Gardening: Dare to be different

Tahitian lime and the unusual Japanese raisin tree are fruiting now. Photo / Meg Liptrot

Don't be a stick-in-the-mud when you could branch out into unusual edibles

While our gardens take a breather over winter and we retreat from life in the gardening fast lane, this is a perfect moment to take stock of your site and get planning.

If you're keen to get a food garden started, or want to improve or add to what you have already, ordering plants from a speciality nursery is the way to go, particularly if you would like to grow something a bit different.

I get a buzz from perusing fruit-tree catalogues, then rating my choices. It doesn't always end up in a purchase, but the thrill of the chase is a big part of the fun. Fortunately, many garden centres now stock a wider range of interesting edibles, so it pays to do your research as your ideal plant might be just up the road.

Plan to stagger the ripening times of your fruiting plants so there is always something on offer from your garden, and try something new beyond the familiar supermarket varieties. This will add further value to your crop and maybe give a little trading power if your neighbour covets your peasgood nonsuch apples for their pie making, or damson plums for jam.

Weird and wonderful
I helped design the food forest at our environment centre 10 years ago and some unusual specimens are starting to bear fruit, such as the Japanese raisin tree, Hovenia dulcis, which has peculiar swollen stem nodules at the end of its branches. I tasted one a month ago and spat it out - revolting.

This week they had ripened further and were delicious, crunchy and juicy with the flavour of super-sweet muscatels.

They are a fascinating specimen and tolerate extreme cold. Hardy trees such as this are useful as they provide shelter for other more productive edibles.

Tahitian lime also ripens in the cooler months and is easy to grow. We grow sugarcane and mint and the trio make a perfect mojito mocktail for community garden fundraising. Crushed sugarcane juice, lime segments and mint, muddled together with a pestle and shaken with ice. Divine.

Potential in small spaces
When I moved into our small home in Grey Lynn 15 years ago there was a tiny lawn and a couple of medium-sized native trees on the southern boundary providing shelter.

The rhododendrons were struggling in the heavy clay soil and the roses had had their day. Our dog soon turned the lawn into a muddy mess.

I was a student at Unitec studying sustainable land management at the time. We were invited to design Unitec's organic Hortecology Sanctuary food forest and get the pioneer species planted to provide shelter for the subsequent food plants. This was a chance to learn the importance of sequential planting when establishing a food forest on a large site.

One of our tutors had previously managed the grounds and rare plants at HortResearch in Mt Albert and we got plant material on a field trip there, including pups from lady finger bananas to plant along a swale back at Unitec.

Students were allowed to take leftover plants, which was handy when I converted our home garden into a micro food forest.

The lady finger bananas, plus another variety, Hamoa, which I bought from Nestlebrae Exotics, have given us many large bunches of short, fat, delicious bananas.

Smaller banana varieties beat shop-bought bananas hands down in the flavour stakes. They have a fine, smooth consistency, don't turn brown when cut and are a perfect size for lunchboxes.

If you have friends with established clumping plants such as banana, taro, canna or sugarcane, offer them a trade for a few plant divisions.

Keep these potted up or heeled-in on a corner of the garden until you're ready to plant. If your site gets frost, you'll need to establish shelter before planting tender species.

Bare-rooted deciduous fruit trees will be available from this month at specialist nurseries, and potted pip and stone fruit trees will be arriving soon at your local garden centre, so start planning now for your dream edible garden.

Headache helper
Japanese raisin tree stalks are said to help with hangovers - a perfect food forest companion for cocktail evenings. The plant also helps stabilise blood sugar for diabetics.
In China, an extract from the stalks is used as a honey substitute, or to make wine.

NEXT WEEK: Getting started - design and site prep.