Chilly days and nights after a brief period of perfect gardening weather occur every year in many parts of Australia. Australia is the only place where spring is said to start on the first day of September. Everywhere else, spring starts at the equinox when day and night are of equal length. This year, the spring equinox occurs on September 23rd.
Unfortunately, Australia’s deviation from world-wide practice tricks some gardeners into planting out seedlings while nights are still longer than days and soil is still too cold for root growth of warmth-loving plants. The problem can be solved by placing this simple cloche over beds that contain cold-sensitive seedlings. See: Cloche for seedlings.
Aussie Organic Gardening & Moon Planting
Organic & Lunar Gardening blog
Well that’s something I didn’t know. My Zucchinis are struggling.
Keep them warm with a cloche a bit longer, Christine. Or, if you are in a frost free area, you can try putting mulch around them about lunch time when the soil is warmest. This will help. 🙂
Explains why not a seed came up. I generally never put in anything until Sept school hols, learned my lesson the hard way.
I think the little spurt of warm weather in August in Melbourne confused me and I planted some things (like zucchini) out too early! I’m holding off on my tomatoes for a couple more weeks.