The Backyard Vegetable

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The Backyard Vegetable The Backyard Vegetable encourages home food growing consultations, classes, and this page. We come to you, work with you to plan an edible garden.

The Backyard Vegetable aims to teach you how to grow your own fresh, healthy vegies, herbs and fruit. Learn how to successfully raise seedlings, propagate plants, select suitable varieties of fruit and vegetables for your space, control pests and diseases safely. Consultations; assistance with planning or problem solving. Large or small gardens can grow food: traditional garden beds, raised garden beds, no-dig gardens, and wicking (self-watering) boxes are all options. Our times are very flexible - we aim to suit your timetable. Hourly rate of $30. Learn through our classes:
The Backyard Vegetable offers a range of classes, usually run through local libraries or community houses. These include:
+ Success with Seeds and Seedlings - tips and hints to raise and nurture your own
plants
+ Habitat Gardens
+ Backyard Zoo - a pictorial "who's who" in your garden
+ Backyard Chooks

See www.thebackyardvegetable.com.au for more information.

11/10/2026

They’re here! 😬
The weather is now warm enough for Queensland Fruit Fly to be out and about and multiplying.

If you have citrus trees now is the time to strip ripe fruit and net the rest.

And if you find larvae like this one, do not put the infested fruit in the bin.
Heat it to a high temperature in the microwave, boil in a pot, or freeze overnight first.

Hang traps for male QFF and protein baits for the females.
This won’t eliminate the population but will reduce it a bit and the traps will indicate how severe a problem you have.

Search this site for more information.

Eat Your Weeds!Those pesky onion w**ds - they’re everywhere, and sometimes they pop up in the garden (who knows how they...
11/10/2026

Eat Your Weeds!

Those pesky onion w**ds - they’re everywhere, and sometimes they pop up in the garden (who knows how they get there!).

But you can eat them.

Use them as spring onions; make tiny pickled onions once the bulbs have formed (later in the season); sprinkle the flowers as a pretty garnish.

We made a crustless quiche:
5 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tblsp SRF
1 cup grated cheese + extra for top
herbs of your choice, black pepper

Purée these ingredients.

Add-ins*:
2 cups of chopped vegies - onion w**d, spinach/silverbeet/asparagus/broad beans etc
100g tuna/salmon/chicken/mushrooms

Place most of the ‘add-ins’ in a greased 23cm pie dish.
Pour the egg mixture over.
Sprinkle with remaining ‘add-ins’ and top with grated cheese.
Bake in preheated oven at 175°C for 35 minutes until firm and browned.
Sit for 5 minutes then cut and serve.

* you can get creative!

(Adapted from a Recipe Tin Eats recipe)

Late spring: October in the food garden.So many gorgeous flowers at this time of year!They’re bringing the insects are o...
02/10/2026

Late spring: October in the food garden.

So many gorgeous flowers at this time of year!
They’re bringing the insects are out and about on the warmer days - first butterflies, hoverflies, even a juvenile Assassin Bug.

It’s peak time for getting summer crops underway: a busy time for seed-sowing and seedling-nurturing.

Sow these vegies now:
• Greens: Asian greens, lettuce and other salad greens, celery and celeriac, beans, peas, silverbeet
• Brassicas: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, spigariello
• Cucurbits: cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, zucchinis corn, leek, lettuce and other salad greens, melons,
• Roots: beetroot, carrots, parsnip, leeks
• Sweet corn
• Maybe a bit late for tomatoes and chillies - seedlings might be better.*

Herbs to sow now: basil, chives, coriander, dill, parsley

Plant potatoes now too.

Tender summer vegies and herbs like tomatoes, eggplants, chillies, capsicums, basil and dill need to be kept warm in pots in a greenhouse or equivalent until the weather is consistently warmer - after Cup Day is the usual guide.

Among the fruit trees and berries:

• Check fruit trees for shoots coming from the root stock and pull or rub them off.
• Possums love the new shoots on fruit trees (and grape vines 😩). Netting helps and we’re trying out a movement-activated water sq**rter which seems to be helping.🤞🏽

It’s a good time for the pests too.

• Snails and slugs love lush new growth and damp evenings: protect young seedlings!
Nightly snail and slug collecting reduces the numbers dramatically.
• Queensland Fruit Flies are becoming active
so get traps and bait stations set up now and have netting ready for when fruit start forming.

* We will have tomato and chilli seedlings for sale in a few weeks (see last photo for details).

Mid-September already!These are the food garden jobs to be done now:Sow seeds of these vegies: beetroot, broccoli, cabb...
11/09/2026

Mid-September already!
These are the food garden jobs to be done now:

Sow seeds of these vegies: beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and other salad greens like mustards, peas, radish, silverbeet, turnips. (Check seed packs for sowing times as cultivars vary.)

Sow capsicums, chillies, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes and zucchinis. Use a heat mat, a greenhouse or a cloche to keep these warm-season plants cosy.
Transplant from seed trays to individual pots when the seedlings have two set of ‘adult’ leaves and continue to keep them warm.
They should be ready to plant out in late October and November.

NOTE: Seedlings of summer vegies are already in stores. It is too early, though, to plant them out in the garden. They will not thrive!
If you must buy them now, pot them up and keep them protected under in a greenhouse until the weather warms up.

