- This is an Australian website - Contact Margaret RainbowWebAlpinia aka wild ginger
This dramatic looking plant, also known as the Ginger Lily, has large delicately perfumed flower spikes, and blue berries which can be used for flavouring. I have now removed it, as it requires too much water.
Arundo Donax alias Wild Bamboo
I finally decided to remove this in Autumn 2002, as I needed to open up the garden to admit more light, and also reduce some of the heavy work. The recently planted Callistemon can now make good growth during the winter, and the mature grapevines will give plenty of summer shade.
But I already miss, and feel I always shall, the Arundo's graceful appearance, and the sound of it's leaves.
Here it is looking at it's best.
I planted it as a temporary measure soon after starting the garden, as I desperately needed to shade the 8 square metres of glass facing SW, which makes up most of one wall of my living area, from the midsummer sun.
It grew so rapidly that by the summer I was able to create a living shade house, by tying the long stems to the roof of the cottage. These horizontal stems then produced numerous delicate verticals, increasing the shade and both looking and sounding delightful, rustling in every slight breeze.
In my tiny garden it has always required heavy pruning, including root pruning, each winter. Some stems were allowed to grow for 2 or 3 years before being cut & properly seasoned, to provide construction & craft material, but most were put through the mulcher, providing much of the mulch I needed for the following summer. In addition the old roots were seasoned to use for firewood - they have a pleasant grassy scent, even when completely dry.
Commonly called wild bamboo, though botanically it is as close to the canes as to the bamboos, Arundo Donax is much maligned. It has a clumping rather than a running habit, and while it will flourish in a swamp, it is tolerant of drought, and grows almost anywhere. I was told by my own Permaculture teacher that it was good only for mulch.
While it certainly provided many bags of that each winter when it was cut back severely, it grew back quickly into a thick 4 - 5 metre high screen. It provided much-needed shade, a refuge for birds & small creatures, & white noise which combined with the sound of birdsong, the water featuere, & wind-chimes, to mask the background noise of the city. When Arundo flowers, it looks exotic & excites much comment. Unlike some bamboo species, the plant does not die back after flowering. More about this multi-purpose giant - which admittedly needs proper management if it is not to become a pest - on bamboo.
There is a variegated variety which is not so rampant, but not so useful either.
Auracacias aka taro
This kind of taro, also known as 'elephant's ears', requires extensive leaching before being used as food. I didn't anticipate using it unless in a real emergency!
The leaves are highly decorative, it tolerates heavy shade, and the perfume of the fairly insignificant flowers is richly sensual, especially on warm evenings! I grew it close to my outdoor bath.
It strikes readily from cuttings, and I usually have one or two small plants in pots ready to be given as gifts or put on stalls. It is too water hungry to continue to grow it in the garden.
Babaco - click for file and link to photo.
After growing successfully for six years, my babaco tree could no longer cope with the increasing shade, and succumbed to rot.
I may try again, but consider this fruit a curiosity rather than an essential dietary item.
Bananas
These were grown for aesthetic & sentimental reasons, as the fruit seldom ripens even in the micro-climate created here. They are gross feeders and also require a great deal of water if they are to thrive. The flowers are beautiful, aromatic, & very attractive to native honeyeaters. They were watered & fertilised with my dishwater, which they soaked up up completely, even in wet weather.
However, I am now (2004) working hard to "drought-proof" the garden, and so have replaced the banana clump with an Acacia Fimbriata, which has a graceful habit, makes a good screen, and produces edible seeds.
Strictly speaking, bananas are not trees, but herbs. Banana leaves make excellent plates or platters, can be wrapped around food and tied before steaming it, and are a cool, compostable substitute for a waterproof sheet in baby's cot or a sickbed.
All parts of the plant can be used when dried, for making hats, mats, baskets etc. as a paper substitute, and for numerous other purposes.
The inside of a banana skin rubbed on scratched wood or leather will make the mark almost invisible. Wonderful for scuffed shoes.
A well-established clump of bananas gives ample shade, and the leaves make a very pleasant sound in the wind.
In the tropics, bananas and plaintains grow quickly to maturity, providing good supplies of nutritious staple food. In addition, where there is no proper drainage, banana circles - formed by the suckers as the first trees are chopped out after harvest (the trees only bear once, being, strictly speaking an annual!) can be an effective and useful means of disposing of liquid waste.
