The end of bed-making (the vegetable kind) is closer with Alex finishing the back row of beds this week. Happily the beds either side of the centre path lined up nicely. (That hour we spent with a tape measure and stakes a few weeks ago was worth it!) So now we have one last set of beds to go. After that will be the fence borders, which will be covered in cardboard and mulch and then over time filled with perennial herbs, edible plants, berries, fruit trees and native plants. We’ll use broad beans as placeholders for some of the more fragile seedlings that might not like winter since they seem to be easy to grow. The bean seeds that Alex hastily planted into grass a few weeks ago seem to be doing just as well as the ones I sowed into little holes that I’d painstakingly dug into the matted grass roots and filled with compost!

Through the week we harvested and planted potatoes. These are mostly for us to eat since potatoes are plentiful in Tassie but the red ones (Red Norlands) are on the “maybe” list for future customers. We harvested more green tomatoes to turn into ketchup and I discovered that slow-roasting and freezing cherry tomatoes is an easy way of preserving them (especially if the oven is already on). We’ve officially given up on the corn and borlotti beans and finally accepted that we planted them too late. Now we’re trying chinese cabbage and cress there. The smaller unripe ears of corn were surprisingly nice stir-fried but there wasn’t much to salvage of the borlotti beans that were partly mouldy sadly. But the marigolds that were interplanted with the beans were prolific so I’ve saved those seeds – I don’t think we will need to buy marigold seeds again!

The work week ended early this week to go away for a special family birthday. On Friday morning we got up early enough to water inside the tunnel before we left but we hadn’t counted on the pipes being frozen! So with chilly (and slightly sore) fingers we ferried watering cans from the house up to the tunnel. To appease me Alex also took a wheelbarrow full of water up to the bamboo and avocados. Now that I finally have (a lot of) pretty pictures of frost-covered plants I might return to working late and sleeping in!