Jerry Colby Williams open garden.

[Susan]

I walked up to Jerry's place this morning to check out his garden.  I arrived, unfortunately, just as a bus load of people turned up so it was extremely crowded.  I didn't get as many photo's as I would have liked but here they are.

He is growing corn at the moment and it looks amazingly healthy.  I found out that it was popcorn so I don't know if that made a difference.  I think those a broad beans in the front but as I've never grown them, I couldn't say for sure.

Growing madagascar beans on a bamboo trellis on an angle next to a pathway

Always knew I could grow shallots practically forever :)

Elephant foot yam growing for all you enthusiasts out there.  Plants were as tall as me...just sayin.

Ornamental pineapple - quite pretty but I'd rather have the edible varieties :)

Mini jackfruit starting to form.  Tree is quite ornamental and upright so if any of you have space to give it a go, I think it'd be worth it.

I also saw these mandarins "Parramatta sweet" growing on the shady side of his house.  Quite a large tree, thorny but absolutely loaded with mandarins.  He had seedlings so it was my one little purchase $5.  It is going out the back where the pawpaw and bush lemon from my brother is and I plan to keep it to a more manageable height. 

A photo of his cane bale fences separating out his vegie beds

This one was not in Jerry's yard, but a mango tree I spotted on the way home.  Last year, most mango trees had NO fruit on them and I noticed that a lot of the street trees were flowering a couple of weeks ago which is certainly not the time for it.  Some have set little fruit - I wonder if they will last and we'll get a really early batch of mango's this year from all the ones that didn't set fruit last year?  Interestingly, my two trees DID set a bumper crop of fruit last year and are not flowering at odd times so I expect they will fruit as normal.

Well, that's it for me folks.  I've got some serious planting (all those vegie seedlings you saw in my back garden at the GV have to go out as well as my new roses, verbena and my mandarin from Jerry's) and pruning (Custard apple, china pear guava (so my husband can remove it)) to do this weekend.  Happy gardening.

[Andrew Cumberland]

Jeff Kiehne says:

Jerry Colby Williams will not be getting a job as ambassador for London after his comment on Gardening Australia about vermin in London. 

[Lissa]

Thank you so much for sharing pics of the garden Susan. It's been some years since I have been able to get there. Maybe next year. So lush and healthy looking. And great labels. Both things we all aspire to!

[Dave Riley]

Of interest is a recent blog post from Colby Williams: LINK

[Dave Riley]

Let's see? What a great I(and inspiring) polycultural plant out!

Guessing:Corn, basil,brassica, yam (elephant foot?) , longevity spinach, Amaranth...

[Elaine de Saxe]

Jerry's place is an eye-opener for sure! And amazingly popular. It's a few years now since we went with Lissa. They had people controlling the numbers in the garden which made for a very long queue but helped us to see what was to be seen without treading on each other's toes.

We've had a few spots of rain and we could get some more, great gardening day. Finally got all the Strawberry runners out of the tangle and into a holding bin until I can plant them in a new spot.

[Christa]

Oh thank you for sharing those photo's Susan.  So many different leaves to see and figure out. That ornamental pineapple is beautiful and that mandarin tree is so full of fruit.  The ground in his yard must see some traffic if busloads appear.  Happy planting.

[Dianne Caswell]

Sounds like you had a good time at Jerry's. Enjoy your day in the garden today. They are forecasting rain for later today and tomorrow, so that would be lovely after you plant out your plants...