Banana passionfruit
In 1997 I planted a banana passionfruit in this garden for the second time - I accidentally 'drowned' the first in 1996, by not providing an adequate channel for the overflow from my rainwater tank to the storm drain. (The vine was placed so as to hide the tank).
Banana Passionfruit grows more strongly than the black, lives longer, and has extraordinarily beautiful pink or red flowers. The fruit is less juicy, but the deep yellow skin is soft and edible. It makes aromatic jams, jellies or cordials, and is a pleasant addition to fruit salad. Birds enjoy it, and a mature vine can supply enough for the chooks (hens) as well.
I prefer Banana passionfruit to black for many reasons, but the rampant growth threatened to strangle my avocado tree, so I replaced it with two appleberry vines, which are happy in the shade of the now mature avocado.
Cardomom
This well-known spice seems to need more sun than it gets in the location I gave it if it is to flower and set seed. The leaves looked & smelt lovely growing near the Auracacias. Now it's been taken up and I have it in three pots which are waiting for a good home.
Choko aka Chayote
Every part of the choko can be eaten - the young tips steamed taste like asparagus, the tendrils can be used as a decoratative garnish, and the leaves may be steamed and sieved like turnip greens. Young chokos are sliced raw and used like cucumber, or stir-fried, sliced or quartered, according to size. Older fruit can be stuffed, curried, or used to pad out stews and soups (don't forget to eat the seed too).
Chokos take on the flavour of anything they are cooked with. In hard times they have been served as a sweet, cooked with lemon juice, sugar and ginger, or made into pies with a few more flavoursome fruits. It makes excellent pickles, chutneys and sauces.
Even the root is edible, and a well-established vine can have large sections of the tuber removed for food.
The rate of growth of the vine has to be seen to be believed! They take a year or two to become established and should be protected from frost and drying out during this time. Though cut down by the first frost, once established the vines will shoot again as soon as the weather warms up. They prefer to have their feet in deep rich moist soil, though they will grow almost anywhere there is water, and they will climb and travel extraordinary distances to get their heads in the sun.
One Choko vine will easily cover an old car body, hen run, garage, shed, or even the house!
Warning! I discovered, when trying to keep my vine under control after several years of having to get help (wearing hard hats) to get the vine off the roof each winter, that it resents being cut back too hard - while the vine still grows strongly, it sulks, and won't flower.
If you can't eat it all, chooks, guinea-pigs or other animals relish the leaves and stems.
Flowers, which are rich in nectar and attract honeyeaters and native bees, begin appearing in late summer. The first fruit is ready in early autumn, and ripens over a long period. It will hang on the vine, getting progressively tougher, until late winter. Even these old tough fruits can be cut up and cooked for animal feed.
Mine is a thin-skinned variety, with no thorns. Some kinds can be quite painful to handle.
The choko contains Vitamins C and A, and is rich in pectin, a particularly useful kind of soluble vegetable fibre. It is the stuff which, combined with acid and sugar, makes jam set, so it can be used with scarcer fruit to stock up the store cupboard.
The dried stems are very strong, and can be used for weaving or string.
I have this vision, of every house in the world's shanty-towns having it's own choko growing over it, watered by waste water and fertilised by rubbish. Would it work, I wonder?
Eventually, with deep regret I decided in the winter of 2000, to get rid of my choko. I had to keep it well cut back to allow the grape vines, now well-established, to develop into the shady canopy I originally designed. Consequently I got very little fruit, and keeping it under control in my tiny garden was a daily chore. I still mourn it.
Do remember that my place is exceptionally tiny - in an average backyard there is definitely a place for the choko!
Comfrey
This broad-leaved herb is deep-rooted and brings up nutrients from the sub-soil. It is a first-class compost starter, and bees relish the nectar. However, it requires a fair amount of water. For this reason I have removed it from the garden. If I need a small quantity, plenty of friends with larger gardens grew their plants from root cuttings of mine, and will be happy to supply my needs.
The root is dried and used for ointment or tea. The leaves can be cooked as spinach, though the result is so glutinous as to be unpalatable to some people. They can also be dried for tea.
