Wild jungle in my backyard

I am back again after an unexpected trip to South Africa. I went camping with my brother and his wife, and my daughter.  It was good to catch up with family, and enjoy some South African sunsets - it must be the red earth that puts so much colour in the sky.

 My non gardening hubby held down the fort at home although he did nothing about the encroaching jungle.  He doesnt mind jungle - I like the garden a  little more trimmed and contained.
So the weekend was spent jungle busting - I suppose I should have take a before photo.  The vegetable garden seemed to fare the worst - so many weeds.  I pulled lots of weeds, and I think the next plan will be to lay down newspaper on all the bare patches, and then cover with mulch - seaweed possibly. I need to do that before the weeds start growing again.  That will also help to prepare the soil for spring planting.
Hot wet weather here means the tropical plans are thriving.  This buttery yellow orchid flowers about twice a year, and the orange crucifix orchid always seems to be in flower somewhere around my garden.

Without my careful monitoring the compost situation has not progressed.  I moved half of the compost out of the tumbler into the corner bin, added some cut greens and turned it all.  A bag of damp mulched leaves was added to the top.  That can quietly just finish the process and hopefully by spring I will have some useable compost for the veggie beds.  The worms were fed but I have not noticed any actual movement so hope they survived.  The tumbler was filled up with kitchen scraps, greens and mulched leaves.
The long green beans were getting very straggly so I trimmed the vine back quite heavily, hopefully that adds nitrogen to the soil and gives the plant a new lease on life.  The pawpaw tree was totally swamped by the vine.  Everything else looks fine, as this time of year is really just a case of surviving the heat and humidity for both the garden and the gardener.
Turmeric is popping up everywhere, and I dont mind, as it has such a pretty flower.  Hidden down between the leaves.  Sometimes you have to search to find the beauty.

I love to do surverys and somehow accumulated enough points to earn $100.00 in Bunnings gift cards, so have been working on my shopping list.  How cool is that?  Free gardening money. :)
 We annually review the budget and have found that we are spending overbudget on food so hopefully I can at least have a more profitable veggie garden this year.  Do you find you are spending more on food lately?  I have made a big batch of my sister-in-laws bean salad - cheap and easy and provides a weeks worth of lunches.  We are also going to plan some meals before going shopping so have a list, but then also allow for any specials we see once we get there.