Pineapple sage attracts spinebills and honeyeaters into the garden

At this time of year articles begin to proliferate describing plants you can grow that will lend splashes of colour to sombre autumn and winter days. As usual I am gaining much pleasure from the bright red flowers of pineapple sage (Salvia elegans). So too are the eastern spinebills who flash their tawny throats at me as they fossick for nectar. Also dog’s bane (so named because it’s ability to repel some dogs), Plectranthus ornatus, has been sporting its strong, mauve flowers for months now and will continue to do so right through winter. Really for me the colour highlights in late autumn and winter come from all the plants I haven’t planted, the ones that turn up whether you want them or not.

I love the vibrant greens of the mosses — soft carpets sparkling with drops of early morning dew. I cringe every time a caller on a talk back show asks how to get rid of moss from the lawn or a path. Not only are they green jewels in a winter garden, they are also a sign that that garden is healthy. Other favourites are the pale green lichens growing on the branches of old trees (they don’t actually damage the trees), and the bright yellow lichen that covers the bark on the south side of some Eucalypts.
Really though it is the fungi that appear at this time of year that hold the greatest fascination for me. I wish I knew more about these secretive plants. Most media concentration seems to be on the edible forms, but closer inspection also reveals their often surreal beauty and the interesting role they play as part of the ecosystem of the garden.

Fly agaric toadstool known to form the fairy rings beloved of myths and legends

Last year we had the shaggy ink-caps coming up in the naturestrips, their speckled brown and white umbrellas almost irresistible to football kicking young boys. Under pain of death they lasted for more than a week before they became a new puppy’s plaything.  Further afield were small, purple, flat-topped toadstools, only midgets beside the dinner-plate sized ones with chocolate brown tops and orange pores underneath. Then there were the bracket fungi, brown, red, bright orange, yellow growing on trees and timber garden edges. And those wonderful toadstools so beloved by storytellers, mentioned in myths and legends, the makers of fairy rings — the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). These toadstools are bright red with white spots and gained their uninspiring common name from Northern Europeans who soaked them in milk to kill flies.

Just pushing through the ground, a young fly agaric toadstool

While contemplating these sometimes bizarre bits of nature it is worth remembering that the toadstool we see above the ground is only the fruiting body of the fungus. Most of the fungus is below the ground in the form of a spiderweb-like network of threads, known as the mycelium. This mycelium, by feeding on dead plant material, plays an essential role in the decomposition of organic matter in the soil.
If, like me, you are a gardener who likes the spontaneity of self-sown plants that pop up in odd corners, don’t forget to also look for those garden freeloaders, the mosses, lichen and fungi, that arrive from who knows where, to add yet another dimension to the enjoyment of your garden. — PW

Corn salad has mild, almost melt in the mouth leaves

The lovely autumn days entice me into the garden where I have been madly weeding and cutting back the prolific summer growth. I love this time of year when the soil is still warm, so plants are still growing, but the intense heat has gone. Two plants that come into their own now are corn salad and landcress. These are both annuals (landcress is sometimes biennial) that self sow around my garden providing salad greens right though autumn and winter.
Corn salad (Valerianella locusta) is also known as lamb’s lettuce, and has a delicate very mild flavour with soft leaves that almost melt in the mouth. The leaves are pale green and rounded and grow in small clumps. You can pick the leaves individually or cut whole plants just above the ground, they will re-shoot. Plants only reach about 30cm in height. There are cultivars with golden, extra large and darker green leaves. Grow corn salad in temperate and cold regions from seed sown in autumn, winter and spring—in hot weather it goes to seed almost immediately. I find that mine goes to seed in spring, then disappears until autumn when the plants appear again in a dense clump.

Lancress has a hot, spicy flavour, perfect for winter salads

In contrast landcress (Barbarea vulgaris) self sows in summer and plants appear again in odd corners all over the garden all year round, but most prolifically in autumn. Landcress is also sometimes called winter cress or yellow rocket and is easily grown from seed planted in autumn and spring. It’s a tough, undemanding plant that grows as a rosette of dark green leaves from which stalks, with smaller leaves and a profusion of yellow flowers, grow in summer. It can grow as tall as 70cm when in flower.
Both corn salad and landcress will grow in most soils as long as they are well drained, and they like open sunny or semi-shaded positions. Landcress has hot, spicy crunchy leaves, similar to watercress, that are high in minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin C.
Salad
One of my favourite cool season salads is made by combining these two leaves, the mild, soft corn salad leaves beautifully compliment the strongly flavoured cress, add the last of the summer’s tomatoes, or later in the season gently fry some leeks and stir them in, delicious! —PW

Orange and red striped Tigerella tomatoes not only look great the flavour is superb too.

