Season summary for my food garden in Ballarat (Victoria), Autumn, 2025. This is mainly of relevance to food gardeners in the Ballarat area, but it might be a useful comparison for those living further afield.
The well above average temperatures that we experienced in spring and summer have continued into autumn. Autumn’s maximum average temperature was 3.4 °C above the long term average (spring was 2.2 and summer was 3.0 °C above). The minimum average temperature for autumn was 1.5 °C above average with May being minus .7 °C. This lower than average May minimum temperature would have been due to a run of heavy frosts in the last week of May.
Rainfall was just 34.7 % of the average rainfall, the lowest month being May at 22% of average. As a result of these high temperatures (high temperatures increase evaporation rates) and low rainfall the Ballarat area is considered to be in drought.
The official weather statistics for Autumn as recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology’s Ballarat airport site. Click HERE to see a higher resolution PDF of this weather chart.
My dipping tank froze a number of time during the last week of May, which is an indication of how severe the frosts were then.
vegetables
The extremely warm conditions we have had this Autumn favoured the heat loving vegetables. The capsicum and eggplant yield was the best I have ever known, the chili crop was also good though the tomato crop was average. The pumpkin crop was excellent; we harvested 42 Grey Crown pumpkins from just six plants.
Vegetables such as beans had below average yields. My scarlet runner bean plants (whose flowers won’t set in warm weather) faired particularly badly. The potato crop was poor, which I put down to not giving the potato plants enough water. Though we had an excellent autumn crop of carrots.
The late autumn harvest of broccoli has been great, as well as the cabbages. However the warm weather has meant that cabbage caterpillars have been active into late autumn, as a result I had to spray with Dipel (Bacillus thuringiensis) more often, Dipel being my go to biocide for controlling cabbage butterfly caterpillars.
The eggplant and capsicum harvest was partially good this year as the warmer than usual Autumn weather pushed the harvest period well into late autumn.
My main vegetable garden in late autumn. The brassicas (cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli) and the broad beans have gotten off to a good start.
The pumpkins that were harvested this autumn. I store our pumpkins in an old bird aviary as it keeps the pumpkins dry and well ventilated, which reduces the risk of them going mouldy.
We had a heavy peach crop and the best Autumn crop of raspberries I have ever known. The strawberries were also excellent; we were harvesting them right up until mid-May. The citrus season has got off to a good start with a nice crop of Tahitian limes and Satsuma mandarins.
Some of the strawberries and raspberries harvest this autumn.
The Tahitian limes that I harvested, most of which were made into lime cordial.
chickens
Our five hens averaged 4.3 eggs per day this autumn. As they are now well into their second year I think this is a pretty good tally.
No sign of pests or diseases. I dosed them against coccidiosis twice during this autumn as a preventative measure. Night inspections of their feathers revealed no lice or spider mites.
While my hens are well into their second year they are still providing a steady stream of eggs.
