Tarragon is well worth a place in your herb garden.
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It imparts a delicate, faintly sweet hint to vegetable dishes and soups, mild cheeses, all kinds of egg dishes and even to white meat recipes.
It’s ideal for fish and white sauces.
A curious thing about tarragon is that it seems not to have any aromatic properties at all while it is growing.
Not until the tops or leaves are harvested and dried do the oils concentrate give off the characteristic tarragon sweetness, somewhat like the sweetness of new-mown hay.
The root ball is the key to propagating tarragon.
Plants don’t produce seed easily, nor can it be easily bought so you might have to look for someone who has it growing.
To propagate it, divide a root clump in spring, after the new shoots are at least five centimetres tall.
Be sure to plant the divisions at least 45 centimetres apart, for tarragon’s root structure tends to spread laterally.
It can also be reproduced from cuttings.
The sprawling, shallow root structure means that you must take special care when cultivating not to damage the roots.
Tarragon likes moderate sun but try to give it a little shade during the hottest part of the day.
It does well in a rather poor soil that retains moisture, but won’t keep its feet wet.
A good mulch will help it.
Tasty tamarillo
Those who live near the sea or in other relatively frost-free areas should grow a tamarillo, or tree tomato. They do well in Tasmania.
Although heavy frost will kill the foliage, in a mature tree, it will usually come back next season.
The tree tomato, cyphomandra betacea, is not a tomato at all, although it belongs to the same botanical family, solanaceae.
The fruit are egg-shaped and -sized, and bright red, or sometimes yellow in colour.
You can eat them fresh or cook or preserve them.
The skin is tough and bitter and can easily be removed by pouring boiling water over the fruit, letting it stand for four minutes, then plunging it into cold water.
The skin will come off easily. The fruit is delicious when fully ripe and is rich in vitamin C
The best soil to grow tamarillos in is one that has been well built up with organic matter such as compost.
It should be deep and well-drained.
Mix in some blood and bone too, but not artificial fertiliser.
Branch out with brassicas
All gardeners tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to growing greens for the table.
Why not try some others for a welcome change? You’ll find kale and collard seeds in the garden centres.
Kale, or borecole, is an year-round plant. It can be grown in summer, but its real merit is as a winter green.
It can follow green beans, potatoes, peas and most other vegetables.
Like all the brassicas, kale is a heavy feeder and likes fertile, fine-textured soil.
The secret of success with the whole cabbage tribe is fast growth.
For this they need rotted manure at planting time, and a side dressing of blood and bone at intervals of three weeks during summer.
Lime is essential for all members of the cabbage family.
When you’re preparing the ground, give it a good sprinkling of dolomite. This helps to make the plant food in the soil readily available.
Kale develops best in deeply-prepared, loamy soil. If grown in light sandy or heavy clay soils, it will have neither good flavour nor texture.
Collards need full sun and, although they can stand more heat than cabbage, they must have an ample and regular supply of water.
Sow a few seeds every fortnight or so, and you’ll have a continuing harvest almost all the year round.