Back in the 1970's there was some controversy over the internal use of comfrey in Australia. Apparently in mining our ancient soils - the oldest on the planet - the plant accumulates high levels of cancer-inducing substances. But many Australians continue to use fresh comfrey just as before - we just can't buy comfrey tablets any more!
Elderberry
Whether the European variety, which I had, or the one native to Asia and Australia, the elderberry is a graceful and vigorous addition to the garden. It can be cut back really hard every year - in fact in a small garden like mine, it had to be! Yet by early summer it had grown back to shade the whole SE side of the house.
The perfumed flowers make fritters - just dip flower-heads in batter and fry - and a highly esteemed and effervescent 'champagne'! They are also used to flavour jams, jellies and stewed fruit, also to make cosmetics. But you need to pick the flowers before the bees and birds have taken all the nectar and pollen. Many other beneficial insects are attracted by the bountiful blossoms.
When the sap is running freely, small boys make whistles from the stems, while the tree has the reputation of being a witch-repellant. Certainly the bruised leaves repel flies, and a bunch used to be hung in cottage doorways for this purpose.
The bunches of tiny deep purple berries can be gathered when fully ripe and used to make elderberry wine. When well-made, this is every bit as good as many clarets - poorly-made, it is a rough red, but with quite a kick!
Elderberries are used to flavour jellies and stewed fruit. They were even used, in wartime, because of the strong colour and many pips, with turnips and apples to make erzatz 'raspberry' jam! They can cause slight stomach upsets if eaten raw - though many children seem to eat large quantities with impunity - but are delicious in pies, breads and muffins. They can also be dried and used instead of currants in baked goods.
Elderberry Rob, a syrup similar to rose-hip or blackcurrant syrup, was made each year by countryfolk as a remedy for winter coughs and colds.
Birds of all kinds find the fruit good to eat, as well as enjoying the thick shade, so in summer and autumn the tree was full of them. A good crop of elderberries will to some extent protect other soft fruit crops from bird damage.
Another deciduous tree, it provides a lot of mulch. Tradition has it that it is unlucky to burn the wood, and animals prefer not to eat it, so I shredded the prunings too.
I finally bit the bullet and removed the tree in Autumn 2002. It had, after being coppiced regularly every 2 years, still grown far larger than the average elderberry - it must have discovered an underground spring. Since I had not expected it to become more than a large shrub, I had planted it too close to the house. It was grabbing far too large a proportion of the available moisture and nutrients, and it's canopy was affecting the growth of several other trees. Sadly, the only solution was to remove it completely.
Grape - Ladyfinger
One of the two vines I originally planted was this old-fashioned variety which ripens later than the sultana. The plan was to extend the season during which I could eat and share fresh grapes.. However, when I originally designed the garden, the vines, including Kiwi fruit, were planted on a common NW boundary in consultation with my neighbours. While I wanted summer shade, to ripen the fruit successfully required full sun. So the vines were allowed to cover my neighbour's side of the fence and ripen the fruit there. We shared the fruit, and their side of the corrugated iron fence was covered in greenery for much of the year.
Alas, my new neighbour wants nothing from my side to encroach on the fence. So that portion of the garden has been completely re-designed.
Also removed for the same reason was the
Kiwi Fruit aka Chinese Gooseberry - click for file and link to photo
I had three vines , one male, and two female. I would probably have had even better crops if I had planted three female vines and grafted some male scions to one of them. The male vine grows very vigorously, and can easily smother the female plants if not kept strictly under control.
I don't know how to distinguish the sexes in young plants, except by careful labelling. When they are flowering, it is easy to tell the difference - the female flowers have tiny fruits instead of stems, just like female pumpkin flowers.
Manzano Chilli Photos
This is a scrambler which bears huge crops. My plant had irregularly-shaped bright orange chillis, but the shape and
colour of the fruit can vary from plant to plant. Red or light orange, smooth or slightly more
lobed. This chilli is also known as Rocoto.. They need a strong trellis, and regular tying up of new growth. While they relish full sun, this variety also does well in partial shade.
Ideal for chilli sauce makers! If you want to dry some, the fruit should be cut into four pieces and the black seeds removed. They can also be pickled, or preserved in oil, in which case the pickling liquid or oil can also be used when a less fiery chilli flavour is required.
Take the usual precautions when working with these potent fruits. Wear rubber gloves, eye protection, and thoroughly wash down all tools and surfaces after you've finished. Chilli juice can burn, even cause blindness.
