My big wish list for the coming months/year

[Daniel]

Ok, I just went nuts cutting-and-pasting from the DIgger's catalogue. I know this massive list might be over-the-top, and some stuff might not be possible, but it's a list of stuff I like from the catalogue. I'll do more research about the suitability to our climate, my soil type, etc., but it's a starting point. I'll use it as a bit of a menu to choose from when planning what to plant/buy in the coming year... or at least until the Spring catalogue comes out in August! Comments always welcome :-)

Oh, and what does "F1" mean?
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Watermelon Sugar Baby- Citrullus lanatus
Tomato Periforme Abruzzese - Lycopersicon lycopersicum
Bean Lazy Housewife - Phaseolus vulgaris
Pumpkin Wee B Little - Cucurbita pepo
Watermelon Moon and Stars - Citrullus lanatus
Onion Sweet Domenica - Allium cepa
Sweet Corn Golden Bantam - Zea mays
Tuscan Kale (Cavalo Nero)
Tomato Costoluto Genovese - Lycopersicon lycopersicum
Eggplant Heirloom Mixed - Solanum melongena
Quinoa - Chenopodium quinoa
Mary Washington Asparagus
Aquadulce broad beans
Glycine max ‘Jabiru’ Soy bean
Mini Gourmet beetroot
Brassica oleracea broccoli
Seven Colour Mix capsicum
Tobago Seasoning chilli
Joe’s Long Cayenne chilli
Carrot Heirloom Mix
Mini Round (Paris Market) carrots
Hollow Crown Improved parsnip - Pastinaca sativa
Celery - Apium graveolens var. dulce
Mexican Sour Gherkin cucumber
Florence Fennel
Mignonette lettuce
Nasturtium officinalis watercress
Baby Leaf Gourmet Mix (Tatsoi, Lime Mizuna, Pronto Roquette, Bull’s Blood Beet, Rouge d’hiver and Goldrush Lettuce.)
Baby Leaf Provencal Mix (Oakleaf Lettuce, Endive, Chervil and Roquette)
Mung Bean Shoots - Vigna radiata
Spicy Mix Sprouts (Broccoli, Daikon and Giant Red Mustard)
Health Mix Sprouts (Red Radish, Alfalfa, Broccoli and Mung Beans)
Pea Shoots - Pisum sativum
Alfalfa Sprouts - Medicago sativa
Broccoli Sprouting Seed - Brassica oleracea
Complete Sprouts Kit
Elephant Leek
King Richard Leek
Cream Gold onion
Long Red Florence
Evergreen Bunching spring onion
Shallot Picador F1
Heirloom Melon Collection (Moon & Stars, Cream of Saskatchewan, Watermelon, plus Ananas, Prescott Fond
Blanc and Delice de la Table Rockmelon)
French Charentais melon
Australian Heirloom Mix pumpkins (Jap, Ironbark, Queensland Blue and Australian Butter)
Potimarron pumpkin
Greenfeast peas
Sugar Snap Climbing peas - Arachis hypogaea
Virginia peanuts
Sunflower Heirloom Mix
French Breakfast radish
Ten Colour Heirloom Mix tomatoes (Green Zebra, Lemon Drop, Black Krim, White Beauty, red Tommy Toe, pink Brandywine, Purple Russian, cream Wapsipinicon Peach, Brown Berry and orange Jaune Flammeé.)
Tomato San Marzano
Italian Vegetable Collection ( Italian Romano beans, Italian Fryers Mix capsicums, Lollo Mix lettuce,
Periforme and Principe Borghese tomatoes, and Sweet Basil)
Perpetual Spinach
Fig ‘Black Genoa’ - Ficus carica
Blueberry ‘Northland’ - Vaccinium corymbosum
Apple Collection
‘Doyenne Du Comice’ pear
‘Williams’ pear
Clever clover kit
Homegrown Whole Grains (book)
Beneficial Insect Collection (Queen Anne’s Lace, Alyssum, Phacelia, Cottage Salvia, Psyche White Cosmos and Bronze Fennel)
Field of sunflowers collection (Landscape, Save, Sonnet, Prado Red, Evening Sun)
Cape Gooseberry – Physalis peruviana
Alpine Bush Strawberry ‘Benary Ruegen’
Spearmint – Mentha spicata
Chives Garlic – Allium tuberosum
Pyrethrum True Insecticidal - Tanacetum cinerariifolium
Basil Sweet
Stevia Sugar Plant
Black Cumin – Nigella sativa
Chervil – Anthriscus cerefolium
Oregano Greek – Origanum vulgare
Marjoram Sweet – Origanum majorana
Sage – Salvia officinalis
Sorrel Large Leaf – Rumex acetosa
‘Giant Russian’ sunflower
Soil Testing Kit for N.P.K
Glass Sprouter
GARDEN NETTING

[Lissa]

Hi Daniel. I can appreciate how excited you're feeling about growing veg - I'm going through much the same thing :) I've been gardening for years (probably long before you were born :S), but this is the first time I've tried growing veg on any scale and it's been so exciting. The choices to grow are incredible.

I did buy seed from Diggers and have had a lot of luck with the ones I've planted - particularly the heirloom toms which are ginormous and healthy. Their seed were relatively expensive but soooo tempting :) Maybe I was just lucky enough to choose the ones that would grow here (I did get a lot of advice from people at the time too).

Next time I will try Greenharvest as the girls recommend mostly because they are local.

