Indholdsfortegnelse for 15.6 i Good Organic Gardening

For a Gardening Folk story in this issue, we went on a road trip to visit one of the most impressive backyard orchards we’ve ever seen. On a one-acre block on the NSW mid-north coast, retirees Gerald and Josie grow all the exotic and unusual tropical and subtropical fruits you have and perhaps haven’t heard of — too many to list here, but you can read about all them from page 30. After our tour of the stunning garden, Josie served up a couple of platters of fresh and dried fruits along with some of her homemade preserves and sauces. As we were leaving, she also insisted on loading us up with a large container of boysenberries fresh off the vines, along with some white shatoot mulberries and black and…

Every year in mid-autumn, large bags of leaves would turn up stacked in our garage, raked up from beneath the large oak trees in a friend’s garden. It may seem an odd gift, but my mother’s garden lacked deciduous trees, so she missed out on nature’s valuable annual offering. When she mentioned it to her friend, who had more leaves than they could manage, the annual gift started to arrive. The leaves went into a leaf bin to break down into leaf mould and top up the compost, to be used as mulch straight onto the garden. The autumn leaves that fall from deciduous trees such as oak, elm, maple, liquidambar and birch are not just colourful but filled with nutrients. In natural woodlands, leaves fall to the forest floor…

STEENA’S FATHER WAS A MASTER AT RAISING RUNNER BEANS. “SO MUCH SO, I STOPPED EATING THEM FOR 20 YEARS,” SHE LAUGHS. Sometimes gardening spills over into other locations outside one’s own patch — and that’s the case with this passionate gardener. Steena Barnett’s love of gardening and the need to share that love have led her to join local crop swap groups, organic gardening clubs and a community garden hub. She and husband Barney live on a quarter-acre block in Karana Downs, west of Brisbane. The property is located in a rain shadow thanks to surrounding mountains, so planting and gardening are done with that in mind. Barney is an ex-air force retiree while Steena, who has an MSc in health science and was a nurse for 15 years before…

MARCH 2025 Early autumn in most of Australia means high temperatures are still likely in the daytime along with humidity, which means there’s still lots to plant in your patch. APRIL 2025 April feels more like autumn as the nights become cooler and the wet season ends in tropical areas, but the days are still warm enough for good plant growth. New moon First quarter Full moon Last quarter When the moon is waxing from new moon to full moon, it is increasing light and drawing sap flow upwards. During the waning from full moon back to new moon, light decreases and sap is drawn downwards. This movement of sap flow has an influence on how well new plants will grow. There are four phases, each lasting seven to eight…

Eschalots, also known as shallots or French shallots in some regions, are often mistaken for small onions. Confusion reigns, in fact. Some refer to spring or green onions as shallots but, according to the Sydney Market, shallots or eschalots (Allium cepa) are very different from spring onions or scallions (A. fistulosum), which are typically eaten while still green and fresh. Originating from central or southwest Asia, eschalots have been cultivated for centuries and are loved for their delicate taste, often preferred in many Asian and French dishes. Like “regular” onions, they are harvested and cured (or air-dried) before storing and have a milder, sweeter, subtler flavour than both onions and spring onions, which makes them incredibly versatile. Unlike onions, eschalots grow in clusters of small, tapered bulbs and don’t take…

Where I live in coastal New South Wales, the pink-flowering succulent Carpobrotus is everywhere. It grows wild in the local cemetery, has been planted by council in the sand dunes and is ubiquitous in home gardens. It’s possibly the most popular groundcover in the region and is usually automatically considered a native, also known as karkalla or pigface. However, the karkalla/pigface you are looking at may not be a native. Of the approximately 25 species of Carpobrotus worldwide, six grow commonly in Australia and they mostly look similar. Four of the six are endemic to Australia while the others originate mainly from Africa and South America. When my partner and I started planting a new garden, for a point of difference we decided to opt for the native variety C. rossii…