All chillis are rich in Vitamin C and bioflavinoids. They will also give you the famous Chilli 'High', thought to be caused by the rush of endorphins released to relieve the body'
s reaction to the first mouthful.
I removed this vigorous vine in 2004, to conserve water. I have enough chilli sauce - welding strength! - in my storecupboard now to last for many years. Should I need a few fresh chillis, many of my friends grow them and will happily supply me.
Monstera Deliciosa
This highly decorative plant will grow in almost total shade, and sets fruit even as far South as Melbourne. It does, however, take up a great deal of room for a comparatively small crop. It helps if you hand pollinate the flowers.
I grew it for its tropical appearance, and accepted the fruit as a bonus. The leaves are highly decorative, and quite tough. If cut and placed in water, they will last for a very long time, creating the illusion of an 'instant' indoor plant.
The fruit segments ripen progressively, and fruit is best cut from the vine when the upper parts are beginning to ripen. Keep it in a paper bag, removing and eating the segments as the green caps fall off. Also called 'Fruit Salad Plant' it tastes like a mixture of pineapple and banana.
Unripe segments may make your lips and mouth very sore.
I removed my beloved specimen when I discovered it was sneakily stealing water and nutrients from my Guava - the reason the Guavas had been so small and bitter for the last two years. Fascinating though the vine is, it's fruits are only a curiosity, whereas the Guava is an important staple winter fruit.
NECTARINE
I finally removed the nectarine, for three reasons.
1) I couldn't cope with the amount of soft fruit my garden was producing. Apricots and peaches are more than sufficient now the trees are mature.
2) Removing this tree, which was huge, allowed more light into the garden, benefiting the apple and the passionfruit, both of which fruit much later in the season.
3) To reduce the amount of water needed in times of drought.
The Nectarine is indistinguishable from the peach until the first fruit appears. Botanically it is identical to the peach, but the fruit has a smooth skin like a plum. Seedling trees are usually true to type, and unlike most seedlings, often bear good crops when only 4 or 5 years old.
The Nectarine flower is deep pink, with a crimson throat, identical to some peach blooms.
Unlike some peaches, nectarines do not dry or bottle well, nor 'set' as a jam unless picked before they are fully ripe, or mixed with other pectin rich fruit, such as apples or chokos.
This is because special varieties of peach - mostly hybrids - have been developed specifically for canning, drying, and jam or preserves. None of these are so good to eat fresh as the nectarine or the older peach varieties.
Papyrus latifolia
was grown partly for its appearance & durability, though birds relish the seeds. It used to provide, together with the Arundo, fodder for the Guinea-pigs before their sad demise.
Pepino
This sprawling member of the Solanum family produces large crops of fruits about the size of a tomato, or even larger. Apricot yellow striped with purple, they taste something like a mixture of tomato, rockmelon and banana! They leave a long-lasting sweet aftertaste in the mouth, and need to be protected from ants when ripening!
Because they ripen in late winter and early spring, I used them then to replace tomatos in salad. But they are delicious alone as a fresh fruit, or in a fruit salad. Sometimes the skin is bitter, and needs to be removed.
The dark green leaves are evergreen in our climate, and with the spikes of attractive purple flowers make pepino a good ground-cover of medium height.
After growing pepinos for many years on the front fence, with spectacular results, the plant finally started to die back during the hot summer of 2002/3. As the plant needs lots of water, and I also had trouble using all the fruit, I decided to remove the vine, and replace it with some natives.
Pussy Willow aka Goat Willow
N.B. - In Australian waterside environments, this introduced species is a pest!
I had not planned to include it in my garden, but soon after moving in I discovered a major problem with the stormwater drain.
The builders had made the drain as far as the fence on the street boundary, but left it unfinished, with no outlet, so that the water simply flooded the garden close to the fence. On further investigation, I saw that, had an outlet been made to the street, as is the practice here in Adelaide, the water would have poured straight into a telephone company inspection pit! Rather than start again, the builders simply ignored the problem.
So I got a cutting from one of the Pussy Willows by the River, and stuck it in the ground. It grew rapidly to full-size, and acted very efficiently to use all the excess stormwater, preventing the garden from becoming waterlogged and the fence footings from damage.
