Growing food in Central Queensland

[Phoenix]

Hello wise garden growers.

I have done HEAPS of googling but I just can't find any good information. I went to the organic nursery this morning and got a couple of seed packets, I asked for some advice but they really couldn't give me much.
I left with some Italian Broccoli, KohlRabi x 2 and some roma tomato seeds.
Other then the Broccoli, it says I can sow in Spring. I am not sure if I should be planting the broccoli in a box now and take it with us.
So I guess I am asking what vegetables are the best to grow in Central Queensland. We have got Paw Paw, Passionfruit and orange trees growing but that is all.

Thanks :)

[Rinelle]

I would say that you can grow most things in central queensland! Depending on where you are, you might get at least a couple of frosts in winter, which will affect a lot of winter vegetables if they're not protected. My mum used to get up before dawn and water the frost off, which usually saved the veges. Requires a lot of dedication though. If you have a smaller garden area, then you could probably easily cover it overnight to protect it.

What sort of things do you want to grow? What does your family eat? With a little planning, you can probably grow most things.

[Phoenix]

I would like to grow spinach, potatoes, zucchini, squash, beans, broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, pumpkin and herbs. I only have a small area to grow in though so not sure how it will work. I would also like to grow fruit maybe strawberries and watermelon?
I need to start small so I was thinking spinach, lettuce, pumpkin and tomatoes, things that are a little easier.
Well I have the seeds for broccoli, Kohl Rabi (which is a bulbous vege part of the cabbage family) and roma tomatoes. So they would be planted in Spring.

[Rinelle]

Pumpkin is easy, but they take a LOT of space. It doesn't have to be cultivated space though, so it depends on your situation. You should be able to grow all those in Central queensland no worries.

As you said, I'd plant the broccoli now, if you can take it up in pots. It will grow in summer, but the bugs will eat it. If you can cover it, you might manage though. Roma tomatoes are a great choice, I find they grow really well and really easily.

[Phoenix]

Thanks heaps for your help. I am going to plant the broccoli in some egg cartons till they are seedlings and then re plant. The pumpkin doesn't need to be in the vege patch, we have plenty of space to plant it.

[Rinelle]

Ahh, right. Pumpkin is great then. They pretty much look after themselves.

[jodiemiller]

Mackay/Sarina are sub-tropical just like Brisbane and further south so everything that grows here will grow there. You won't really have a winter to deal with there and you'd be unlikely to ever have a frost so you can probably plant at any time of year, bearing in mind that the caterpillars love to be fed in the late summer (so don't sow cool stuff too soon unless you harvest them as babies and sprouts) and in the height of summer, only the vine-borne stuff will grow without effort.

[Rinelle]

What makes you think that a frost is unlikely Jodie?

[Phoenix]

I just talked to Dad and there is no frost. He thought it would be a bit hot for broccoli though. Did anyone want the seeds I have, they aren't good for much longer.

[jodiemiller]

Grow them. Plant them as soon as you arrive. You'll still get some heads off them, even if they're not fully grown. They taste better that way anyway. :)

[Beckstar]

Hi Pheonix, when we lived in Mackay we could grow everything and anything in late Autumn, Winter and Spring, but only really hardy stuff in summer. We erected a shade over part of the garden so we could still have greens in summer, but had to go for things like Darwin lettuce, warrigal greens and rocket. The climate is perfect for gardening, as long as you are prepared to give it lots of water in the summer :)
Good luck x

[Rinelle]

No frost is great. Means you should have a really good winter growing season. Jodie's right, plant the broccoli now. They'll grow here in summer (if planted early enough) so they should do fine over winter. Spinach might be a little trickier.

[Phoenix]

Thank you for all your help. My Grandfather had a hard time gardening there but I am not sure if it was just that he was getting a little long in the tooth or if he didn't have the heart anymore. I will have to pick his brain. I will start with what I have and get the rest soon. Thanks again, it is nice to know that I have somewhere to go with such knowledgeable growers, I have never been able to keep anything alive and I am so hoping I can succeed at some little things. Can only give it a go.

[Rinelle]

How are you with getting seeds to sprout? Some people have a lot of trouble with that too. I've resorted to buying seedlings for things I can't get to sprout (spinach and any kind of flower, LOL). Pumpkins, as I said, are REALLY easy. So are zucchini and beans. Of the greens, I find silverbeet the easiest, though lettuce is pretty simple too, but might be harder if the weather is hot. Would be fine over winter though. I find tomatoes easy, but some people don't. If you're struggling, get some tommy toe (the little cherry) tomatoes, which will seriously take over your garden if you get them to grow even once.