Attracting beneficial ladybirds to your garden in Australia is a great way to manage pests naturally and promote a healthy ecosystem. Ladybirds, or ladybugs as they’re known in some regions, are voracious consumers of aphids, mites and other small insects that can damage plants. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to attract these beneficial insects to your garden. CREATE A DIVERSE ECOSYSTEM Ladybirds thrive in gardens that offer a range of habitats and food sources. Start by creating a diverse garden that includes various plants, both flowering and non-flowering. Incorporate native Australian plants that are well adapted to the local environment and can attract a variety of beneficial insects. • Plant diversity: Include a mix of flowering plants like marigolds, daisies and cosmos, which produce nectar that ladybirds feed on.…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • Even as we head into autumn, chances are the days are still warm, so prepare for winter and spring harvests by planting Asian greens, broad beans, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, rocket, silverbeet, spinach and spring onions. Also worth considering are broccoli, leeks and tatsoi.• While it’s still not too coolish, you could start some herbs such as basil, coriander (a slow-bolting variety if it’s still too warm), marjoram, parsely, rosemary and thyme — perhaps even some rocket. If planting mint or lemon balm, watch they don’t go nuts and take over.• Add autumn colour with pollinator magnets like calendula, edible cornflowers, dianthus, marigolds, pansies, nasturiums, snapdragons, verbena and violas, which will soon turn your patch into a buzzing, eye-catching hive of industry.• Those new seedlings could…

JOIN THE GARDENING CLUB FOR ALL AUSTRALIANS The Diggers Club has been at the forefront of gardening in Australia since the late 1970s. Responsible for bringing the heirloom vegetable movement to Australia, Diggers works with overseas horticultural institutions such as The Royal Horticultural Society in the UK and Seed Savers in the US as well as our own Botanic Gardens in Australia, and is committed to preserving heirloom seeds and rare plants as well as bringing the best garden traditions to all Australian gardeners. As summer draws to an end it’s time to start planning for autumn. To celebrate the upcoming season, The Diggers Club gives all members the opportunity to redeem four packs of free seed from a curated collection of new, unique and popular seeds. But this is…

Membership includes: • Up to 8 packets of seed.• Unlimited visits to The Diggers Foundation gardens of Heronswood, Cloudehill and The Garden of St Erth.• Seasonal Diggers garden magazines and our Heirloom Seed Annual.• Up to 40% discount on all products.• Exclusive member-only products. Plus access to: • Events, content and specials just for members.• Personalised gardening advice from our qualified horticulturalists.• Our private and supportive member-only online community group.• Our members library with hundreds of articles, guides and videos. Join here or visit diggers.com.au…

TOMORROW’S WEATHER TODAY A high-tech facility that can mimic environments from rainforests to deserts is the latest tool to help Australian plant scientists and industry improve crop productivity and secure future food supplies. The University of Queensland’s $65 million Plant Futures Facility is a leader in plant research, able to finely control temperature, light intensity, light quality, humidity and CO2 concentration, allowing researchers to better predict plant responses to future climates. Research facilities like this are essential, said Adam Fennessy from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. “Adaptation to climatic changes requires continued investment in research and development, with sustainability credentials in food systems increasingly demanded by governments, investors and consumers globally,” he said. Construction of the six-storey facility on the St Lucia campus began in late 2021 and…

The Sicilians say, “The broad beans lead the way.” As one of the first winter crops to fruit, fava beans were traditionally the focus of spring family outings when poor folk “went to the beans”, picking and eating them on the spot. The people of the Mediterranean and the Middle East have been going to the beans for at least eight millennia. Called ful in Arabic, broad beans are a prime ingredient in felafel; mashed with oil, salt and cumin they make ful medames, one of Egypt’s national dishes. Italians combine them with pork or pecorino for May Day picnics while in Sicily, where they star in the traditional soup maccu, broad beans have deep roots in folklore and religion. They’re considered a fertility symbol because they thrive in the…

Beechwood is a picturesque rural village in the rolling hills behind Wauchope and the Hastings River on New South Wales’ mid-north coast. Among the township’s farmlets and cleared acreages is Gerald and Josie’s gently sloping corner block, a vivid green food jungle of exotic tropical and subtropical fruit trees with tall stands of tiger grass as windbreaks. Originally from Sydney — and, before that, Malaysia — the couple fled the rat race nine years ago for Port Macquarie, their holiday destination for a quarter of a century. Josie remembers her daughter asking one day, “Mum, have you heard of the chocolate pudding fruit?” Intrigued, Josie googled black sapote and before long, she says, she was “watching YouTube videos of the Weird Fruit Explorer and searching for all sorts of rare…

