When we arrived in 2004, the mango trees were already planted but were pretty small. Everything else we have put in since either from seed or cutting from friends (thanks to Jack, Gaye, George and Jacinda, Lolli, Mike…). There is a really strong share system in the food garden world of the NT, so most of what we have came from a local source, or from Eden Seeds or Earthgarden. We rarely buy seeds now, we seed save. So the gardens provide loads of our food supply. We feed them back with goat poo and speargrass mulch cut from the surrounding bush. We like some of the ideas of Fukoka and let the gardens self mulch or have a living mulch like pinto peanut, but we also make big compost piles within the gardens, cane toad composts, and make a lot of biochar.
What is often in the gardens…
mango, papaya/pawpaw, banana, pineapple, custard apple, rollinia, soursop, jackfruit, avocado (not fruiting), passionfruit, lemon, lime, pomello, ruby red grapefruit, guava, sapodilla, vanilla bean, mulberry, pomegranate, mandarin, carambola, fig, cashew, cumquat, curry leaf, basil, gotu kola, coffee, curly leaf, spinach, tamarind, ginger, galangal, turmeric, coriander, sweet leaf, peanut, arrowroot, cassava, sweet potato, mint, beans, sugar cane, loofah, pinto peanut, pigeon pea, rocket, chia, amaranth, millet, sorghum, corn, pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, squash, dragon fruit, star apple, tomato, Thai basil, chilli, capsicum…
speargrass 