A cold snap has hit Nelson, it was nearly snowing at our place today. Stefano has been putting the seedlings outside in the cold frame (a structure covered with plastic, similar to a green house but with no heat inputs) to harden them off. As a result, we have lost about 25 of our 200 plants. This is a big blow to our production. Even though he put a heater on under the table the plants sit on and a light bulb above to help maintain some warmth, it just got too cold. So we have all our plants inside, cozy and warm, but it's getting cramped. We have plants in the living room, plants on the chest freezer and plants on the kitchen floors. I hope it warms up soon so they can start moving outside again.

Some of our cucumber plants are displaying wilted leaves with white patches and spots. We are not sure what it is. It could be many things such as cucumber mosaic virus. But it is likely that they are getting too much water, and just don't like it.

I just listened to an interview on BBC with Professor James Lovelock, who developed the Gaia theory that the Earth functions as a giant, self-regulating organism. He gives his opinion of how climate change will change the planet. Listen on the link below. It will inspire you to garden, especially in elevated areas, as low-lying land could be flooded in the future. He believes it is possible that of the 8 billion people presently inhabiting earth, only 1 billion will survive extreme climate changes. The cause... starvation...