The feijoa could really use an agent. Perhaps a Friends of Feijoa support group might bring it some love, as the fruit of this easygoing, bountiful evergreen really isn’t very popular. At this time of the year, when the fruit is in season, it can be seen lying ignored on the ground, unloved and unwanted. Sometimes, buckets of fruit are available for free at the garden gate. This is a very sad situation, as feijoas taste good, are nutritious and high in vitamin C. They’re also a source of fresh local fruit just as other fruit trees reach the end of their harvest period. The lack of enthusiasm for feijoas in Australia is a mixture of obscurity and ignorance — plus the fact that the fruit is small, green, egg-shaped…

One of the delights of autumn is planting leafy green crops into the still-warm soil. With good care, they’ll grow ready to harvest during winter. Autumn planting is an investment in your future to ensure there are plenty of tasty and nutritious crops to harvest as temperatures drop and days get shorter. There is so much that can be planted now including silverbeet, English spinach and brassicas such as kale and many Asian greens. Another leafy green to grow now is collards or collard greens. If you can track down lamb’s lettuce (also known as Rapunzel) you’ll be able to enjoy yet another leafy green in the winter garden. It’s not a true lettuce but its small, dark green soft leaves can be used to make a salad or fill…

COOL & TEMPERATE VEGIES • Collect seed from open-pollinated crops to save for sowing in spring or early summer. Make sure seed is clean and dry then store in an airtight container clearly labelled with its name and the date collected.• Time to give up on any sad, raggedy tomatoes if you haven’t already, but don’t throw green unripe fruit — it’s great for making chutney.• Autumn’s always a good time to rest a bed or two with a quick crop of green manure. Also, try adding some colour (and attracting some pollinators) with pansies, violas, verbena and lupins.• Pumpkins are ripening, but test them first by rapping on the skin: a deep drum-like sound means they’re ready. Leave a bit of the stem attached and store in a cool,…

A perennial that’s part of the mint family, anise hyssop is a tall, pungent herb with pretty spires of mauve flowers. It’s both ornamental and edible and, being so aromatic, is pleasant to brush up against in the garden. It has many traditional medicinal uses including the treatment of digestive issues, colds and respiratory problems. It’s also known for its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties and is often used to sooth sore throats and coughs. Its flavour and scent is licorice or aniseed with a hint of mint, which makes it a popular herb to dry for a homemade herbal tea. The leaves can also be used fresh in salads and rice dishes. The fragrant mauve flowers also attract beneficial insects, particularly pollinators, and can be picked for use as a garnish.…

Kununurra is a town in the north-eastern Kimberley, just east of where Highway One crosses the mighty Ord River and not far from the Northern Territory border. The climate is tropical and semi-arid, bone dry for six months of the year until the buildup to the wet season starts in October. Bev and Gary Graham are caretakers of a house on a property just south of Kununurra — the owners also live on the same property — but that hasn’t stopped them growing vegies and about 10 acres of mangoes. They do things bigger in WA. They also manage a turf and mango farm down the road and both properties back onto the Ord River. That means virtually unlimited water, even during The Dry, as Lake Argyle dam, 70km away,…

Bok choy is a delicious and nutritious leafy green originating from China. Its crisp pale-green or white stems and tender green or purple leaves make it a staple in Asian cooking, loved for its mild flavour and crunchy texture. A fast-growing compact plant, it’s an ideal choice for Australian gardeners looking for a quick, rewarding harvest that can be stir-fried, steamed, sautéed or added to soups. Confusingly, bok choy is sometimes referred to as pak choy or pak choi in nurseries and at the greengrocer’s. Often you’ll see the shorter ones with pale-green stems labelled bok choy and the white-stemmed, taller ones called pak choy but they are botanically the same plant. BOK CHOY IS A FAST GROWER SO YOU CAN PLANT IT SUCCESSIVELY FOR A CONTINUAL HARVEST THROUGHOUT THE…

By autumn, pumpkin vines are likely to have sprawled over every available space and are probably considering scaling the fence, while the yellow female flowers on each trailing arm will have swollen to form small pumpkins. The vines don’t realise they’ve done enough and need to concentrate on growing bigger fruit — they just keep on sprawling and flowering until the weather turns cold. Pumpkins can spread 3–7m from their starting point, especially if growing in rich soil with plenty of sunshine. If your vine is sporting fruit, pinch out the growing tip to encourage the vine to stop spreading and concentrate its energy into growing bigger pumpkins while the weather is still warm. If space is tight, pumpkins can be trained to grow vertically — for example, on a…