Rev's Edible Backyard

Joined: 25/07/09 Updated: 07/05/10 Frost: Medium
Location: Tabulam, NSW, AU

About My Edible Backyard

Ranging from gravelly clay to rich floodplain. Fertility good to excellent. annual rainfall variable 800-1100mm mostly in late summer through to may. Moderate frosts 12-30 p.a down to -4 most years. North facing.

Biggest challenge: coping with the difficult climate. wet or drought Subtropical summers, Killing frosts but with minimal chilling hours, Heavy late frosts after budburst. Dry or flooded springs.

Rewards: being the first to grow many things in the area. demonstrating just how fertule and productive the area is with the right care, species and cultivars.

Comments

Fantastic collection you have. Can you sell me some yuzu and calamansi seeds?? lentildude@hotmail.com

Rev's WISH LIST

Banana - Rajapuri

Why Rev wants it: -

supposed to fruit in 9 months from planting. good for cool areas

Chestnut - Chinese

Why Rev wants it: -

Castanea mollisima. Fast growing hardy early bearing species.

Mulberry - Hicks Fancy

Why Rev wants it: -

Good variety IN SW WA

Olive - Koroneiki

Why Rev wants it: -

high quality variety

avocado duke 7 ^10/10

Why Rev wants it: -

cold hardiness

Avocado - Bacon (B)

Why Rev wants it: -

Not popular on the coast due to anthracnose. but id want to try it , or its seedlings

Nashi Pear - China

Why Rev wants it: -

Pears are hardy in this climate

passionfruit - maypops

Comments: -

Passiflora incarnata. the medicinal species for passionflower herb.

need X pollination. deciduous to rootstock

Arrowroot

Comments: -

excellnet space filler. Good mulch from the tops. easy to divide and spread about.

Starchy roots as pig food or for ethanol production

Vetiver grass

Comments: -

Excellnet cutting mulch plant for use on leachfields, and evaporation trenches as it takes up water and nutrients without damaging the system. Good chook run bedding.excellnet long lastingmulch.

plant at 10cm interval on contour across lsope to build up natural terraces

Keriberry

Comments: -

slow at first then vigorous. very exotic looking leaves

Rosella

Comments: -

Excellent summer crop

Aloe Vera

Comments: -

Good. Medicinal strain from abandoned local schemes. Hardy if under cover of tree. Doesnt like direct frost or full summer sun. birds love the flowers. Suitably drought hardy for difficult dry spots

Berry - Boysenberry

Comments: -

noxious spines but well suited to area

Grape - Carolina Black Rose

Comments: -

excellent in area

Pear - Hood

Comments: -

great vigour

Pear - Flordahome

Comments: -

Great vigour

Loquat - Nagasakiwase

Comments: -

doing well

bana grass

Comments: -

sterile hybrid of elephants grass and millet. propagate like sugar cane

excellnet windbreak, shelter for chook runs and cattle and goat fodder

Jaboticaba

Comments: -

delicious. semihardy. grow under light canopy cover

banana - unknown

Comments: -

excellnet summer cover and ornamental. Frost cuts to trunk or ground level depending on severity, but they regrow. leaves are Good disposable plates for summer bbq, and trash is good mulch

Comfrey

Comments: -

Herb without peer. Plant a patch in a damp spot and cut for excellent weed free mulch for the veggie garden all through summer.

Chinese artichoke

Comments: -

Stachys affinis. interesting minty herb with small artickoke roots. still being evaluated

Jerusalem Artichoke

Comments: -

 excellnet out of the way crop. Cream or artichoke soup in autumn is a delicious soup. even if a bit noisy.

Oak - Burr oak

Comments: -

Giant tree with acorns well suited to stock feed. or Human food in times of scarcity

Garambullo - Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Comments: -

Hardy cactus with edible berries , looking like blueberries. popular mexican cactus fruit for pies and baking

Pitaya - Red Dragon Fruit

Comments: -

needs very good shelter from canopy tree

Prickly pear - Opuntia ficus indica yellow

Comments: -

Does well. tasty nearly spinelss fruit and edible young pades (nopales)

Lime - Tahitian

Comments: -

Good variety. give sheltered position.

