In My Garden - Kate May 2020

In My Garden - Kate May 2020

This month in In My Garden, Kate takes us on a walk through her delightful garden and has lots of tips and hints for growing and eating along the way!

A few of my herbs.

Thyme 

I have never had such success growing thyme as in this self-watering trough, using 1/3 grit mixed in with 2/3 potting mix. Grit is a word that Monty Don uses in the wonderful Gardeners World series. In the UK they use grit a lot, to improve drainage in pots and soil and to thickly cover seed punnets to stop snails etc and to insulate and stop crusting of the soil. Here in Tasmania the native plant nurseries use it too. I buy 5mm cleaned, crushed blue metal. (You can watch Gardeners World any time, online, for free, without adverts, by going to Daily Motion and searching for Gardeners World 2020 or whatever year or episode you like)

Sage and Fine Leaved Rosemary

I prefer the purple sage to the one in this photo but I find that they both have a tendency for branches to die off suddenly. I love to put a dozen or so leaves into a warm pan, in olive oil and let them sit there until they go crisp. Sprinkle with salt and eat! Cook too fast and they go brown; I like them still coloured but crisp.

This is the best rosemary I have ever grown. Its fine leaves are prolific, and the stems never become woody. It is fast growing and so easy to pick and chop. I got it from Lindy at Island Herbs in Snug. The cuttings I took last year have all taken so I am going to use it as a border.

Tasmanian Sea Parsley, Saltbush and more

I am really enjoying discovering Tasmanian native herbs, of which sea parsley is one. It tastes remarkably like regular parsley and can be used in the same way. I also have a very sturdy, productive saltbush, that I pick regularly and put in salads, for a burst of saltiness. 

Another lovely, salty, Tasmanian herb is samphire. I have this in a self-watering pot (like the thyme one) and I water it with sea water. Then, of course, there’s the pepperberry (photo below), whose leaves are just as peppery as the berries and you can add them as you would bay leaves.

Some self-sown deliciousness

Frilly mustard, Endive and Red Russian kale. I eat these every day at the moment, for lunch. 

Perennial edibles

Asparagus

The asparagus are yellowing off now but these twirly spikes from Shiploads mark where they will re-emerge in spring. The spikes are great for holding the tall fernery upright during those ripper winds we get. Not one has come to grief since I started using them.

I rely on perennials (and self sown vegetables) a lot.

Elephant garlic is another favourite but I always eat them before they bulb up, when they are the most magnificent, garlicky leeks you have ever seen, with really long white stems. At the moment they are just coming up.

Fruits

Chilean Guava

One of my favourite autumn fruits, not just for its rich flavour and beautiful colour but also because the bushes are easily pruned for hedges and cuttings taken after fruiting are very successful.

They are delicious raw but also in apple crumbles, muffins and anywhere you would use berries.

Lemons, limes and cumquats

The limes and lemon and cumquat in concrete tubs on my north facing verandah do well, but I am desperately trying to establish a Lisbon lemon in my garden. It has been cut down by repeated frosts during the coldest winter for 50 years, a few years ago, has regained all its leaves and survived the last few milder winters. It has its first, tiny fruit now….. fingers crossed!

Step-over apples

Last year I bought 6 apples on super-dwarf rootstock, from Woodbridge Fruit Trees. You prune them to grow one stem, plant on an angle and espalier to something for a few years. I already had one elsewhere in the garden and it produced so heavily last year and looks so lovely that it seemed a good opportunity to buy a season’s worth, when Nik at the nursery went crazy grafting lots of different varieties onto this rootstock! It was hard to get a photo!

Olives

Coming from South Australia, the land of citrus and olives, I planted 2 olives almost as soon as I arrived in Tasmania! They were totally neglected until the last couple of years but now produce a good crop of lovely eating olives for me to pickle.

And to conclude, some more pictures of

Vistas, paths and structures: