You Need A lemon Myrtle - Apr 03, 2025
Dear gardening friends
I had a tradie come in looking for a tree recently. He had a list of trees that the developer had chosen. They were all natives, he wanted me to show him all the trees on his list.
I showed him this Lemon Myrtle tree. I scrunched up a leaf and got him to smell the fragrance. I love the word scrunched. He smelt the Lemon Myrtle fragrance and loved it straight away. He went from tough tradie, to a creative type. "Wow I'll be able to scrunch up a leaf every morning, as I go to work, it smells delicious."
It actually does smell delicious, and you can use the leaves in cooking, they add an amazing lemon fragrance and taste to the dish. You can make teas with the leaves.
Backhousia citriodora, commonly known as lemon myrtle, lemon scented myrtle, or lemon scented Ironwood. It's an upright growing tree that has beautiful white flowers in autumn. Some of our trees have just flowered.
They have planted these as street trees in inner Sydney. I've seen them in Paddington. When it rains, and then the sun comes out, you can smell the amazing fragrance as you walk past them. I think I might be a creative type too.
We have Lemon Myrtle trees. If you don't have a street tree out the front of your house, plant one of these. It's on Councils list of preferred trees.
It's a winner.
The boys have got this amazing Bat plant growing in their bathroom. It's burst into flower this week and the flowers really are spectacular. It has whiskers like a cat!
We've got a couple of these growing in the house. They love bright light coming through a window. This one has a sky light above it, and it's thriving.
They grow like Spathiphyllums, so they can be divided up, so you get more plants for free. I've potted ours up using Tim's Best Potting mix, and that's why the leaves are so big and lush looking.
They come in black or white flowering forms and we have both varieties here at the nursery today. Always pot indoor plants into bigger pots the day you buy them. This ensures they keep growing and get bigger.
More potting mix means more water and more nutrients, it's simple.
Sadly not all potting mixes are the same quality. Some are actually shockingly bad. We are discovering this, with our potting mix trial.
We have Bat plants here from $24.99. This plant is a great way to get your kids interested in growing indoor plants. They will be excited to see it flower. When you look closely inside the flowers you can see the bat like petals. It truly is amazing.
In warmer parts of Australia this plant can be grown outside, but here in Macarthur, it needs to be inside over winter to escape the cold.
In 1936 my father Ron Pickles, and his twin brother Peter Pickles, were 5 years old. They had gone to Wagga Wagga with their parents for the day, and in a park, they collected acorns under an English Oak tree.
The seeds were bought home to Junee and planted in the garden.
In 1938 Wally Lidden, the local plumber, was digging trenches in the yard to install sewer pipes, and asked the boys to move this skinny looking tree.
In 1943 Junee Memorial Park was built and the local Mayor, Mr Hobbin, asked the community to donate trees and flowers.
There were no nurseries in small country towns in those days so Alfred Pickles decided to donate the boys' oak tree.
Peter Pickles remembers helping the Mayor to plant the tree. He's 94 years old now and still has an amazing memory.
The tree survived and now it stands 20 metres high by 20 metres wide. The girth of the trunk is 3.220 metres!
A few years ago I asked my Uncle Peter to collect seeds from our family tree. He owns a Hardware store in Junee and he got talking to some ladies who had come into the store.
Turns out they were from Campbelltown, just passing through. He asked them if they would drop in the seeds.
My son Dan has grown an Oak tree from those seeds. We planted one in our garden and another in Camden.
We are giving away Oak Tree acorns at the nursery.
If you've got kids, they might like to grow one. You might like to grow one? Growing a tree from a seed, is magical.
I've grown a Chilli plant, in a big pot at my place and it's changed my life. I've never got Chilli, I couldn't understand why people wanted to burn their mouths. I'd had a few bad experiences with eating Chilli dishes, so I've always been nervous about cooking with it.
How much do you use?
But I've grown a Chilli plant in a big Terracotta pot, using Tim's Best potting mix, and it's producing over 100 Chilli's. I started cutting up one and adding it to my curries, but now I'm up to 3.
The Curries just taste so much better now that I've learnt how many to add. I add the seeds too. This Chilli I'm growing is the perfect heat for me.
It was sold as an Indian Chilli but I don't think Indians would be happy with this heat, it not as hot as Thai chillies although they are about the same size.
The heat rating on my chilli couldn't be higher than 6. But it suits me perfectly, my family love the heated Curries. It brings out more flavours.
I'm going to grow this Chilli again next year.
I'm might even grow some at the nursery, because this Chilli would suit a lot of cooks like me, who just don't want to get incinerated. It's easy to grow in a pot so you can take it with you if you have to move house.
It's grown beautifully in Tim's Best Potting mix and it's definitely producing heaps of fruit. Would you call it fruit? I'll be collecting seeds. You plant Chilli's in October/November. I'll remind you when it's time to plant.
I've got a Curry for lunch today. It's delicious.
Cooked it in the slow cooker yesterday.
Yes it's back!!!!
Happy gardening
Tim