Update on our Autumn Gardening

Here's what was left from the To Do list...

* Divide ginger and arrowroot and plant these in other places
* Check Tahitian spinach, African yam, Golden Taro and other Taro for dividing and planting out
* Harvest sweet potato and plant runners everywhere, especially under the bananas
* Brushcutting behind vegetable gardens, around trellises
* Trim the passionfruit vine a lot
* Weed the vegie gardens and paths, fill compost (1/3 done, 2/3 to go!)
* Choose seeds and start seedlings (next rising moon, I cheated and bought seedlings last week!)
* Gather soil and compost and take to gardens
* Rake out chook house for more manure for compost

We've almost completed all of that! I still have 9 cockerels doing some clearing (and growing) in the open garden, but both greenhouses are done, and almost fully planted out. I've run out of things to plant, so need to sow more seeds on the rising moon this week.

We haven't planted many sweet potato runners yet, or harvested any tubers. It's a job that keeps being forgotten.

We have new compost bays near the open garden (which actually has a 2m fence around it, but it has an open top, and no shadecloth like the greenhouses have). One is holding mulch from cyclone debris, and for the other we really need to gather a lot more organic matter to make compost! I usually just "compost" in situ - rake debris under trees, throw it into raised beds, give it to the chooks, etc. But I want actual compost!


I tidied up my seeds and planted out some Progress Peas and Purple King Beans, and popped some mixed cosmos seeds in the corner of one greenhouse. I still want to plant some broccoli, Italian beans, cabbage, asian greens and lettuce for continuous harvest, snow peas, silverbeet and kale...

The silverbeet, cucumbers and zucchinis are doing well in greenhouse #1. The dwarf beans have produced their first handful of beans, the cherry tomatoes are still going and the gooseberries are fruiting again. So is the Villa Franca lemon tree and mulberry tree outside, as well as a new choko vine on the chook pen fence.

The pumpkins we planted ages ago are finally coming along. One vine has one fruit on it, and the others are just starting with their male flowers. I hope they make some females before it gets very cool. Some of the old Jap pumpkin vines have resprouted and are making small fruit too. I adore Jap pumpkins, they are the best pumpkin for our area, I think.