Garden report

 We're two weeks into autumn and have reached the time when I start clearing the old vegetable beds and start thinking about the new growing season.

So how did the past year go?

In short, bloody terrible.

Winter was unusually cold and wet and spring even more so. We had so much rain in October and November the flower beds turned into a swamp and we had standing pools of water in the back yard.

We lost quite a few shrubs which didn't like having continual wet feet and the couch grass that needs to be beaten into submission each year turned the flower beds into jungle that I'm only just now getting on top of.

My broad beans did ok - not the best crop ever, but not too bad under the circumstances. The early season Asian greens never got going, too cold too wet.

I was going to plant some early waxy potatoes, kipfler or nicola, but didn't bother as it was simply too wet and they would probably have rotted in the ground.

I did plant some shop bought tomato and zucchini seedlings and they did all right. The zucchinis started cropping in January and I've only now just pulled the plants out as they've clearly run their race.

The tomatoes produced a lot of foliage and then started developing fruit at the end of December but they sat in a green glower refusing to ripen until the last week in February. 

Then they suddenly went mad and we had a reasonably heavy crop, even if the possums took their share.

However as the weather's turning cooler, they're beginning to die back and I think they'll be done by the start of April.

The parsley struggled, but came good, the coriander did ok, as did the thyme and oregano, but the chives became a weed infested mess.

I normally plant some random extras like eggplants, chillis, capsicums, and pumpkins for fun, most years we get a crop of sorts. This year, apart from a capsicum seedling someone gave me, I didn't bother.

The capsicum plant managed a single small fruit and that was it.

Hopefully with the end of La Nina the weather will be  better next growing season and give us a reasonable return for the effort put in ...