By Anne-Marie

A FRIEND has just arrived with that most treasured of gifts, fresh tomatoes, bless her glut. Black Krims, Little Sugars, Tigerella and Cherry Toms surplus to her own requirements, and a generous handful of fresh basil. She has had a good tomato season (mine was awful: I planted them in the wrong place, neglected them badly and missed one of summer’s pleasures). She is one of those natural gardeners who can grow anything without much apparent effort, and she has been a source of wisdom for years.

So I have immediate plans for them, involving garlic and basil and crisp salad greens and some proper rustic croutons warm from the oven, with a herby dressing and some warm, thinly sliced rare beef scattered over the top, and the pan juices poured over to mingle with the dressing. A very satisfactory meal, as long as everything is properly seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper. I don’t hold with a lack of seasoning: flavour is all.

My daughter’s new love interest is coming for dinner. She’ll use the cherry toms and basil with olive oil and butter and chicken stock to make a simple pasta dish and shave some fresh parmesan over it. I like this boyfriend: he has chooks and loves fishing, so he arrives with free-range eggs and achingly fresh fillets. He has quite won me over.

Marieke Brugman at Howqua Dale does a wonderful savoury tarte tatin with tomatoes. But for many people, cooking a tomato is a sin, like cooking oysters. Our favourite way to eat tomatoes is warm from the vine, or to chop them roughly and macerate in a bowl with good olive oil, basil, and plenty of salt and pepper (and sometimes a pinch of sugar), then pile them on to warm grilled sourdough or ciabatta. Can’t beat it.

Red and yellow tomatoes make a vibrant and delicious salad.

If you are lucky enough to have Mediterranean friends you might score some tomato seeds from Greece or Italy. I have 15 recipes for panzanella, that lovely bread and tomato salad. Google it and take your pick!

Years ago I saw Ian Parmenter make a tomato consommé, involving much straining of juice through muslin (I’d use a clean Chux) and hours of work that was obviously well worth it. I think he may have jellied it after all that, and one day I will do it myself – when I have a whole day to spare. Just as rewarding and a lot less effort is a shot glass with an oyster at the bottom and a Bloody Mary over the top – my favourite Christmas Day breakfast. You shouldn’t really eat oysters in the summer because they’re spawning and they’re too creamy, but I make an exception on Christmas Day. And in May and June and July, I try to really appreciate them.

Joanne Glynn’s slow-roasted balsamic tomatoes are great with grilled fish or meat, or as part of an antipasto platter. The recipe is at the end – it’s from Slow Cooking, Murdoch Books, Sydney 2004. (Buy it from your local bookstore or borrow it from from your library, if you please – it doesn’t do to support Amazon or chain stores when our independent bookshops are struggling against multinationals. The garden is not the only place where diversity might save the planet.) — AMS

Slow-Roasted Balsamic Tomatoes

10 firm, ripe Roma (plum) tomatoes

8 garlic cloves, crushed

4 tablespoons caster sugar

4 tablespoons torn basil leaves

4 teaspoons chopped oregano leaves

Few drops balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Slice each tomato lengthways into quarters and put the quarters in rows on the trays.

Mix the garlic with the sugar, basil, oregano and balsamic vinegar. With clean fingers, put a little of the mixture on to the sides of each tomato quarter and season with salt and pepper.

Bake in the oven for 2.5 hours. The tomatoes are ready when they are slightly shrivelled at the edge and semi-dried (they should still be soft in the middle). Eat warm or cold and store in the fridge.

Little sugar yellow tomatoes make a delightful sweet bite with true tomato taste

A ripe Jonathan apple

This bountiful season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness” sees an abundance of ripe pome fruits on the trees. As well as the better known apples and pears there are also persimmons, pomegranates, quinces, rowans and rose hips.
Our supermarkets and greengrocers offer only about 5 varieties of apples and 3 different pears and we almost never see any of the other autumn fruits mentioned above. The obvious conclusion is that if you want really good fruit and anything other than these common varieties then you need to grow them yourself.

Although you can now buy potted fruit trees all year round, it’s best to use bare rooted apple and pear trees. These are purchased and planted in winter when you’ll find most nurseries offer at least a limited range. Autumn however, is the perfect time to plan your orchard (no matter how small), to taste the different varieties and to order your plants. At the National Trust Property, Rippon Lea, there is a large orchard of more than 100 different apples and 30 different pears. They have an Apple Day on Sunday 3rd of April 2011 when  40 of these varieties will be for sale, including some that are grown only for cider.
Apart from Rippon Lea, if you want something other than the more common varieties then you’ll need to order your trees from a specialist nursery.

