A string of sunny days and the first forecasts of “twenty-something” degrees prompted Alex to upgrade our water infrastructure. (We don’t segregate too many jobs but irrigation and plumbing are his; I have mowing.) The problem had been that we had to use a watering can to water most of the top part of the garden, which meant that we ignored those beds (Alex) or spent a ridiculous amount of time watering in drier weather (me). So this week Alex extended the irrigation further up the hill and installed the two taps we needed. And it was done in record time, with no leaks on the first attempt! I could hear the disbelief in Alex’s voice on the phone as he turned on the tap and I stood at the mains tap ready to turn it off when he started swearing!

The tomatoes in the tunnel have been getting taller so it was time to test out our new tomahooks. Each hook has a length of string wrapped around it and is hooked over a cross brace in the tunnel, with the string running to the ground. We will wind the tomato vine around the string as it grows. When it’s reached the top we can unwind some of the string and move the hook along to give the vine more space. It’s a great way of growing a lot of tomatoes in a small space. The only hitch is that two of the tomatoes are bush tomatoes that I planted by accident so these will be exceptionally well supported! We’ve also planted our first bed of field tomatoes, joining the rest of southern Tasmania who did it on Show Day in accordance with tradition. Hopefully they will have a growth spurt now that they are in better soil rather than the problematic compost.

The commercial seed-raising mix is producing some wonderfully healthy seedlings. I think we can finally look forward to beetroot in December with confidence. In other good news, radish that we planted in late August – for an early October harvest – are finally approaching the right size and, crucially, are crispy inside. If the weather forecast is approximately accurate (a big if!) and we don’t have too much rain we might have some to sell next weekend. Another late crop is the broad beans, which are covered in small pods at last. I had optimistically thought we would be harvesting them in September! Now we need to decide how big to grow them: whether to sell them now for cooking like runner beans (the internet says this is a possible) or to leave them to develop into larger, more conventional-looking beans to be podded. I think some taste-testing during the week will help resolve this dilemma.