Garden share collective heading into October

I missed last months catchup as I was away.  linking to The Garden share collective for October.
Hubby took care of the garden and was inundated with scrub hens trying to roost in the garden, so I am afraid the veggie garden took a bit of a beating.  I have been giving it some good long soaks, sprayed a bit of soapy water on the pests, and cut back overgrowth. We are over-run with cherry tomatoes, I even oven roasted some and popped them into the freezer to add to casseroles etc at a later date.  I think they are now coming to an end as the weather heats up.

 About a year ago I mentioned in a post that I had placed an order for some seeds that were only 1.00 a packet,  It all sounded too good to be true.  I must admit that when the seeds arrived I thought they were a little stingy with the seed, but carefully planted them out.  I can be a little lazy in following up how a particular seed has been performing, unless they perform in a truly outstanding manner.  They e-mailed with a request for photos, offering a 5.00 off coupon, so I dug out my old order: Eggplant Tsakoniki, Basil dark opal, Lettuce parris island cos, lettuce salad bowl red, cucumber lebanese, Petunia, Kale red russian, Warrigal greens, Tomato cherry cocktail, Bunching onion, Italian parsley.  Amazingly most of those are the seeds that have done really well in my garden!

After I came back from my overseas holiday I found the eggplant in the wicking bed in a sorry stage, full of bugs.  I began to water them well, gave them a  soapy water spray a few times, and split the plants between two wicking beds.  They bounced back very well, as you might know I have lots of trouble trying to grow eggplant in my garden.  It is Tsakoniki variety.  No fruit yet, but they are looking hopeful.

 The dark opal basil is another favourite.  It is more mellow than the green basil I normally grow.  I notice some of it is variegated, which is pretty in salads.  I dont mind lots of basil so have let some of it go to seed.

 Of course the "hedge" of italian parsely is amazing.  I love the fact that it is easy to harvest, and I hope this becomes a permanent feature along the edge of my herb spiral.

On my return the red russian kale was also covered with bugs, but with a soapy water spray and regular watering it has bounced right back again.  It is the first time I have had any success with kale.

 I noticed that the leaves develop little "baby kale" sprouts.  Has anyone else had this happen?  I tear the leaves away from the central rib and have the pieces in my mixed salad greens, along with amaranth, baby lettuce leaves, dill, basil and rocket.  Such a nice mixture.

 There are always lots of cherry tomatoes to top off my salads with.   I am especially loving these little yellow ones.

The borage has all come up in a nice line.  I have never grown it before, and read that the leaves are edible, but I took a nibble, and am sure I am not adding it to my salads.  Maybe I have a different variety.

The choko vine developed some strange white spots on  the leaves, and then seems to have died. 

I planted gemsquash seeds kindly sent to me by Kim at Little black cow and lots of plants have come up - more than I planted -  whaat?  They look very similar to loofas or pumpkins  so hopefully I have some gems, and they dont all turn out to be loofas.

 To do:
It is very dry around here now but I need to be thinking about the wet season just around the corner.  I planted out some winged beans on the middle trellis, and dont think I need any green manure as the amaranth is pretty much covering that whole bed! .
Once some of my purchased sweet potatoes sprout I will plant a few around the avocado tree.  I reckon that will work as a ground cover/mulch for the wet season. They need to be rotated and I have never grown them in that bed so they should do well.
I placed an order (making sure to use my 5.00 coupon) with the seed collection for Okra (yes I am going to give it a try!) leek sprouts, radish red arrow sprouts and carrot sprouts. That will be it for my wet season crop.