Lime - Kaffir

Comments: -

Hardy in rainforest style understorey. very susceptible to citrus gall wasp

orange - Seville

Comments: -

Hardy sour orange makes the best marmelade

Feijoa - Duffy

Comments: -

Fully hardy and delicious. Have to bag fruit or spray to keep out fruit fly which LOVE them

Orange - Blood

Comments: -

Delicious local treat. Produced on small scale and sold via the tabulam food co-op. Delicious. small juicy oranges with pigmneted areas of flesh which taste like mulberries and orange

Orange - Bergamot

Comments: -

Doing well

Orange - Arnold Blood

Comments: -

struggled to get established. was damaged by frost unlike other oranges

Dwarf Orange - Valencia Seedless

Comments: -

Does well

Orange - Washington Navel

Comments: -

one of the best local varieties

Lemon - Lisbon

Comments: -

Good acidic lemon. attratct harlequin bugs

Bush Lemon Tree

Comments: -

local bushfood

Dwarf Kumquat - Meiwa

Comments: -

Hardy and delicious

Finger lime -Pink ice

Comments: -

Fully hardy in local area.

Finger Lime - Grafted

Castanospermum australe - Black bean

Comments: -

Marginally adapted local species. Plant under established Callistemon and casaurina cover along creekbanks

Liquidambar

Comments: -

Hardy and popular tree in local streets and gardens

Passionfruit -Hawaiian Yellow

Comments: -

does ok under treecover. Not Hardy in open but does very well above frost line

Persimmon - Nightingale (A)

Comments: -

Slow to establish but persimmons do very well in this climate

Ginkgo

Comments: -

Well adapted. Slow but i have great hopes

Lemon Grass

Comments: -

reliable. frost burns tops but reshoots with vigour in spring

Grevillea robusta - Silky Oak

Comments: -

dominant local tree. good winbreak and creekbank stabiliser

Olive - Jumbo Kalamata

Comments: -

experimental

Olive - Barouni

Comments: -

experimental

Olive - Barnea

Comments: -

experimental

Olive - Arbequina

Comments: -

experimental

Olive - Frantoio

Comments: -

Good for local area

Olive - Manzanillo

Comments: -

good for area

Cape York Turmeric

Comments: -

Beautiful flower but useless as edible. Maybe good pig food?

Turmeric

Comments: -

excellnet hassle free understorey with nice flowers.

Andean Walnut

Comments: -

Not frost hardy but doesnt die. Very vigorous. try planting on uplands

Walnut - Black

Comments: -

good so far

grape concord

Comments: -

good vigour

Grape - Isabella Black

Comments: -

good vigour

Grape - Chambourcin

Comments: -

excellent in area

Grape - Golden Muscat

Comments: -

Good in area

Grape - Pink Iona

Comments: -

excellent vigour

Raspberry - Atherton

Comments: -

excellnet vigour, but poor bearing and fairly insipid

Comments

Oh Rev that is so sad. Mine has gone mad this year. So much fruit and my partner says he likes it better than the normal raspberries! Where abouts do you have yours? Maybe he wants more water or sun? Mine likes a good feed too.

Raspberry - Heritage

Comments: -

poor vigour. but it survives

Ginger

Comments: -

Good summer crop

Native Ginger - Alpinea coerulea

Comments: -

only partly hardy

Myoga Ginger

Ficus coronata - Sandpaper fig

Comments: -

Local native but only under established cover in microclimate. not hardy in the open due to frost sensitivity. a later add-in on reveg attempts.

Fig Black Genoa

Comments: -

Hardy and delicious

Fig White Adriatic

Comments: -

Hardy and delicious

Fig - Brown Turkey

Comments: -

Hardy and delicious

Chestnut - seedling

Comments: -

easy from seed and hardy. Need excellent drainage. Come true and bear early from seed. plant a grove for pollination

English Oak

Comments: -

Hardy in local area. Good tree on farms or small acreage

Lemon - Eureka

Comments: -

Good quality lemon. but magnet for Harlequin bugs

Podocarpus elatus - Ilawarra Plum Pine

Comments: -

Hardy to local area. slow growing

Pomegranate - Elcite

Comments: -

Hardy and well suited to area

Eucalyptus dunnii - Dunns White Gum

Comments: -

Major plantation forestry species in local area. much maligned by locals

Garlic Chives

Comments: -

Hardy reliable green. there are varieties for leaf (blanched) and varieties for the tender flowerbuds.

