.