In addition, it is a deciduous tree, and provided summer shade and winter sun. Even without its leaves, it provided thick cover for nesting birds, and the lovely catkins - called 'Palm' in Britain, and used in church on Palm Sunday - provide huge supplies of easily harvested pollen, for birds, bees and humans.
If cut before the silver fur has broken into golden flower, the local florist is always happy to buy some, while my friends loved getting their bunch each year. It lasts well indoors, either in water, or dried.
I regularlycoppiced the tree every 2 or 3 years This provided some firewood, and lots of light prunings for mulching.
This is an excellent example of seeing solutions rather than problems - my Pussy Willow was not only useful, rather than a pest, in this setting, but a constant source of joy to many, especially European exiles like myself.
I finally removed the tree during the summer of 2004/5, when it became apparent that it's demands for water could not be met without irrigation. It has been replaced by a drought-resistant Wattle.
Rosemary
A hardy shrub, evergreen, and an invaluable herb. I used it in cooking - excellent with pulses - and for aromatherapy. Also, sometimes, as a stimulating tea - but with caution!
Rosemary requires a fair amount of sun, or it sulks and sprawls. In 1989 mine had one of the few sunny spots in my urban jungle, but as the tree grew the shade just got too much for it, and after watching it struggle for a number of years, I removed it in 2000. So far my attempts to strike cuttings have been unsuccessful, but I do intend to replace it, with a plant in a pot which can be moved around with the sun.
Legend says that Mary, Mother of God, spread her mantle on the bush, and the flowers were given it's sky-blue colour.
It is also said that as the Rosemary fares, so does the woman of the house. If it flourishes, so does she! ?
Rue
This old-fashioned herb is attractive and evergreen, with blue-green finely divided leaves and pannicles of golden flowers in early summer.
But it stinks! - though some people find the odour pleasant! It is reputed to keep evil from the house if grown near the entrance, and certainly deters dogs, cats and people alike!
Mine grew outside the fence, close to the street, and passers-by who picked the gorgeous flowers never did so twice!
However I was often asked for cuttings, particularly by people of mediterranean origin.
The plant was given me by a friend when I first moved here in 1989. While I did not enjoy the smelly job of cutting it back each year, it brought me many new friendships, as well as reminding me of an old one.
Once used medicinally, it is too powerful to be used by those without specialised knowledge.
This poor plant finally succumbed to drought in 2002. I have decided not to replace it, preferring to use drought-tolerant species in it's place.
Tansy
An ancient herb not so much used these days. The fern-like leaves and dainty golden flower-heads make it an attractive groundcover, and it will thrive as long as it gets a few hours of sunshine each day. Mine, however, did not get enough, and eventually grew more & more straggly, until it died. The fragrance is bitter and refreshing excellent in a woody pot-pourri. It is a powerful insect repellant, and used to be used for intestinal worms, but this dangerous practice is seldom followed nowadays. I grew it under my my citrus trees, to deter ants from 'farming' aphids on the trees. If the fumes were not sufficient in times of high 'antivity' I rubbed the trunk of the tree with fresh tansy leaves, and tie a 'necklace' of leaves around each branch. If ants invade food cupboards, put fresh tansy leaves on the shelves, renewing them daily until the ants give up and go elsewhere. Needless to say, sachets of tansy leaves make good moth repellants for the wardrobe!
A few leaves, or a little dried leaf is said to give a ginger flavour to cakes and puddings - tansy pudding was once very popular in England.
In one of my favourite girlhood books, The Girl of the Limberlost - by GENE STRATTON-PORTER there was a vivid description of the use of a poultice of tansy leaves to promote skin-peeling to remove deep sunburn. I immediately resolved never to put this cosmetic use of the herb to the test!
Wild Tomato
This is the stock used for the 'Le Gref' grafted tomato.
Probably because the few sunny spots in my urban jungle are already filled, this has never grown successfully for me. But the stock clambered over the rainwater tank with the Banana Passionfruit, and produced bunches of tiny yellow tomatoes for most of the year. They had a slightly bitter skin and very sweet pulp. Lovely in salads, and just enough for my requirements.
January 2000 - this poor dear has finally given up the unequal struggle - a 7-year bean suddenly took over, and it died for lack of light. I'll leave the entry, though, for the information of people who lose the top of their 'LeGref' tomato.
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