Scabiosa is a member of the Capriloliaceae (honeysuckle) family, they are more commonly known as pincushion flowers. The stamens in the centre of the flower looks like pins in a cushion. Some Scabiosas are annuals and some perennials, the flowers are most commonly shades of mauve/purple but also can be shades of pink, white and even yellow. The flowers comprise of many small florets. They are native to Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia.

This is a plant that you can grow anywhere in your garden, the ornamental garden or even in a pot and add to this that it can feed us as well, now is the time to add a couple to your garden.

I really look forward to the hot weather so I can plant some sweet corn. Nothing tastes better than that first cob of the season. Now is the best time to grow sweet corn, during summer months when it is delicious to eat with our summer meals.

The ideal fruit that we can all grow a home, a fruit that can be grown in any type of home - in a small pot, large pot, a hanging pot, a polystyrene box, a garden bed or even in a bag of potting mix.

The first question that comes to mind "Is this perennial a vegetable, fruit or herb?". I tend to call it a vegetable, as that is what it looks like (e. g. Iike celery), but it is also a herb and can probably classed as a fruit it is up to you.

When talking about growing legumes the first plants which come to mind are beautiful pods of peas (Snow, Sugarsnap, Green) and beans (Broad, Bush, Climbing) however, the term legume applies to a much larger group of plants which all belong to the Fabaceae family. Most of the members oft his family store nitrogen in the nodules on their roots. They also produce their fruit or seed in a pod.

Buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, is not wheat or a relation of wheat, it is not even a grain, it is the fruit/seed of a plant actually related to rhubarb and sorrel.

Most of us would have seen tins of Water Chestnuts in the Asian Supermarkets of the Asian food section of our local supermarket.  Those ones are fine but they taste even better when they are fresh.

The plant species Apium graveolens includes 2 vegetables which are not grown by many gardeners. These are celery and celeriac.

Nutritionally, Broccoli is one of the most nutritious of all vegetables, containing complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, folic acid, calcium, iron, and fibre.

We use a lot of plants from the Allium group to flavour our meals, the most popular members of this group include onions, garlic, leeks, spring onions, shallots and chives.  Of these the easiest to grow would have to be chives, shallots and spring onions, but there is often some confusion as to which is which.

Cucumbers are members of the Cucurbit family which includes other family favourites such as pumpkins, chokos, zucchinis and gourds.

How can you use the Cape Gooseberry if you decide to grow It? They taste great either raw as fruit, in salads, great with cheese trays or cooked in deserts, stewed, tarts, pies, delicious jams, chutneys, dipped In chocolate and can even be dried, probably a very under used fruit to date.

Sweet corn tastes best when it is freshly picked just before cooking.

Well it could be either. Both attack our brassicas. The cabbage moth (Plutella xy-lostella) is about 10mm across and greyish in colour, while the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) is about 45 mm across, white in colour with a couple of black spots. The female has 2 black spots and the male 1 on each wing.

The modern sweetpea, Lathyrus odoratus, is descended from the wild sweetpea of Sicily.

Add a splash of colour to fill those little bare spots in your garden, plant some cosmos, do it once and you’ll always have a garden full of colour.

It is an annual that grows a thin paper like husk (like a cape gooseberry) with a small spherical fruit inside which can be either green, purple, yellow or red when ripe, depending on variety, with green being the most common

Calendulas give a splash of sunshine in the garden and as cut flowers they bring some sunshine into the house.

It is not a root vegetable, the bulb is actually the stem just above soil level which swells into a quite delicious vegetable.

The Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) also known as French Artichoke or Crown Artichoke is a large perennial plant. They grow up to 1½ metres tall and a metre across, have striking silver grey foliage and spectacular purple thistle flowers which would be very attractive in any garden, but it is its delicately flavoured, edible flower bud that is most sought after. This flower bud is picked and eaten before it blooms

Leeks, (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum), are a biennial vegetable that are usually grown as an annual. They are closely related to kurrat (Egyptian leeks), onions, garlic and elephant garlic. Leeks have been cultivated in Egypt and the Middle East for over 3000 years.

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) a close relation of hibiscus, cotton, hollyhocks and rosellas is also known as Gumbo, Lady’s Fingers, Bamiyas, kok-tau, kacang bendi and several other names in various countries.

Rosemary comes in various sized bushes most commonly up to a metre high but some varieties up to 2 metres and also in a prostrate form.

