Ping David H-S reply

Wait a minute. November 2 "Down Under" is like April 2 to the Northern hemisphere, and your tomatoes are setting fruit already? I can plant in May, but nothing happens until the ground warms up in June. You really have green tomatoes?!

Yes, most have fruit and much blossom now, the early ones have good sized fruit. They are still green but I expect some to be ripe by Xmas unless La Nina camps right on the door step and we have no sun for a month. They will produce well until the end of March (unless the Girl brings mildew) and then slow a little until they finish in May. Fran is rather cagey about exactly where she is but I think she is further poleward, further inland and higher than I am, all of which shorten the growing season.

Similarly all the citrus were a riot of blossom in September, now they are covered in fruit. I picked all the early apricots last week. [Yes! I beat the possum this year!] They were absolutely yummy, several nights we had them for dessert au naturel and there were enough for jam. The summer squash are flowering well and have small fruit, there may even be some ready to cut, I haven't been out today due to rain.

Soil temperature is not often a limiting factor for me, once the last probable frost is past I can plant all the summer annuals and expect them to grow. If I had an unheated hothouse (I wish) that provided frost protection and some warmth in mid winter I could probably grow tomatoes all year round. The winter ones wouldn't do as well as the summer crop but I would get

David

The cumquat does its own thing, often it will flower and fruit later than the rest. It has no fruit yet but that isn't the last chance.

A hoop house covered with plastic does give some warmth through the day by trapping the sun's heat but doesn't give much frost protection as the heat radiates right back out through the plastic on cold clear nights. Also the humidity can be high here which leads to fungus risks. So I need something with adjustable cover and adjustable ventilation. Add to this the fact that we can get very strong winds here so there is a risk of the whole thing taking off or ripping apart if it isn't well built. A neighbour had his whole shed (made of timber and corrugated iron) moved about 40m by wind a few years ago.

I think a minimalist design using ready at hand materials might not be such a good idea for me. So I have spent my time and money on other aspects of the garden and when my ship comes in I will go for a more solid structure.

David