It's Australia Day and hot weather is forecast but instead of heading to the beach with my esky full of cold drinks, here I am in the garden, watering my plot and preparing it for autumn crops of spinach, beans and peas. And I'm not alone, either: the die-hards of the construction team, Rob, Djo and John, are working hard on the rotunda, sawing and installing the corrugated iron sheets for the roof.

Fortunately for all of us, Josephine arrives like an angel of mercy, carrying a basket full of freshly baked scones, butter, coffee and milk. So we settle down for morning tea around the table, resting from our labours and enjoying a light breeze – surely this is much more pleasant than being on a crowded beach!

This summer the garden is full of the green tendrils and yellow flowers of various cucurbits, covering plots and walkways and spilling over the slope near the pond. Some of  the fruit - melons, cucumbers,  pumpkins, zucchini and squash - are forming already, promising an abundant harvest. Lettuce of various kinds, perfect for summer meals, grows everywhere – in Plot C, the gigantic cos lettuces grown from the seeds donated by seed saving expert Robyn Williamson one year ago have come to end of their season – a perfect example of successful seed saving!

But what is a summer garden without tomatoes? After disastrous results with tomato seedlings I bought from a nursery last year, I was sceptical when about half a dozen vigorous tomato plants appeared in my plot this spring, but I decided to keep them, even though that meant staking and re-staking the plants almost constantly during the growing phase. And of course, as soon as the first fruit appeared, so did the fruit flies. After consulting our resident experts (Vicky, Maria and Anna) who referred me to the “Gardening Australia” website, I installed traps as recommended by the ABC's Josh Byrne: "Start by making some holes half-way up a plastic drink bottle. They should be about 10 millimetres wide and evenly spaced." Josh recommends fruit juice for the lure but he also adds a pinch of sugar and a sprinkle of brewers' yeast to make fermenting sweet syrup that, Josh says, "Fruit flies just can't resist." I didn't have any brewers' yeast – who does? - but dried yeast for baking worked just as well.

The other thing Josh Byrne stresses is the need for hygiene: to prevent fruit flies from spreading, you should regularly remove any tomatoes that look rotten or otherwise damaged. In other words (with apologies to the RSL): The price of good tomatoes is constant vigilance. I also tended to remove any dry and dead branches and leaves, but I don't know if that made a difference. At any rate, I got a good crop of cherry tomatoes, although I had to accept the fact that they rarely looked as perfect as the ones you buy from a greengrocer. But they tasted great in salads and made delicious chutney.

While I was looking after tomatoes I did not plant – fostering them, in a way - I was able to observe, as most of us did, the antics of two very noisy baby birds (identified as channel-billed cuckoos by Karen and John) being fostered by a pair of flustered currawongs. Let's hope the youngsters become healthy adults just like my unplanned tomatoes did!

Bettina Boss