Watercress is used largely as a vegetable but is even more important as a herb, the term ‘officinale’ as part of its name refers to it being noted in the ‘official list’ of the most important medicinal herbs.

SEED SAVING 

This article evolved from a list of seeds from an old BOGI newsletter sent to me by Margaret and an insert in a recent edition of the Courier mail. Without getting technical a seed is the result of a flower having a sexual interaction, either with itself or with another flower of the same family. This seed is part of the developing fruit which when ripe becomes mature and ready to grow into an offspring of the parent plant/s.

The violet will grow in most soils but does best in well-drained, fairly rich soil, with a good helping of compost and some blood and bone. It will grow in full sun or part shade and prefers our cooler months. It is an ideal plant for the general garden, borders, rockeries and also pots and hanging baskets.

CHERVIL - GROW A LITTLE SOMETHING THAT BESTOWS YOUTH UPON THE AGED   

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is an annual herb related to parsley and carrots and is also known as garden chervil, gourmet's parsley and French parsley and was once known as ‘myrrhis’ because it has a similar aroma to myrrh (you remember the 3 wise men).

Some seeds can be planted directly into the garden beds, some do better in seed trays and sometimes we want to get an early start on seedlings when the weather is not suitable for them to go directly into the garden bed.

The turnip (Brassica rapa) is an annual which is thought to be a descendant of wild turnips in western Asia, Europe and the Mediterranean. They have been cultivated in these areas for thousands of years. In Australia they arrived with the first fleet. The turnips close relatives include the mustards and radishes.

Rosemary comes in various sized bushes most commonly up to a metre high but some varieties up to 2 metres and also in a prostrate form.

Several BOGI members took time to browse through Jocelyn  garden. Although in the middle of suburbia Jocelyn’s garden is fully A Grade Certified Organic, this process has taken the past 3 years to complete but now allows Jocelyn to sell her produce as ‘Certified Organic’.

Basically most plants that produce flowers and/or fruit need at least 6 hours of sunlight per day to prosper but they will often produce some flowers and fruit with less. If your kingdom suffers with too much shade at certain times of the year or all year round plant selection is one way to deal with it but there are also other ways.

Egyptian Spinach, Corchorus olitorius, is becoming very popular as a summer vegetable in our part of the world. It goes under many names Molokhia/Molokheiya (and several other ways of spelling it), salad mallow, Jew's mallow, jute mallow and West African sorrel to name but a few.

The zucchinis are also known as courgettes, marrows or summer squash. The earliest zucchini was brought from the Americas by early explorers and over many generations of growing in Italy developed/mutated into the modern day zucchini.

A large majority of Salvias originated from America but others originated from Europe, Africa and Asia, because of this there are Salvias to suit all situations and climates. The name salvia comes from the Latin ‘salvere’ which means to feel well and healthy, to heal, which refers to the healing properties of some members of this genus.

If you see a shiny black fly about 3mm long sitting on a bean leaf, it is probably a bean fly.  Look for pale yellow spots on bean leaves close to the stalk.  This is where the bean fly punctures the leaf to lay its eggs

The broad bean, Vicia Faba, is part of the vetch type of legumes and a distant relative of the French bean. Broad beans are also known by the names Horse bean, English beans, Windsor beans, Fava bean, Faba bean or Tic bean.

The 'Green Manure Crop' plants may vary as to the reason you are planting them, the time of year and what you hope to get out of the crop. Most commonly 'Green Manure Crops' consist of a 'grass' and a 'legume'. The 'grass' for organic matter and nutrients and the 'legume' to add nitrogen and other nutrients.

What we call a chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum morifolium, commonly referred to as Mums or Chrissies are an easy to grow perennial, native to Asia. The name Chrysanthemum comes from the greek word 'chrysos' meaning gold and 'anthemon' meaning flower, the original chrysanthemums were yellow.

Blueberries are members of the Ericaceae family and the Vaccinium genus then below this are many sections and within these sections are even more species.

Some pansies selections, usually the yellow or blue ones, have a delicate perfume which is noticeable in the early morning, this was stronger in the original varieties.

Do you like beans? The answer is not a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, first we have to specify the type of beans. There are broad beans, runner beans, green beans, baked beans, dried beans, soybeans, mung beans, madagascar beans, lima and kidney beans just to name a few, they all belong to the legume family. This month we are looking at the green, French, string, round or common bean, which we find in many home gardens - maybe you have another name for this vegetable.