[mama_bel]

It's good to grow cherry tomatoes in some obscure corner of the garden and let them go rampant. You should always have them then, and not in your other 'good' vegie garden, and when you want tomatoes, they're almost always there (in that climate). :)

spinach - plant it soon, or go for silverbeet, for summer go for ceylon spinach and other perennial greens, it's easier
potatoes - plant soon for harvest before it gets very hot and/or wet
zucchini - will grow now, and go for gauda bean or other marrow, and/or pumpkin through the summer
squash - ditto, though some harder-skinned varieties will go well year-round, they're prone to mildew in the hot/wet (Feb)
beans - there are varieties for year round growing - enjoy!
broccoli - better through winter, smaller heads than the shops unless it gets nice and cool, pick the top flower and wait for side ones to grow
tomatoes - Roma is a good choice, cherry tomatoes are a great stand-by (tiny tom ones), and all the others should grow, but you might lose them in Jan/Feb if it's a wet year - good thing to get going in pots for this reason, you can try to put them out of the harshest weather
lettuce - different varieties will grow there year-round. Go for Darwin lettuce as Bec said, or other hot-clime varieties for summer
pumpkin - Jap should do really well there any time
herbs - will do fine, but the more 'dry' herbs like rosemary, lavender etc will not like the wetter months in late summer
strawberries - these will do fine, a good time to transplant runners now I think
watermelon - these will go well, usually grown after the coldest weeks and harvested for Xmas :)

Enjoy your new garden!

[Phoenix]

I always feel a little inadequate when you post such knowledge Bel. LOL. Oh in a good way if you didn't get that through the www. ;)

I haven't started to sprout anything but I am going to attempt to grow them in egg cartons with some good soil. I got my seeds from Northey street today, going to get the soil tomorrow and have a go at the broccoli.

Thank you again for all this information, I will definitely be using it in the future. :)

[Phoenix]

I am wanting to make a bit of a screen/fruit as we have a boat ramp near us and quite a lot of traffic goes past. I am wanting to get 3 citrus trees. I was thinking a lemon, mandarin and orange. The problem is that I have no idea where I am to buy them. Do I just go to bunnings? We have a farm shop up the road but the lady had no idea where I could look. Might ask again, when someone else is there, for a local grower. I will just sit on it for a while because I need to condition the soil but any ideas would be appreciated.
Have you got any tips for me to start with. The orange tree that is here is quite mature it is left to its own devices and thrives, however my Grandparents planted another one a few years ago and it died.
TIA :)

Update on Broccoli, I got them sprouting and then B fed them to the Guinea Pigs. Ha.

I think I will grow beans along the fence of the new garden I am doing, well for a season and move them down the fence for the next. Dad doesn't want to grow watermelon's but is fine with pumpkin. I have cleared a spot for some tiny tom's as my Dad is growing some larger variety in an old bath, they are doing really well considering he isn't the best attention giver to plants. I am trying to revive an aloe vera plant, I did as you said Jodie but it is all grey looking. Fingers crossed for that, I love using fresh gooey aloe. The mango tree has flowered and the butterflies are gorgeous, B walks outside staring at them and exclaiming at their beauty. They are the smaller type, rather then the bowen however there is a nature strip with about 20 bowen mango trees. We are going to be spoilt!

[Phoenix]

Oh and we have boar water (sp?) so watering isn't such an issue in summer. Will have to see how we go with it all before then I guess!

[Rinelle]

You could try your local markets (if they have any) for locally grown fruit trees, but really, there's nothing wrong with just getting them from Bunnings. Citrus are rather slow growing though. (Or they are for me), and will take a few good years before they're going to provide much screen. I've found that mulberries grow really fast (or they did here in Brissy), and a passionfruit on a trellis is a REALLY quick screen plant.

[mama_bel]

My citrus are about 7' high after nearly 3 years. They were sort of mid-thigh high when I got them (I'm short!) They're very thick and bushy too. My mulberry are really stick-like, I think I need to prune them but don't know how/when? With the citrus I did the feed in June and November, lime at other times, mulch, prune off growth below the graft, etc. I planted tons - several varieties each of mandarins, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, a lemonade, a pommelo etc and all have done well except the cumquat trees (I have lost THREE!) and one orange is still smaller...

I got my trees from local markets and nurseries, but Bunnings should be fine. Or you can order up from Daley's (http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/) if you can't find what you want locally. Markets are generally cheapest though, I pay about $7-$12 for a decent-looking grafted citrus up here. I suspect a lot of trees you can buy locally are brought in anyway, from wholesale nurseries?

