Autumn harvest

Look at this!!

In a vain attempt to get a few winter veges in and to clean up the remainder of the summer garden I ventured into the wilderness last weekend and this was my reward. The eggplant is amazing - one plant has produced over a dozen fruits (much to Lucy's horror), and the chillies just quietly got on with their job to produce this abundance. The little ones are habaneros - very hot - and we haven't been game enough to try them yet, the long thin ones are called wildfire, and the fatter ones are a mild salad chillie which is able to be stuffed and baked. We have an abundance of apples - several varieties which have done as hoped and ripened at differing times - yummie, tamarillos are ripening well - almost sweet enough to eat! passionfruit were not so great this year - time for a rethink and replant! Feijoas best not mentioned, so next planting round will include more of these, pears and maybe a persimmon - they are the most beautiful autumn tree for colour and fruit. All this amazes me as we had such a long hot and extremely dry summer - and autumn is looking to be equally as dry.

This all sounds very organised - but it happens despite what we do rather than because of it - even more so since Maurie has broken his rib so the serious pruning and big gardening projects I had planned for the holidays are now on hold - needless to say there is not much sympathy for his self inflicted pain!