The Green bean originated in Central America and is thought to have been brought to Europe by Columbus. At the time the broad bean was the only commonly grown bean in Europe, therefore, the green bean was originally grown for its seed and only later, around the 18th century, it was found the fleshy shell of the younger bean was indeed very flavoursome...

In the garden borage leaves can be used much like comfrey and yarrow as a compost activator. Its vibrant blue flowers are not only very attractive but also full of nectar which attracts bees of all persuasions to your garden. It is handy to plant it near any plants with flowers needing pollination like passionfruit vines, citrus and many of your vegetables. Butterflies also find the flowers very attractive.

Portulacas in their various forms are annual succulents but under the right conditions can sometimes grow as perennials. Their leaves vary in shape from cylindrical to flattish and long or flattish and round but all are fleshy.

I started writing this article twelve months ago when as usual I had been hand pollinating my pumpkins, but, last year they would grow for a couple of days and then start to shrivel and drop off, as if they haven’t been pollinated. This could have been the case and maybe the pollen being transferred was of poor quality or maybe it was too hot for them to set, I wasn't sure.

The radish (Raphanus sativus) is an edible root vegetable which is part of the Brassicaceae family.

Rosemary comes in various sized bushes most commonly up to a metre high but some varieties up to 2 metres and also in a prostrate form.

There are over 300 species of Dianthus. They are native to various parts of Asia, Europe and North Africa. The Dianthus group of flowers include Carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus), Pinks (Dianthus plumarius) and Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus).

The Zinnia is an annual, part of the Asteraceae family, varieties of which are native from the American Southwest to South America, but were primarily found in Mexico where the Aztecs referred to them as ‘mal de ojos’ (hard on the eyes) because of their bright flowers.

Echinacea plants will tolerate drought, frost and some varieties also do well in our humid summers. They are a deciduous perennial which grow up to 1.5metres tall and will bloom from early summer to late autumn.

There are 3 common forms of Tarragon, French Tarragon, Russian Tarragon and Mexican or Winter Tarragon. Mine was actually Mexican or Winter Tarragon, Tagetes lucida, which is native to Mexico and does very well in our climate and not closely related to French and Russian Tarragon.

Fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum, also known as Greek Hay, Greek Clover, Menthi, Cooper's Clover, Alhova cow's horn, goat's horn and Bird's Foot, is a legume and closely related to many varieties of beans and peas.

A number of years ago when listening to afternoon ABC radio (612), there was a recipe given for making your own fly paper. This being the time of the year for the fly population to increase I thought I might give it a go.

Coreopsis, also known as tickseed, is a member of the Asteraceae family, most species of which are native to various areas of North, Central or South America. The name Coreopsis is from the Greek koris, meaning "bug," and opsis, meaning "view”, the seed looks like a bug and many say like a tick. Some varieties are perennials and others annuals.

For many years the cape gooseberries would self seed in my garden and the only pest to affect them would be the red spider mite, but, one morning a couple of years ago every leaf of my cape gooseberries had been eaten.

The ideal fruit that we can all grow at home, a fruit that can be grown in any type of home – in a small pot, a large pot, a hanging pot, a polystyrene box, a garden bed or even in a bag of potting mix.

Over September and October I’d been having a problem with silverleaf whiteflies. A couple of years before when my neighbours yard was overgrown and full of weeds, I had silverleaf whiteflies on my cucumbers but after a good dose of Soap Spray I had no more problems until 2009

While I fully believe in sharing with the local native animals there are times when the possums go too far so I am always looking for ways to protect what I don't want to share.

The most commonly grown cucurbits in the home garden are zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, melons and gourds.

Many organic growers concentrate on growing vegetables, herbs, fruit trees - edibles, edibles and more edibles - these are all very good but remember to feed your other senses.

Peas are a legume, part of the Fabaceae or Leguminosae family of vegetables, which extract nitrogen from the air and store it in little nodules along their roots.

The nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus, is native to Peru but is found in many countries around the world. It is also known as Indian cress. The nasturtium got its common name because it produces an oil similar to watercress (Nasturtium officinale).

Now my main method when not planting directly into the garden bed is in paper pots, made with the 'Pot Maker' in mini green houses. Even without a 'Pot Maker' it is easy to make paper pots.

In 1492 Columbus ‘discovered’ chilli a spice that would rival black pepper. He wrongly thought that chilli was from the same family as black pepper and proceeded to call them ‘peppers’. By 1650 the cultivation and use of chillies had spread throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.