So.. what are you planting this week?

[Tish]

Howdy folks!

So, a bit of background: I live in the subtropics, Eastern Australia, and moved here to a family home from [everywhere else] in 2021, right after flooding. This was followed up by a year of rain. The property is a big ol' quarter acre style complete with fibro house (I've gone from "you can't hang pictures, peasant-class tenant!" to "ooh, don't be trying to drill into those walls, ASBESTOS!!!" but hey, at least we can paint them!) on clay soil. Close to a river, but far from anything I've ever known! I was so excited to see a big empty yard with a solitary lilly pilly I insisted on plants for every gift-giving occasion.

Everything drowned.

Devastated and scarred for life, I've learned my lessons. Raised garden beds, super picky about the soil and I keep a weather eye on second-hand pots for sale. I have a pretty good collection of rustic, aged glazed pots that is making my heart sing! Nice big ones to grow substantial crops in. I'm even having a lot of luck with tubs and odd plastic pots with bigger holes in the bottom for drainage, making them miniature raised beds for herbs and bulbs. My parsley is completely mental!

So onto the question portion - what are folks planting around about now? Where are you sourcing your seeds and seedlings? (I'm in the new beginnings phase, so no legacy seeds yet)

Anything you'd recommend as an exciting crop that really loves this zone?

Oh, and thoughts on "FULL SUN" for things you do plant - I am finding that 'six hours of sunlight' is sometimes all a plant can take so shade is a must. Non-native species cop a flogging, so I have been tracking sunlight and shadows like a shaman, making sure that 'morning sun' and 'afternoon sun' are factored in to what I plant, and where. I have a spot that I didn't expect become available, under the canopy of the lilly pilly, and I'm interested to know what would grow best with all-day shade and just a few hours of the end-of-day sun. If you can think of anything, I'd love to hear it!

My goal is to have more plants in our family's diet, and more variety, but also to share my love of plants, food and gardening with my daughter and nieces. They will get their own little toddler garden with anything they can pick and eat on the spot, I don't mind if it gets ravaged a bit, that's how the love affair began for me as a tacker!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Gidday gidday,

That's so sad. I'm sorry you had to go through that. It can be the same here, hence me deciding that I will ALWAYS at least have some plants in pots that I can move if the weather throws a fit.
I know exactly how you feel. We had hail the size of baseballs, and all I could do was helplessly watch my plants being torn to shreds. Very traumatizing.

I've recently started some jalapenos, but any chili would do for the upcoming hot Summer.
Actually, now that I think about it, I mostly grow plants that I can grow year-round in Summer, however there are many heatloving plants.

Here be a short list of plants that I know thrive through Spring and into the summer;
Basil, capsicum, chili, tomatoes, gourds, some species of cucumber, winged pea, turmeric, corn and sweet potato.

That's an amazing thing to thrive for! And what I can absolutely recommend is watch some of Mark's videos from this time of the year. You can really see what he grew around this time of the year, and kind of copy what he's done in the past.

[CLICK HERE] For a video that helps you if you're expecting a HOT Summer

[CLICK HERE] For a video from September 2016
[CLICK HERE] For a video from December 2016

[CLICK HERE] For a video from December 2014 (definitely check this one out)

Hope this helps! I would be more than happy to help you along further of course - let me know what you think

 

[JP 1983]

Blueberry lily (Dianella) is a shade-appreciating native bush tucker that could do well under a lilly pilly. You can read about them [HERE].

I'm not planting any plants at the moment. I've only got a small balcony to grow with and everything I wanted to plant was planted in winter. Now spring is here I already have two chili plants a foot high (not bad growth for winter on those two!), my Sumo mandarin seedling has decided to put on some new growth but it will be at least another 5-7 years and a repotting before I get any fruit out of that one, and my two native limes are dying off just like my dwarf lemon tree did. The only plants that I seem to be able to grow are my wife's begonia bought from a Sat market for $2.50 and a jade plant we took a cutting of from one of our first apartments after we got married, it's now a 13 y/o monster and getting rather large. Everything else dies in the arse, that's why I forage instead of growing at the moment.

 

[Jafc79]

I am a bit on the same learning road as you. I am getting back into growing with a new vigor. I get a lot of my seeds and edible plants from Green Harvest and also Australian Plants online for my ornamentals. Both are pretty close to me so they don't have to spend to long in the post. My black spanish radishes and mangel wurzel (heirloom beetroot) are growing happy and my purple sweet potatoes are already trying to escape the beds. My walking onions are growing new leaves and my jerusalem artichokes have just popped thier heads up. All growing in merrily in 7-9 hours sun a day. And my ginger plant is doing nothing at all, lazy plant. All these I planted as seeds/tubers just 2 weeks ago!

Like you I have discovered 'full sun' is a matter of interpretation - got my first Kangaroo Paw and almost baked it last week and its not even summer here yet. It seems the smaller ones prefer a little afternoon shade.

 

[Tish]

Yep, not a fan of the 'full sun', so my veggie patch area has a lot of morning light vs evening light... my 'shade loving' plants are so unhappy I am starting to think I should just turn them into houseplants! I have some 'shade lovers' inside behind 90% UV shade cloth and I really thought they would perish of starvation in winter, but they are thriving!

Sunlight in Australia is dialed up to 110. It is out for BLOOD. I'm intrigued by plants that can shade one another though, and I'm positioning a few things with this in mind.

On the subject of Kangaroo Paws, my MIL (mother in law) has one of every colour thriving in a morning sun spot... and they are GORGEOUS! So many colours nowadays!

 

[Jafc79]

Oh, its true their are so many colours of Kangaroo Paw, I saw the blue one the other day in a local nursery and i thought it was a fake, but no its just a new cultivar so pretty. I have just a yellow one (more than I can handle) he gets morning sun now and no full day torture. My poor guy his flowers are standing tall and straight but his leaves which were standing up like spears when I bought him are now wilted, he will recover with care I am sure.

But you have the right idea, tough plants are whats required. I have had great success with callistimons and Sygiums ( the larger leafed 'Big red' variety in particular) one established both can handle rain or drought, don't mind wet feet for a few days, can be pruned and flower like clock work and act as living walls for other plants.

 

[Tish]

I'm thinking about those, I really want some bottle brushes because there are so many really gorgeous parrots around here that love them. We had to cut down a diseased tree which I was a bit sad about, but it was in the wrong spot, too shady, all twisted and covered in parasitic weeds. I plan to put them at the front of our property where our pets can't go so I can use all the back for an edible garden.