Gardening columnist JACKIE WARBURTON has a favourite in feijoa cake. Now the fruit is ripening, she’s happy to share her recipe. 

Feijoa is a great plant that grows well in our climate as an evergreen hedge, small tree or shrub. 

Its fruit is ripening now and when ready, it will drop to the ground. 

Once established, it is a really tough plant that doesn’t mind a good, hard chop every now and then to keep it in shape. 

It has a striking silver/green foliage with delicate red and white flowers in the summer. Its pollen is spread to other feijoa trees by birds and sometimes bees. However, most bought feijoa plants are either grafted or a propagated clone of a very good fruiting variety, so pollination may not be required. Nevertheless, it will fruit better with a friend close by. 

They are best planted at the end of winter when the big frosts have gone. From the Myrtaceae family, they don’t like to be fussed over or given too much water. Keep them more on the dry side. 

The fragrant fruit can be eaten raw, made into jams, jellies or cooked in cakes. Cut them in half and scoop out the flesh to eat straight away. My favourite is feijoa cake, which freezes well. Email me for the recipe. 

STONE fruit will need a spray of copper now to keep peach leaf curl at bay and shot holes in cherries and apricots.

Both these are fungal diseases and unnoticeable until the damage has been done, so prevention is best in this situation. 

Remove all fallen leaves and any old or rotten fruit from under the tree and only light pruning until next season. Keep watering all fruit trees until they lose the last of their leaves and, over the colder months, feed the soil around fruit trees with compost and any aged manure. Water well. 

If planting a new fruit tree, choose the spot now and get the soil prepared for winter/spring planting. 

THERE’S a pretty, underrated plant that’s been flowering for many months called Diascia, a relative of the foxglove family. 

It is a small ground cover that, given the right spot, can flower for most of the year in colours ranging from white to coral peach and pinks. 

It grows well in rockeries and as a border plant. Sometimes it will self-layer and spread itself slowly. It requires a little water when its dry, but in general it is a fuss-free plant and easy to grow. 

OPEN Gardens Canberra has been working hard to bring a calendar of high-quality gardens to the public and its selections just get better and better. 

This season’s last gardens are the autumnal ones and are not to be missed. They’re all open 10am-4pm.

April 12-13 

• Tea Gardens, 10 Yirawala Street, Ngunnawal.

• Merryway, 51 Euree Street, Reid.

May 3-4

• Woodbury Garden,1048 Old Cooma Road, Googong. 

Jottings

• Turn compost over and add manure to the pile.

• Get green manure crop planted asap. 

• Prune edible grape vines straight after harvest.

• Place leaves on fallow garden beds. 

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au