Autumn Garden

Ok so we are already more than half way through Autumn but the seasons have been weird this year and we are still getting the end of the summer veggies so it has taken a while to get this far.

We’ve finally seen the end of most of the summer veggies.

The pumpkin vine came out a few weeks back, and about 20 odd pumpkins were either stored or given away. No idea what I will do with that many pumpkins, especially since I don’t like pumpkin at all!

The watermelon and the cantaloupe came out.. we got quite a few really nice little watermelons but the cantaloupe wasn’t as successful this year as last..but we still got some great fruit from it. They both went in late because of the early earwig attack so guess we were lucky to get anything much.

Then beans are still in but on their last legs. We’ve been slack in harvesting the late beans so the vines are covered in HUGE beans – some we will try to dry out and keep for replanting next year, others I dunno.. might try taking the beans from the pods and cooking them somehow? The runner beans have all been HUGE, not at all what I expected…. they are supposed to stay in so will see how they fair over winter.

The zucchinis are still in with a few small ones left to see if they will grow any bigger before the frosts hit. As are is the one and only cucumber still producing so still there for now.

The tomatoes are coming out slowly. We have soooooooooo many tomatoes we don’t know what to do with them all. I’ve bottled some as sauce, we’ve frozen them whole and dried them, plus we’ve given heaps away and eaten buckets. I think we overdid the tomatoes just a touch this year LOL plus the fact that they were very VERY late to fruit. Hope to learn from those mistakes next time.

So we’ve been ripping out and re-doing a few beds here and there as things end.

The Baldy boy put in two punnets of mixed lettuces a while back that are doing well – thought still mostly too small to make decent salads with all the tomatoes LOL.

I planted carrots and parsnips a while back… with the plan that when they sprouted I’d put in some more to try and stagger production a little. I don’t think they have gotten enough water though so they are taking a while to sprout… if they ever do.. so will have to wait and see on that front!

We also planted our three garlic cloves – no sign of them sprouting as yet.. but I have no idea how long they take so who knows!

The other day we planted some self seeded lettuce and silver beet from my MIL’s garden and filled up the rest of the bed with spinach and a few radishes… though I don’t know what you do with radishes in winter when salad is not a staple?

Yesterday the girls helped me plant a few peas – sugar snap peas and sweet peas. They went into the old melon bed with the plan to put the tomatoes there in spring…. as peas are good to plant before tomatoes apparently. I have such a hard time getting this crop rotation thing through my head! LOL We only put in two ‘towers of peas’ as the girls called them (I think due to the tepee we made with stakes to support them once they grow) but we have room for heaps more, so again the plan is to wait till the first ones sprout then plant some more. I am thinking of trying out some more of the old fencing wire supported with stakes down each side of the bed since I am out of stakes long enough for more tepees.

So that leaves us with the strawberry bed – some of which are having a late run on fruit, but the rest has gone mental with runners and I have no idea what to do about that.

The egg plants – some of which will come out as they are struggling, but the two strong looking ones we’ll try to protect over winter and see what happens.

We’ll have two HUGE empty beds where the tomatoes and zucchinis/pumpkin have been and one where the beans are… no idea what to do with them over winter. I think I have some broad bean seeds I could put where the tomatoes where… but that is about it. Maybe we will just mulch the empty beds and leave them over the winter since we will be busy with other things (namely a new baby) and that gives us space to try and stick to our goal of getting some of the summer things in super early under plastic….

Anyway – my new camera is at the post office waiting for me (damn that it isn’t open over the weekend) so with luck I may get some time to take some photos of the few things we have planted next week so I have some kind of visual reminder too.. instead of just this boring blog post!