What is Growing in My Kitchen Garden in Autumn

It is Autumn time (April - May) in Sydney. Winter is about to begin next month. While there is not much activity during autumn and winter months in my kitchen garden, I may mention about some of vegetable, flower and fruit trees. What to plant in Autumn

Flowers

Marigold

I have more than 100 pots of flower plants. Hydrangeas are now dormant and roses are in pre-winter condition. Geraniums, marigold (genda, How to grow marigolds), bougainvillea and begonias continue to produce colourful display in my front yard. Azaleas have started flowering.

Spices and Herbs

Chili (how to grow chilles in containers), turmeric, fenugreek (methi), basil, mint (growing mint), bay leaf, curry patta and ginger (growing ginger) continue to grow in my small garden for our daily needs. We need not to buy these spices from market. Of all the spices that I grow, turmeric merits special mention.

Turmeric

I planted 3 fresh turmeric roots bought from the market about 18 months ago. After 6 months, when the green growth started to dry, I dug out only some of the roots to use them in curries, and left them in the pot.

Turmeric growing in a pot

This year the growth of turmeric plants were very vigorous filling up the whole pot. Every week, I started to dig out the turmeric roots to eat and gift away, more than 5 kg in total, grown from just 3 small roots! Indeed, growing turmeric at home is very rewarding and satisfying. The plant is free from any pest attack and other diseases. I chopped the leaves and put them in my compost bin.I have left 3-4 roots in the soil for the next crop and gifted some to my friends to raise the plants. How to grow turmeric

Fruit Trees

Out of several fruit trees like banana (growing banana tree), blueberry , guava, lime,  mandarin, mango and strawberry and that are growing in my kitchen garden, 3 trees need special mention. In summer, I raised 3 papaya plants from seeds which will start giving fruits next year.

Mandarins

My Imperial Mandarin (In India mandarins are called as oranges or narangi) tree is 4 years old. The tree is a grafted variety and growing in a 1m container. The plant is not a dwarf variety. 

I did not have a sunny patch in my backyard kitchen garden, so I planted it in a pot and placed it in a sunny position. The plant is now a 1.25m high producing fruits every year. This year it has produced 35 sweet mandarins of reasonable size.

Guava tree growing in a pot

Guava Tree

I planted a small guava plant propagated by layering method. The plant is 2 year old growing in a pot of size 30 cm diameter and 40 cm deep. Last month, it has produced its first fruit of 4 inch size and is still on the plant.

Banana

I planted a banana tree in my backyard about 3 years ago. Since last 2 years it is producing huge number of bananas, about 200!. I leave all the fruit on the tree and cut about 10 at a time, ripen them and eat.

Mandarins/oranges growing in a pot

Vegetables

Some of my summer vegetable plants are continuing giving me vegies even in Autumn. Special mention may be made of bitter melon (karela) plants and capsicum plants. The bitter melons are still growing in plenty. This may be because I fed the plant regularly with comfrey tea fertilizer.

The capsicum plants (also known as bell pepper) are producing purple and orange capsicums (Growing capsicums).

Orange - Green Capsicums

Purple Capsicums

I also planted radishes in the beginning of Autumn which have stared producing veggies to enjoy.