This week I put in a lot of work extending the food plants in the mini food forest. We had our eye on a spot occupied by a native that hadn’t flowered in 5 years, which was supposed to be it’s job to provide food for birds etc. So, reluctantly I pulled it out and prepared the ground for some new members of the forest. Mini swales have proven to be really useful in slowing down the water on the slopes so we extended their run across the incline.
New plants from 1 – 4, and 10 are:
1. Persimmon, Fuyu variety. Poor thing is so skinny it’s not easy to see in these photos.
2. Blueberry
3. Pepino, a small shrub that bears rockmelon-like fruit that is meant to be lovely and sweet
4. Feverfew, a medicinal herb
10. Haven’t got a clue what this is. It was a gift from a customer, along with a Tamarillo. Apparently the leaves can be eaten raw in salad or cooked in a stir fry.
In the background you can see:
5. Finger lime
6. Lemon grass. Just in front of the lemongrass is Pandan which is used for flavouring rice in Malay and Indonesian dishes.
7. Olive
9. I know, I forgot 8! Butternut pumpkin – I think…
11. Goldfinger banana
I also planted a few ornamental flowers to add a bit of colour whilst everything grows to full size. You’ll also notice the bromiliad in the hollow log. This will reach approximately 60cm width and should fill the area nicely.
Finally, in front of the Lemon grass I made room for and planted this seasons potatoes. The mesh you can see in the image is to stop cats from using the plot as a toilet.