Casuarina glauca - Swamp Sheoak

Comments: -

Hardy

Macadamia tetraphylla

Comments: -

NSW bushnut. Hardy to frost in local area. Get seedlings of this 4 whorled serrated leaved species to plant in this area. tasty nuts

Casuarina cunninghamiana - River She-oak

Comments: -

local native. excellent windbreak and streambank stabiliser. Great firewood and charcoal. Fixes nitrogen in the ecosystem and feeds seed eating parrots

Callistemon viminalis - Weeping bottlebrush

Comments: -

Local native. excellnet garden subject. or windbreak.

Bunya Nut

Comments: -

Monster of a tree. Keep well away from house, but makes excellent windbreaks on local farms. Keep double fenced to keep cattle out in nut fall season. Very well suited to local area

Acmena smithii - Creek Lilly Pilly

Comments: -

local native. Not fully hardy every year but recovers. Grown from local seed.

White Cedar

Comments: -

Local native. Frosty hardy. beautiful tree.

Blue flax-lily

Comments: -

Very nice ornamental. fruit is insipid. Fruit loved by rainforest birds and it self seeds. Stunning blue coloured fruits

Chinese raisin tree - Hovenia dulcis

Comments: -

Fast growing, suitable for windbreak. Very well suited to area. Fruit for kids, or made into fruit wine

Mulberry

Comments: -

Very vigorous white fleshed variety. Not much taste. Makes a better treecover in a chook or duckpen where the fowl enjoy them.

Mulberry, white - black fruit

Comments: -

the Common type in the area. loved by Birds, and in some seasons fruit fly. Makes excellent Jam and Wine, or distilled spirit. The host plant for silkworms, Goats love the leaves as fodder and is a very productive tree in a lowlying spot.

Mulberry, Shahtoot - Red

Comments: -

Grafted. Slow growing. Not as hardy as the white in this climate. Berries excellent, like white but with some flavour

Mulberry, Shahtoot - white

Comments: -

Easy. Vigorous. Well suited to area. Heavy bearer. Cloyingly sweet berries loved by children or made into Fruit wine

Mulberry, black

Comments: -

seedling. Vigorous heavy bearer. prone to fruit drop. Cleaned up by <pest> Satin bowerbirds

Citrus, Tangelo Minneola

Comments: -

Very juicy, well suited to area, very good frost resistance. susceptible to harlequin bug

Athertonia diversifolia - Atherton Oak

Comments: -

too cold

Cassava

Comments: -

not hardy and does not regrow from roots reliably

Lemon Myrtle

Comments: -

not hardy in the low valleys. killed by -2c

Lemon - Meyer

Comments: -

meant to be hardy but mine dies. might just be bad luck

Hibiscus heterophyllus - Native Rosella

Comments: -

native to high rainforest ridgelines but not hardy in the valleys. Ok substutute for the True rosella, but the exotic original is far superior in flavour, colour and texture

Grumichama - Orange

Comments: -

too cold

Olive - Kalamata (Grafted)

Comments: -

Died in summer. maybe too wet

Avocado - Reed (A)

Comments: -

Not hardy

Avocado - Fuerte (B)

Comments: -

Not hardy on guatemalan rootstock. Not fully hardy as scion. Maybe try seedlings

Eucalyptus microcorys - Tallow wood

Comments: -

Best local timber for fenceposts. resist termites. but not hardy on the lowlands, have to plant upslope abover major frostlines

Cherimoya - Fina de Jete

Comments: -

Not hardy to frost here

Tree Fern

Comments: -

C cooperii - not hardy

Ficus superba - Deciduous fig

Comments: -

good as bonsai subject but not hardy in open

Cardamon Ginger ^6/10

Comments: -

Barely hardy. maybe with more canopy. hung on for a couple years.

Acerola Cherry - Florida Sweet (Cutting) ^1/10

Comments: -

Not frost hardy!. killed at -3 even with protection

Avocado - Seedling (Seedling) ^3/10

Comments: -

Killed by frost. Searching for seedlinsg of varieties Duke and mexicola to assess.

Cherimoya - white seedling (Grafted) ^1/10

Comments: -

Wont take -3/-4