3 minute read
GARDENING
New plants for summer
By Kevin Redd
Welcome to the summer edition of our gardening column. In this article, we’d like to introduce you to a few really useful hot weather plants that many of you might have heard about before. These are all plants that love the hot and humid conditions of the Queensland/Northern NSW environment- and with a big of care will grow even in the hotter/drier areas of the arid interior.
Firstly consider Rosella plants. Originally the Rosella (whose scientific name is Hibiscus sabdariffa) comes from hot and harsh environments and they absolute thrive in summer. In fact if you lived in Tasmania or other cooler regions, you could most likely not even get even these to survive.
So you might have tried rosella jam before, but did you know that the leaves are also edible? In fact, they are one of the most common green vegetables eaten in countries like Burma and Bangladesh due to their extreme heat tolerance and relative easiness to grow. We also love the look of the Rosella plant (about a metre high and covered in pink flowers followed by dark red seed pods.) The plants look amazing in both the vegetable garden and also among ornamental plantings.
Rosellas grow very easily (and quickly) from seeds and we recommend for best results, try soaking the seeds overnight before planting.
Another unique group of plants that thrive in the summer months are the Calabash or ‘bottle gourds’. These plants (whose scientific name is Lagenaria siceraria) are cultivated around the world and love the summer- many common names for them include ‘New Guinea Bean’, ‘Birdhouse Gourd’ and ‘Long Melon’. Cultures from Asia to Africa eat these gourds and some wonderful dishes in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and even Italy rely on calabash.
A long and trailing vine, they are great to grow up a trellis, on a fence or over a rusty back shed. The fruit will be formed all along the vine and they are both edible and ornamental. We love eating them when they are still small (the skin is thinner then and the flesh is like a firm zucchini or pumpkin.) Also some of the gourds should be left on the vine until they fully dry out to make great shaker percussion instruments or ornamental objects.
Kids delight in seeing the gourds hanging from the vines and also have a great time painting the dried gourds when harvest comes along.
There are a wide range of shapes and sizes with some growing ‘warty’ and others over 1 metre long and narrow -while others are very oddly shaped with a bulbous bottom.
So what should you do to get one growing? Get a few seed and pop them into the ground- it’s really that easy! They do, however, do best with somewhere/something to climb and if given this, will thrive and provide food and look wonderful through the summer ahead.
So why not try something new for your garden this summer. It’s a great time to plant so many of the ornamental and edible plants that will reward you with a summer of sensational food and foliage - so happy gardening!!
Summer produce.
Rosella flowers. Rosella fruit on the bush.
