19 May.   I completed weeding the beds inside the garden fence.  I cut back the asparagus so that I was able to walk along the paths.  I scooped and froze the insides from about 4 litres of feijoas (4 bags in the freezer).  These will make 4 delicious pies over winter!  The feijoas are much bigger than in other years – I think it must be due to the large amount of rain we had in March/Aprl.  I really should water the trees next year.

20 May.   A beautiful sunrise.

26 May.   The first snowfall of the winter.  It caused a few traffic problems on the hill.  That night saw the first frost of winter  – the stock water troughs had a layer of ice on them in the morning.  As I was concerned about the impending frost, I picked the Granny Smith apples remaining on the tree.  I chose the most perfect 16 apples – these were cored and frozen whole.  The remaining 17 were sliced, cored and dried (11 drier trays).

27 May.  I moved half of the contents of compost bin 3 on garden bed 3.  When it was raked out, it covered the whole of the garden bed in a thin layer.  The compost was a wonderful black colour, with a crumbly, fibrous consistency.

Paul and I peeled, sliced and dried feijoas (10 drier trays).  These are a wonderful snack over winter, they have an intense feijoa flavour.

The remaining garden tasks to be completed before spring are to:

1) move the remainder of the compost from bin 3 onto garden bed 2

2) move compost from bin 2 to bin 3 and from bin 1 to bin 2

3) manure beds 2, 3, 4 and strawberry patch

4) pea straw beds 2 & 3

5) remove the seeds from the oil seed pumpkins, put their shells into compost bin 1

6) weed and pea straw tunnel houses.