Hawkins Creek Fruit Trees (Popular)
Hawkins Creek Fruit Trees and the most popular plants Australians buy for mail order. With fruit trees you should consider climate suitability.
Panama Berry
$28.90 ($7.90-$79.00 choose a size)
A highly ornamental tree that bears small red berries within its first year. Blossoming and producing all year round, the flowers are white and followed by small red fruit that is sweet with the taste of caramel. The trees are exceptionally attractive with long spreading branches that often droop down to the ground and soft weeping foliage. Trees are very fast growing and drought hardy once established. They can grow 5-10m in ideal conditions but respond well to being cut back so it is possible to keep them smaller than this making it easier to browse on the tempting little fruits. Panama berries will happily grow and fruit in large containers provided they have a good quality mix and a healthy layer of organic mulch to hold the moisture in. It is the ideal backyard tree if you have children as it is a lovely little shade tree as well as producing tempting little sweet treats. Used fresh or in jams.Weed Warning: Panama Berry is regarded as an environmental weed in northern Queensland and on Christmas Island.
Betel Leaf
$19.90 ($14.75-$19.90 choose a size)
The spicy leaves can be eaten raw and cooked. The attractive leaves can be used to wrap tasty foods such as spiced rice and ginger. Requires free draining, moist, fertile soil to grow well. Trellis support advised. Or it can be grown as a dense ground cover. Soaking the leaves in cold water with a little sugar for 2 hours before use subtly alters the flavour. The white flower spikes develop into a small fruit that can be eaten. Betel leaf has many traditional medicinal uses.Betel leaf is an evergreen, perennial creeper to 90 cm. It has shiny heart-shaped leaves with small white flower spikes. It prefers a rich, well-drained soil with partial shade. It likes to be kept moist but does not tolerate water-logging. Frost will damage the leaves but not kill the plant once it is well established. It makes a good ground cover under trees in subtropical and tropical areas. It grows vigorously in the right position and because of its habit of suckering can be difficult to remove. It can be grown successfully in colder areas in a hanging basket or large pot and moved to a warm, sheltered position in winter. Betel leaf is a different plant to Betel pepper Piper betle, which is chewed with betel nut.
Pigeon Pea
$4.90 ($4.90-$18.90 choose a size)
A woody, fast growing leguminous shrub, to 5m, with yellow and red flowers. It is hardy, widely adaptable and tolerant of temperatures as high as 35C. It can be killed by heavy frost. The seeds are 25% protein, can be eaten fresh or as split dried peas, are used for dhal in India, contain 5 times more Vitamin A and C than green peas. The leaves and young shoots can be eaten cooked, they are fibrous and have a strong spicy odour. Animal Fodder; an excellent feed for cattle, pigs and poultry. Green Manure; incorporate the plants as they flower. Mulch production; can be cut many times in a season. Windbreaks; suitable as a shelter belt around vegetable gardens and plants provide nitrogen, habitat and soil stabilisation. Permaculture - plant on west side of newly planted trees to provide wind and sun shelter and a ready source of mulch. Prune back to control growth and use as mulch on your young tree.
Garlic - Elephant
$7.75 ($1.50-$7.75 choose a size)
This is not a true garlic but forms a bulb consisting of very large, garlic-like cloves. The flavour of these, while not exactly like garlic, is much more similar to garlic than to leeks. The flavour is milder than garlic, and much more palatable to some people than garlic when used raw as in salads. The mature bulb is broken up into cloves which are quite large and with papery skins and these are used for both culinary purposes and propagation. There are also much smaller cloves with a hard shell that occur on the outside of the bulb. These are often ignored, but if they are planted, they will the first year produce a non-flowering plant which has a solid bulb, essentially a single large clove. The plant, if left alone, will spread into a clump with many flowering heads. These are often left in flower gardens as an ornamental and to discourage pests.
pin_drop
