'You are not playing with your bike until you do an hour in the garden' says I, being Bossy Wife. It's fair enough. He promised. He's been playing with his new second hand bike for two days and I've had to listen to the running monologue of every single bag, strap, and bit of equipment he's modifying, making, or planning to buy.

It's more fun with two anyway. We get to work weeding a path I newspapered two years ago and is now overrun with weeds. More newspaper and mulch had that neat as you like in twenty minutes.

Meanwhile, I was picking beans whilst he got a knife in between the pavers behind the compost heap which were overgrown with weeds. It's not a job I like. The beans, yes, the weeds, no. I have been getting a solid handful every day for a fortnight and just planted some more in the hope I have yellow butter beans before winter.

The curly kale in the wicking bed was a self seeded plant. I'm yet to have more kale come up so may need to plant some more. I do tend to rely on self seeds a lot. I picked the lettuce that had gone to seed and sprinkled them over the garden. I do have seeds in packets as well but this is an easier method, haha!

The sunflower by the back gate keeps donking us on the head on the way past. I've called him Sunny. Obvious, perhaps. The multi stemmed sunflowers are still producing small flowers.

I picked a ton of cucumbers and took them up to both honesty stalls in town. Do you have them in your country? That's what Australians call a box on the side of the road where you leave money in a tin and take what ever is on offer. We have two in town but they're honest and free. Someone usually posts a pic in the Facebook group when they drop something off. I'm just about sick of cucumber gazpacho and cucumber pickle.

I'm also sick of zucchini - nah, not really. The big green ones keep marrowing so my daiy process is chuck gigantic zuccs over to the chooks, chop them up with a shovel, and pick up the skins they've left behind for the compost heap. The yellow ones are delicious and I've been making bread and butter pickles from them, and zucc cake, and in every savoury dinner I make. A friend has been growing them vertically, which is really interesting! He cuts off the lower leaves as he picks. I might try it next year but I'm not that great on maintenance!

I'm still picking beetroots and spring onions. I'm also busy sorting out my seeds and working out what's the next crop - I have some swedes and beetroot coming up. I tidied up the chard/silverbeet and chucked the woody seedy stems over to the chooks to pick over.

The tomatoes haven't done that well - a bit of end rot (intermittent watering? not enough calcium?) and either the birds or bugs seem to devour them before I get to them which is a wind up! Still, we are starting to get a few of the small tiger tomatoes.

The eggplants are doing well though... Some big ones and the long Asian style ones. I can't wait - I love them. I'll fry some in oil and preserve some, roast some and have it with veggie laksa (a laksa with roast veggies is great - so is any kind of coconut curry - you should try it!)

However, everything's looking well cared for and neat, fertilised, manured, mulched, weeded and loved - that's what two sets of hands can do!

With Love,

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