For those who have moved north in recent years and are still grappling with the warmer conditions, Jerry offers a class in Sub-tropical Gardening 101. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
The weather:
Just because you’ve moved to the warm sub-tropics, doesn’t mean you’ll no longer get frosts! And while there’s plenty of sunshine, summer rainfall can be patchy and erratic.
There are two main seasons: warm and cool.
* Warm runs from December to March and it’s generally wetter. Rainfall can be short and heavy.
* The cool season runs from May to November and that’s generally drier, with lower temperatures and less humidity.
Soil: Jerry recommends adding compost to the soil whenever sowing or planting to help combat these seasonal shifts. And always cover the soil with mulch to capture and store seasonal downfalls. Jerry uses chopped sugar cane.
Starchy staples - potatoes can rot or wither in Brisbane, so Jerry grows yams, arrowroot, sweet potatoes and bananas instead.
He recommends sweet potato and an easy plant for beginners; plant in a raised bed for good drainage, then feed monthly and water sparingly. Watch for grasshoppers and lift all your crop at harvest to avoid leaving food for weavils. Crop rotation avoids reinfestation, too. Plant in spring for harvest after 3-4 months. Don’t forget the new shoots are edible, too!
Leafy greens can go to seed quickly in the heat. They do best in the cool season but sowing for succession harvests helps, too. Jerry grows a range of greens, including Ethiopian cabbage, leeks, sweet leaf, kings salad, and herbs.
A good starter for beginners is celtuce, which tastes like a cross between celery and lettuce. As well as using the leaves, the stems can be peeled, sliced and stir-fried.
Fruit trees - Jerry says you need at least one exotic sub-tropical fruit and his pick is the papaya. You can eat the ripe fruit, make a lovely green papaya salad, the seed relieves constipation and the chopped leaves have a peppery taste. Treat as short-term perennials and replace every 2-3 years. To avoid fruit fly, pick the fruit green and ripen it indoors.
Tomatoes - in the subtropics the seed should be sown in March for planting in April or May because they grow better in the dry season. This also helps avoid fruit fly attack - until late September, at least. Grow cherry tomatoes to reduce the risk of caterpillar attack.
Frangipani - a sub-tropical must-have. Don’t limit yourself to the old-fashioned white flowers - there are hundreds of cultivars that will grow in the sub tropics, so enjoy them and the different fragrances they bring. They need full sun and excellent drainage. Feed with a slow-release fertiliser that’s high in phosphorous and potassium twice a year: in spring and summer.
Featured plants:
Winged yam (Dioscorea alata)
Banana (Musa cv.)
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas cv.)
Bok choy (Brassica rapa cv.)
Ethopian cabbage (Brassica carinata)
Leek (Allium ampeloprasum cv.)
* Sweet leaf (Breynia androgyna)
* Kings salad (Cosmos caudatus)
Rice Paddy Herb (Limnophila aromatica)
Fish Mint (Houttuynia cordata)
*La Lot (Piper sarmentosum)
Celtuce (Lactuca sativa cv.)
*Papaya (Carica papaya cv.)
Tomato ‘Grosse Lisse’ (Solanum lycopersicum cv.)
Frangipani (Plumeria cv.)
* Always check species before planting; they may be environmental weeds in your area.
Filmed in Turrbal & Yuggera Country in Brisbane, Qld
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