I have a terrific crop of carrots from a packet I bought from Bunnings about a year ago! Just goes to show.

Not sure which bit of Brisbane you live in but north is the Caboolture Market every Sunday. Wonderful market. There are a couple of great stalls there that sell seedlings. Alexander sells individually and there's a new young man who sells the most gorgeous healthy punnets of seedlings for $2 each.

[Florence]

Oh? I went there a couple of times recently, but didn't notice seed stalls~ must pay attention! Will go again to buy some seedling trays and big pots, although I found bunnings are selling these trays now too... so the seed stall find gave me another excuse to go all the way to Chandler.. :P

[Florence]

In terms of fruit trees, I recommend planning the space for it and prepare the planting hole early.. .. especially with clay soil, many trees will need to be in a raised bed, or a mound for better drainage.... and they don't like to be moved.. ask my Grumichama, and mandarin. Also, if your beagle gardener & site foreman likes to dig, you might want to protect the root zones of the trees too.. my chooks likes to digg under trees when they escape, and it really sets the tree back .. ask my avocado and Pomelo...

[Florence]

Donna, my sage was planted in summer in my greens bed, and it survived ... maybe cause they're raised so the drainage is okay. I've chopped two bits out with a hand trowel a month ago and plant one in the legume bed, and one underneath the peach tree, and they seem to have survived and growing new leaves.
I will dig out my original one which is now getting shaded by the tomatoes and divide that up this weekend before the garden visit :)

[Susan]

Hi Daniel, I agreee with Donna about more research about the fruit trees. I'm only on 550 sq m block so I was very restricted by what i could buy in terms of fruit trees but I have a few multigrafted trees that I bought from the fruitsalad tree company. They are dwarf trees so don't take up much space and I think they are fabulous and if you make sure you talk to them and specify that you want tropical varietes they should be fine. They're quite expensive (ie my stone tree cost $80) but worth it in terms of space.

I have a stone fruit (plum, peach and 2 x nectarine) that I got 20 pieces of fruit from last year even though only been in ground 1 yr. apple ( 3 grafts. its not growing as fast as the stone but I had 5 apples off it last year) and a poor little multigraft citus that i've replanted twice(make sure you know where you want them to go, i change mmy mind a lot :), got completely devoured by grasshoppers and gets run over regularly by the stupid beagle yet it is still holding on. My mission this year is to look after it and hopefully I will see it thrivng soon.

Choose dwarf wherever you can and don't bother with stuff that will just not do well here (pears, apricots, etc) as fruit trees are a big investment in terms of land space and time to harvest let alone the cost of the trees.

[Scarlett]

my thyme has survived for some years now in the top layer of that mini-garden planter thing, which is a good thing! i can't grow lavendar up here - always dies. rosemary seems ok, and have had the same marjoram and oregano plants for years - one died recently, but it was about 7 years old - was in top of a pot with a lime tree in it, then i planted the whole thing into the ground (with the herbs slightly higher than ground level)

[Scarlett]

I'm thinking everything in the list I included could be problematic - not definitely. Things I deleted from the list I know grow OK here.

I just don't see clover in the grass very much and it seems to be always only one type - so I'd be wary about trying new varieties - might not work out.
Some chillis better than others - some get mouldy, or too slow growing.
Tomatoes - try and see, but the ones I listed are the ones I've heard people saying work well or that I've grown myself
Yes- but southern watermelons selected for cool climate, quick production - and might have less resistance to fungal diseases etc as a result of selective breeding

Sage hates summer, hard to keep it alive. Needs to sulk somewhere in half shade and not get too wet - good drainage and airflow essential. Best planted annually or biennially from seedlings up here I reckon - more vigorous.

[Elaine de Saxe]

The Sages along with Thyme, Oregano, Lavender and Rosemary, are dry-growing members of the mint family. They do moderately well here, the summers are a bit humid usually for them to thrive, although I've had long-lived Oregano and Rosemary with Lavender (French and Italian) being a bit touchy. They are short-lived perennials and need to be re-struck and new plants made every two to three years to get a continuity. Being in a damp and/or shady place will shorten their life. The only mint I know of which likes the shade is Pennyroyal and it's a tad tricky to grow, too as is Thyme which will die while you look at it. These are Mediterranean plants we are growing well out of their climactic zone.

[Donna]

Hey Scarlett,just to understand, the ones you don't recommend in the list above have a comment? Otherwise if the whole list is ones you don't recommend, can you please give more information about:
Clever clover?
Chilli - I thought all chilli were ok in our climate?
Tomato - how can you tell which ones are better (without having prior knowledge or recommendations?)
Watermelons? thought they were mostly for our climate rather than temperate?

Florence, is sage more a 'not our summer' herb? If you have enough for another cutting later in the year I wouldn't mind giving it another try - think I must have killed it in the summer, the herb bed is full summer sun and only the garlic chives & rosemary (and now the lemongrass probably) survive the season then I get everything growing again... to be killed off the following year lol... must get around to putting a shade sail up over summer

[Tracy Arnold]

If you do buy seeds check out the greenharvest catalogue first - they have listed the ones which do better in our climate with an H. I bought seeds from Diggers and a lot of plants just couldn't survive the summer so I changed to things which did much better here (Asian Greens etc). Remember that seeds don't last very long, so don't get too many to start with or you'll be giving most of them away. :) But of course the seed swap is better, if, unlike me, you actually remember to save the seeds before it's too late... sigh.