I'm just about managing to maintain progress with our raised beds and the demise of Jemima was a good push to plant some fruit trees this winter. We planted feijoa, fig, a dual-grafted apple (Monty's Surprise and my favourite, Granny Smiths), cherry, orange and mandarin. I strapped them to give them a bit of support in the high winds that howl around our place and even managed to feed them all too.
The raised beds aren't terribly productive at the moment. Most of the salad has come to an end though the silverbeet is going strong. I ripped out all but two of the kale plants because they were covered in white fly and their grubs. The radishes were a great success but we've eaten them all now and the broccoli and cauliflower, in contrast, were a dead loss, too spindly and fast to bolt. Only a few of my carrots sprouted and the leeks will have to go another year before they're fat enough to eat.
The herbs are fit and healthy but the garlic looks pretty thin. The fruit bushes (loganberry, blueberry, guava and blackcurrant) are coming back nicely after winter and the strawberries are taking hold - I was amazed to discover that they were carnivores when I opened up the strawberry food and discovered that it was blood and bone!
In the last month, I've put in tomatoes, dwarf purple beans, corn and sugar snap peas which I bought at the local Ag Day plant stall but they've been slow to take off and I think they're a bit thirsty. We're in the middle of re-configuring our irrigation with a header tank to limit the burden on the pump and so the seedlings are suffering. The broad bean plants that I grew from seed rustle when they get a breeze through them. There are a few pods developing though so all is not lost.
The potato plants look promising - though they're in need of earthing up - and we should have a decent crop in the New Year. And next in the queue are some capsicum seedlings that I picked up at our local garage sale - fingers crossed the irrigation system does the trick...
