Yes, thanks folks, a very nice way to wind up the annual leave, back to work tomorrow. Those two that I am holding up are probably about the best eating size, around 55 cm/22 inches and 5 lb. Had some crumbed last night, delicious.

Fantastic fish! They sure are beautiful (and glad to hear delicious as well!)

Those fish occur from south east Queensland, around southern Australia and into Western Australia. Over $100 million would be spent every year chasing those fish I reckon

Started planting tomatoes today before rain started. Managed to get 63 plants in from probably between 25 and 30 varieties.

Managed to get 63 plants in the ground today from 25 to 30 varieties before the rain started yet again.

Potatoes are starting to pop up.

What a beautiful vegetable garden you have created—the extension looks great.

The surroundings look so quiet and peaceful. I would love never to have to hear noise. Once the hard work of getting everything planted is done you need a couple lawn chairs by your garden to take it all in. Something about sitting by a vegetable garden you have created is very satisfying and relaxing even though I know the work never stops

MsCowpea wrote: ↑Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:55 am
Once the hard work of getting everything planted is done you need a couple lawn chairs by your garden to take it all in. Something about sitting by a vegetable garden you have created is very satisfying and relaxing even though I know the work never stops

Yep! Every garden needs a Contemplatin' Bench for taking breaks, thinking about possibilities, talking to the birds and just plain watching the world go by.

We have a deck around the house, it does the job at a pinch and is summer sun protected as well

Got 47 more plants in the ground yesterday and today, another 20 varietal named plants to go, then a number from 3 grow outs to go in. Be around the 160 - 170 in total. Just as well some of the others here at work will be happy to take some tomatoes!

planted out the Beetroot seedlings and sowed a bit extra seed, plus 30 odd sunflowers and about 15 capsicums or chilies of various descriptions over the last couple of days.

Got the last of the tomatoes in the ground today, 156 plants if tallied up correctly. Most varieties were planted as duplicates, with a few blocks of 4 or 5 and a couple of grow out lots around 6 or 8

Cross posting this from the fishing thread for my ease of reference, trip was on the 31/10/2020

Went to Port Welshpool today to try to catch some squid, but they were not playing the game, neither were fish, but as we were heading back to dock, two dolphins decided that they wanted to do some bowriding. Kids were rather excited. Will see if any of the videos that the Mrs took are any good and add them as appropriate.

Unfortunately videos no good, only show wter.

It's always the way... most of the more amazing moments are those you don't get a pic of. Good times, though!

Received a parcel of seed from Bob Reid today, retired plant breeder in Tasmania, see the Seedfreaks website for some info on Bob.

Peas - Climbers -Golden mangetout, Lord Leicester's Pea and Exhibition.
Peas - Bush - Shiraz and Ruthless

Beans - Climber - Mantequilla
Beans - Bush - Avalanche, Kelly Lake Slender Wax and Sonesta.

Seed is all pictured on above website, now to find out more about them, any information welcome

Cross posting this to my Romano Bean Thread so that more people may see it

I grew Shiraz this year - they were quite a small plant with very beautiful burgundy pods, average tasting as a snow pea but well worth the prettiness. One thing that surprised me is how quickly they bulked up and made peas. That made it easy to save seed, but put an end to their crop until I picked them. My Mom decided to shell and eat the peas from hers, and she said they were the sweetest she's ever eaten. So if they do get away from you and swell their peas, those are still good eatin.
Two of the pods I saved seed from had completely purple peas. They weren't dimpled either like the other Shiraz seed. So I am keeping those to plant separately and see what comes. I think a purple pea would be pretty nice, if I can get them to do it again (Just eight of those seeds).

Thank you [mention]Bower[/mention] for that information, very useful. Interesting to hear about your purple seeds, looking forward to hearing about what comes out of them

Time has been a bit limited here in the Garden of Woz of late, but have managed to get a bean frame up and started lifting some of the garlic. Bean frame is going to be permeant, the first of two, maybe three.
Frame is roughly 12 meters/40 feet long and just over 2 meters/7 feet high. Have had to run water down the row where I want to plant the peas and beans that will go in on it
Just a few(!!) tomatoes, with beetroot, carrots and parsnip in the lighter grey sand to the right of them, Peppers and corn fill those rows with some Pontiac potatoeson the edge of photo

Garlic:

Some mixed results this year with the garlic this year. Some good globes amongst some smaller rounds, depending upon size of seed cloves planted from last seasons stock. Monaro Purple, Italian Stripe and an unknown White Turban I refer to as TWT are the varieties that I have grown the longest. Last year produced some reasonable Monaro Purple, which did well this year, while the other two suffered with the soil lock up. They are only small, but better than last year and should be back to full size next year.
For size reference, those trays are 350mm x 290 mm or about 14 x 11.5 inches and are referred to down here as punnet trays.

as for tags

these four came to me as part of a garlic seed swap with a friend in Bendigo. Some I received only 2 cloves off, but they have all done quite well.

Some of these I grew last year and they suffered with the soil lock up, a couple of new to me varieties, which did well.

Of note is Italian Red, part of what is referred to here as the Subtropical group, a softneck with bulbils in the stem, visible as bulges near the tags in a couple of them