This post should be beginning with the first frost of the season and beautiful pictures of crystallised water droplets on plants. But I didn’t manage any pictures before it passed! We had been wondering when it would be – it seemed important from our reading – but it was surprisingly difficult to find out perhaps because microclimates matter so much. Anyway, now we know: 25 May at our property in 2020. We still have to figure out what to do now that the frosts have started. Alex’s very efficient plan is to do nothing and see what survives. I feel a bit more attached to the plants and would rather take some precautions. I suspect some plants need fleece covers but I’m reluctant given that it tears easily and I want to do more research. So by default we’re following Alex’s plan for now. We will learn one way or another. And in the meantime we’ll enjoy the vegetables that not only survive but also taste better after being chilled.
Lettuce and broccoli basking in autumn sun (in lieu of photos of frost-covered leaves)
On a constructive note, we have another source of cardboard so we (Alex) can pick up the pace of bed-building. This week he built another four, taking us to 52 beds outside the tunnel. Ebbi is slowly but surely losing her running track. I continued willing the seedlings in trays to grow. I gave them some (organic approved) seaweed fertiliser this week to see if that helps more than moral support. Presumably they would like light more. My latest theory is that we should ignore the seed packets and not plant anything except broadbeans and garlic after the March equinox. But we planted more spring onion seeds just in case Peter Cundall is right. Genuine horticultural knowledge would be quite useful in navigating these few months in particular but until then we are learning by doing.
Carload of cardboard 
The back row of beds is filling out
Despite my complaints about our harvests not matching my spreadsheet we’re not short of vegetables to eat. Carrots, beetroots, rainbow chard, silverbeet and lettuce that we planted a long time ago are still plentiful. There are broccolini stems poking up and hopefully more broccoli to come. There are plenty of bags of dead potato plants to sift for potatoes. And in another month the tatsoi, fennel and (another type of) lettuce should be ready (subject to frost!). The tomatoes have been most surprising. The field tomatoes survived the frost and some are a light yellowy-orange (though perhaps I should give up on them ripening on the vine now). The plants that I hung upside-down in the shed in mid April are decorated with bright red fruit. And we harvested a bowlful of red tomatoes from the tunnel, leaving plenty of green ones behind. So we’ll be harvesting tomatoes into June, which is also not in my spreadsheet but is most welcome!
Finally ripe! 
Preserving more green tomatoes