Ahh citrus..who doesn’t love a bit of fresh lime in their beer, a cheescake chock full of home grown lemons, a juicy, just picked mandarin or a gorgeous orange on a hot summers day? Problem is, us folk living in the cooler areas of Australia can be a bit challenged by citrus, due [...]

Quince – the fatter, uglier sister of the pear has come back into vogue in the last few years, thanks to a number of gourmet cooks and their delicious jams, pastes and desserts.  It must be pointed out at this stage that uncooked quinces straight from the tree a darned near inedible…tough, stringy and [...]

If you are after some fodder for your next pub trivia night, this factsheet on pomegranates has it in droves.  One of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in the world, the pomegranate has appeared in Greek mythology and hymns dating back to the 7th century BC – a feat not matched by any other [...]

Tasty, good-looking, versatile and tough as boots, thyme has got to be one of the easiest culinary herbs around. Prized for its antiseptic qualities (try thyme tea for a chest cold, you’ll be amazed!), thyme is an excellent plant for vegie patch borders, dry spots and pots.

Planting Time: All year

Position: Full sun

Water Needs: Low

Difficulty: [...]

Nothing compares to the taste of a home grown, freshly picked peach or nectarine.  Bursting with flavour and heavy with juice, once you have tasted peaches from your patch you’ll never go back to those rubbery, gooey things from a can again.  As well as being super tasty, peaches and nectarines are also really [...]

The delicious, beautiful fig – known to the Egyptians as the “Tree of Life” – is a wonderful addition to most backyards (and kitchens).  A large, deciduous, well-shaped tree, the fig is an excellent shade tree for small to medium sized backyards, as they can be trimmed and trained into a manageable size.

Figs are [...]

It might just be me, but cherries remind me of a good old Aussie Christmas – prawns, cold meat and salad, backyard cricket and the ever present bowl of deep red, super sweet cherries.  Mum would grab a couple of kilos of cherries from the supermarket and my brother and I would be through [...]

There are two real loves in my life…gardening and food (I hope my partner and parents aren’t reading this!), and I am always chuffed when I am able to combine the two. I was talking recently to my non-horticulturally minded brother, who remarked that his lemon tree was absolutely heaving with fantastic fruit, and [...]