I'm getting LOTS of citrus at the moment, more than we can use. I cut up a bucketload today and mixed it up - lemonade, red grapefruit, oranges, etc and the kids (home ed group) polished off the lot. It looked pretty in the bowl green/yellow, orange, red...

[Phoenix]

Oh Markets, I didn't even think of it. Thanks. I already have 3 fruitful passionfruit vines and am having a hard time eating them all as the boys don't really like them. I don't mind if they don't screen completely, more like a break as it is a dirt road. IYKWIM. Thanks for the advice, Dad likes grapefruit so I will look into that as well, he thought the trees would cost about $50 each so fingers crossed we have markets like yours here Bel.

[Phoenix]

How thorny are the lemonade trees Bel?

[jodiemiller]

Not as thorny as limes, but still thorny. Bush lemons are even thornier, but their juice is almost as mild as lemonade.

Trees shouldn't cost more than $25 or so from a nursery.

Oh, and you can strain the passionfruit pulp (if you have lots) and boil it with sugar and a little water to make a syrup that you can use on ice-cream, pav, or as a cordial base.

[Rinelle]

Yeah, I never managed to eat all of our passionfruit either.

My citrus are about 2 years old, but still only about 2ft high. What do you feed yours with Bel? I suspect I need to give mine a bit more care, but really don't know what to do.

My mulberry on the other hand is probably 3-4 metres high, and pretty thick. I've only pruned it half heartedly once, mostly just trimming off the branches that were dragging on the ground.

[Phoenix]

Thought I would so you some pics of my garden. :D

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1st- Tomato on the right, marigolds and shallots on the left, 2nd- Lettuce in the tub, parsley, marigolds and sage in the bricks, 3rd- front garden, beans on the left, composted regrowth that looks like a melon on the right. I also have basil, mint and sage in the other pots.
So that is my work in progress. It is really relaxing and rewarding. I kinda feel like it is like parenting, you nurture and they grow. Ha! I am going to the local markets this weekend to talk to a fruit tree grower/seller. I would also like to grow a banana tree but apparently they use a lot of water.

[Rinelle]

Looks good Phoenix. Gardening is very rewarding.

Check in your area, but here in Brisbane at least (and I would assume the rest of queensland?) you need a licence to grow bananas because of some diseases they can carry.

[Beckstar]

I didn't know that about the bananas, Rinelle... oops.

Pheonix, looks like it is coming along beautifully :)

[Phoenix]

I think it is just the commercial cavendish that require the license, I think. Lady fingers grow like a weed here.

[jodiemiller]

All bananas, cav or lady finger, require a permit due to 'bunchy top' disease. Don't worry about it though. No one would even ask you about your permit unless you were growing commercial volumes of them. In any case, you can say they were already there when you moved there.

[Phoenix]

I am trying to grow the grass as well, it died a couple of winters ago and hasn't been revived yet. So many burrs and sensitive weed though.

[Phoenix]

Ah thanks Jodie. A new friend here is digging them out of their yard so have asked for a suckling.

I forgot to mention that we have pawpaw's growing here too. Is there anything that I need to do to help them produce sweeter fruit or just let them do what they do best?

[jodiemiller]

Delicious paw paws comes down to the quality of the seed stock, ultimately. Paw paws do not seed true to type, so there can be a huge variation in quality, smell and taste of fruit. Try 'sweetening' the soil they grow in with organic matter and lots of seaweed solution or similar (high potassium and nitrogen fertiliser) and see if the fruit tastes sweeter. If not, give up and go buy a hybrid red paw paw from the nursery (they're cheap, like between $4-$12) and cut the old paw paws down. No point growing something you won't eat - unless you want them for animal fodder.

[Phoenix]

Thanks Jodie, I am not really sure what the fruit is like yet as they are still green, just wanting to problem solve if it happens.

[boy wrangler]

looking good!

I got a mandarin tree from bunnings last week, it was only $21. At all the nurseries around here they are $30+. And no citrus at our markets :(

[Phoenix]

I have had a look in Bunnings there was some nice looking ones available, there was a nachi (sp?) pear tree and that appealed to me heaps.

[mama_bel]

Phoenix, our lemonade tree isn't really thorny at all. Our bush lemons are very thorny, as is one variety of lemons and one variety of mandarine.

Your garden is looking good!

Today I cleaned mine out a bit, just need to feed and mulch and then I can plant our summer crops.

[Phoenix]

I think I will be getting a lemonade tree, Thanks for that. :) I would like my garden to be a bit more aesthetically pleasing but it is more about functionality atm.

[mama_bel]

Pretty will come. :)

[jodiemiller]

Nashi would be unlikely to thrive up there, Em.

But BIL bought us two potted asparagus crowns from Bunnings. I thought that was pretty cool!