As Autumn deepens, there's more work to be done in the garden. I quite like the tidy up - the jungle of summer gives way to the barren neatness of winter, and beds are laid with manure and straw to sit falllow for the season. The chickens are let into the various vegetable gardens to pick over for bugs and finish off the rest of the crops, particularly the green leaves, which they relish.

In the above photo you can see two sorts of elder that will need a heavy trim, the grape and the hops vine, and the pumpkins. There's things I won't plant til 2025 now as I won't harvest them because we'll be going away. I'm not sure what I'll do about the house and if I'll get someone to rent it, in which case goodness knows what they'll plant or if they'll let the garden go to ruin. I have to let things go in the desire for the grand adventure, far from the domestic gardenscapes of home.

We haven't been so lucky with the tomatoes. The blackbirds have been stealing a lot until I finally netted them, so we lost a lot, and the weather hasn't been great for ripening them. We did have a big haul of these though. I forget the variety but I do like them. And there's not much better than fried tomatoes and halloumi on toast, with lots of torn fresh basil. Easy, and very tasty.

The apples have started falling off the trees - I really must get to stewing them. My favourites have been the Coxs Orange Pippin, a small and sweet English variety which is rather crisp and delicious. I had to take a heap to my Dad - he's pretty eaten an apple, core and all, for his entire life..

There are a few beds I've made more permanent - two reasons, one is the fact I'll be going away, and two, I can't be bothered fencing them against rabbits. Third, I suspect the El Nino weather pattern is going to bring a big dry for a few years. We're all worried about it, but we've been here before. I guess it's just a different way of gardening. We need to start thinking about tanks.

In this garden I trannsplanted a couple of self seeded ashwagandwa which don't mind the dry, and some rhubarb along one edge, mainly to fill the bed for free as I had the plants anyway. The ashwagandwa is quite pretty and spreads out a little. It needs a couple of years to get good useful roots for medicine so I'm happy to let it grow wild here until we get back.

We also finally got a tree outside the house chopped down. It had self seeded and grown huge, but was a bit dangerous close to the house. Luckily we know an old retired tree guy who was happy to do it for half the price we were quoted. He did a really neat job and left us the wood.

Now I have a garden to plant with more natives. More light gets in, but I do miss the tree. I might put a bird bath there as it's right outside the bathroom window, which has clear glass so when I sit on the loo or shower I can see the garden. But it also makes a good bird hide! And we get lots of birds too. Last night we even had yellow tailed black cockatoos come land in the banksia which was sooo amazing. They are protected and just an incredible spirit bird. Sorry the photo isn't the best but I didn't want to scare them!! You might have to zoom in a bit.

Now dont forget it's the Garden Journal challenge coming up in a week or so. And have you voted over at Leo Threads for your post of the week? We are doing this every Friday and the winner wins a big upvote from @leovoter and @blocktrades and a few other accounts. It could be YOU next!! It really is dependent on you guys voting so PLEASE cast your vote here.

With Love,

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