For apples you can’t go past Heritage Fruit Trees. They stock more 80 apple varieties with names like Cornish Aromatic, Grand Duke Constantine, Winter Banana (all good eating apples) and Catshead, Golden Harvey and King of Tompkin’s County (what self-respecting gardener could be without one?), all cooking apples.  When ordering, don’t forget that apples and pears need another variety of the same species with which to cross-pollinate. So unless you have neighbours with trees, you will have to plant two varieties with similar flowering times (ask your nurseryman for advice about compatible varieties).
While deciding what varieties you would like to grow you also need to take into account the space available. Both apples and pears are fairly tough trees and will tolerate a range of soils, although pears are more tolerant of poor drainage and heavy clay soils. They both like a sunny, open position, cool to cold weather during dormancy (winter) and adequate water during dry periods. Top dress with compost or well rotted animal manure twice a year and mulch to discourage too much weed or grass growth underneath. If you don’t have much room then purchase trees that are grafted onto dwarf rootstock.  They grow to about 1.5 metres and produce a good crop in 3-4 years, or semi-dwarf which grow to about 2 metres and will produce a good crop in 4-5. Normal apple trees grow to about 6 metres with a spreading canopy while pears are even taller. Most varieties of both will take about 8 years to produce really good crops. Another possibility is to purchase a tree that has several different apples or pears grafted onto the one rootstock. This makes it possible to grow several different varieties with different uses and cropping times on one or two trees. With careful planning you may be able to harvest apples for up to six months.

Pears ripen best off the tree. This is a William pear

Pruning apples and pears is a very important, and will affect the shape of the tree, the length of time they take to bear fruit and the ease of harvest. Most books advise pruning to a vase shape followed by regular pruning to keep the tree open and remove any crossed or dead branches. Allen Gilbert, the well known gardening author (see his book All About Apples for sale in our shop), advocates pruning to a mushroom shape that keeps the trees much smaller and encourages earlier harvests. Both methods are beyond the scope of this article but any good general gardening book will contain pruning instructions.
When trees begin to bear, remove small fruit so that there are only two fruit per cluster. Harvest apples when they are ripe, but pears need to be picked while still hard and ripened off the tree as they go soft and mushy if left to ripen on the tree.

Once trees are established they are tough and relatively easy to look after and only a few pests and diseases prove troublesome. One that affects apples, pears and quinces is the codlin moth. This can be hard to control. Always collect and destroy any dropped fruit, if you have chooks let them scavenge around the base of the trees, encourage native birds to feed on the moths and caterpillars and place corrugated cardboard or hessian collars around the trunk of the tree in summer and autumn to catch the migrating caterpillars. Destroy the collars and any larvae once the harvest has finished. Spray foliage with white oil in early spring to smother the eggs. Apple scab is a fungal disease that causes black spots and blistering on the leaves and branches and affects both apples and pears. Remove and burn any diseased leaves, twigs and fruit. Thin out extra branches to open out the canopy and allow more air movement, plant chives under the tree and spray with bordeaux mixture. Pear and cherry slug often seen on pear trees can be controlled by sprinkling the slugs with wood ash, talcum powder or chalk.

Of the other fruits that can be harvested in autumn, quinces can be planted and virtually forgotten as they are very tough individuals. They are excellent stewed or made into jams and jellies. Pomegranates produce large seed-filled fruit. These are delicious in fruit salad and produce a juice high in vitamin C. Trees grow to about 5 m and tolerate very dry conditions. Persimmons are harvested in late autumn when all the leaves have dropped and the fruit is bright red. Cultivars available today are not astringent and can be eaten straight from the tree. Rowans are hardy, very ornamental trees covered by bright red/orange berries in summer and autumn. Berries are not usually eaten fresh but can be used to make a delicious sour jelly that combines well with lamb and chicken dishes. Although roses are usually grown for their flowers, there are several varieties that also produce hips in autumn.

Rose hips (these are from Rosa rugosa) can be made into a delicious syrup full of vitamin C

Rosa rugosa is one of the best, but there are many others including the dog rose (Rosa canina) often seen growing beside the road or in old cemeteries. Most can’t be eaten fresh because of sharp hairs on the seeds inside the hips. They can, however, be stewed, made into syrup, jam and wine or used to flavour sugar, vinegar and honey. — PW