Growing your own food at home
GROWING OLIVES IN COASTAL NSW OLIVE trees prefer a Mediterranean climate and Mediterranean soils, or they will struggle to grow well. What does this mean? It means that they detest the humid summer weather and summer rains that we get in coastal NSW or Qld. Olives...
What are the best tomatoes to grow? The cocktail fruiting ones! Don was lucky enough to have a Cherry Tomato grow as a weed in a bare area of ground. The fruit is a little bigger than a marble but so sweet. These tomatoes won’t take snow but they will take a slightly...
Don Burke says some citrus trees are much better performers in gardens than others. If you want a healthy citrus tree a great start is to take Don’s expert advice and plant one of his ‘best’ varieties. No fruit has affected civilisation as much as citrus. We drink...
This week’s entries in the ‘Mine’s Bigger Than Yours’ competition include a photo of an ‘Atlantic Giant’ pumpkin grown by Ken Holden. This massive vegetable weighed in at 440kg! Congratulations to Kevin Stent, who grew a very large turnip, and also to Joe Spiteri for...
If you are adventurous in trying new tastes, you may have come across a glorious sun-coloured juice made from new grapefruit varieties. The new varieties are sweet and the flesh and juice is red in colour. Note: The red grapefruit juice drink although bottled in...
[metaslider id=31322] Citrus trees were an integral part of an Australian backyard and still have an important place in today’s garden. Not only does the Vitamin C in their fruit protect against colds and flu in the colder months, citrus are also highly...
Burke’s Backyard resident scientist, Graeme Quirk, demonstrated how to speed up the cooking time of whole potatoes in a normal oven. You simply push some big stainless steel nails into the centre of each potato. Nails are excellent thermal conductors and carry...
A few weeks ago on Burke’s Backyard we featured a lovely ornamental variety of pomegranate called ‘Legrelliae’ (Punica granatum ‘Legrelliae’). It has very attractive double salmon/scarlet flowers with a white edge to each petal, and like...
Sweet Peas February, March and April are the best months to plant sweet peas in all Australian climates, but traditionally Australians sow their sweet pea seeds on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17). Plant details Common name: Sweet pea Botanic name: Lathyrus odoratus...
Red Banana The ornamental red banana has interesting flowers and foliage, and the colourful bananas produce lots of seeds, unlike most edible bananas which are sterile. Plant details Common name: Red banana, self-peeling banana Botanic name: Musa velutina Description...