Sow seeds of these herbs: coriander, parsley, dill (under cover)

Among the fruit trees and berries: give deciduous fruit trees and berries some compost, rotted manure and some potassium (a high potassium organic fertiliser such as Sudden Impact Rose Fertiliser, specific fruit tree organic fertiliser or potassium sulphate). This will see them on their way into a fruitful summer.

Pest control:
• Refresh the Queensland Fruit Fly traps and bait stations.
• Evening snail and slug searches will reduce the risk of new spring plantings being eaten.
• Plant lots of flowers! Keep the beneficial insects happy so they can work on controlling aphids and other nuisances.
• Cabbage White Butterflies are out and about on sunny days. Keeping them under control now will hopefully reduce their numbers over the warmer months.
• The possum has found the grapevine!!
I’ll be spraying with sulphur against powdery mildew (hoping the smell will be off-putting) and working out how to operate the movement activated water sq**rter.

And we mustn’t forget:
Sit in the sun with a cuppa and enjoy spring!

☀️☕️🦋☕️🌼

Last job for August: keeping the chooks (and/or ducks, quail etc safe from bird flu.The Department of Agriculture has gu...
31/08/2026

Last job for August: keeping the chooks (and/or ducks, quail etc safe from bird flu.

The Department of Agriculture has guidelines for safeguarding backyard poultry.
It includes:
• Ensuring wild birds cannot enter the poultry enclosure;
• Ensuring wild birds cannot share the drinking water (or bathing water in the case of ducks);
• Covering pens so any contaminated matter (eg 💩) from birds that fly over or land on the pen cannot get into the pen;
• Keeping separate footwear for when you enter the pen.

H1N5 bird flu hasn’t moved far from the coastal regions yet - it’s early days.
So it’s time to work out what needs to be done.

The tomato babies! And one chilli.It looks as if all the older tomato seeds (some from 2020) have germinated, but not th...
18/08/2026

The tomato babies! And one chilli.

It looks as if all the older tomato seeds (some from 2020) have germinated, but not the new pack I bought 🤔

Chilli seeds don’t remain viable for more than a year or two in my experience and there’s certainly no sign of the older ones appearing.

EDITED:Strawberries and loganberries are all spoken for but there are plenty of youngberries!It turns out that commercia...
11/08/2026

EDITED:
Strawberries and loganberries are all spoken for but there are plenty of youngberries!

It turns out that commercially-grown berries are sprayed with quite a lot of pesticides/fungicides that may not be very good for us.

Berries are easy to grow and very productive.
If you’d like to have a go we have:
• Thornless Loganberries (in pots, $5)
• Youngberries (bare-rooted, $1)*
• Strawberries (bare-rooted, $1)*

* just to cover the cost of the coir they’ll be packed in.

The loganberries are the first to ripen; they’re a cross between a raspberry and a bramble berry and delicious!
We have four of these.

Youngberries have large, juicy black fruit, also delicious. The prickles are worth it!
We have lots of these. (I just got the berry jungle into order after neglecting them for a couple of years. 🙄)

Strawberries - not sure of the variety but the parent plants had fabulous fruit last summer.
We have a dozen or so of these.

August - Early SpringAnd it’s that time again: preparing for summer crops.And given the dire reports of a severe El Nino...
10/08/2026

August - Early Spring

And it’s that time again: preparing for summer crops.
And given the dire reports of a severe El Nino event and a consequently hot, dry summer, it’s time to prepare for that too.

Seeds of your favourite tomato, chilli and capsicum varieties can be sown now in a cosy greenhouse, on a sunny window sill or on a heat mat.

Getting started now means that your seedlings will be ready to go into the garden beds when the weather is warm enough - November.
Unless they can be given their own in situ greenhouse such as a large plastic bag over a frame, in which case you can have a crack at getting a reasonably advanced tomato plant into the garden.

Also sow these vegies now: broccoli, Asian greens, lettuce and other salad greens, snow and snap peas, spinach, turnip and parsnip.

Sow these herbs now: coriander and parsley. Divide and replant chives and garlic chives.

Plant these vegies now: potatoes , yacon, asparagus and rhubarb crowns.

A diverse mix of flowers will keep bees and other beneficial insects happy so look out seeds of sunflowers, zinnias, poppies, cornflowers, marigolds and other spring and summer-flowering species.

Prepare garden beds now to receive all these little plants: add manure and/or compost.
Where fruiting plants will grow sprinkle a potassium-rich fertiliser such as Sudden Impact Rose Fertiliser (the roses, fruit trees and berries might like some too).

Consider setting up a wicking bed.
Tomatoes, basil and coriander thrive with the consistent moisture and this system is very water-efficient.

Among the fruit trees and berries:
• Finish any fruit tree pruning now before the sap starts moving. (Not apricots - wait till after fruiting to reduce the risk of fungal/bacterial infection.)

• Potassium sulphate sprinkled around the trees and berries will help with flowering and fruit set.

• Spray peaches and nectarines just as flower buds start to swell to prevent Curly Leaf.

• A thick layer of newspaper spread under fruit trees and covered with mulch will help if Codling Moth or fungal diseases were a problem last season.
Apply any fertiliser first and ensure the soil is damp.

• If you haven’t done so yet, cut out last season’s dead berry canes and make sure the new ones are well supported.
Remove and dispose of any spotty leaves to reduce reinfection as new leaves form.
White spots along the canes are scale insects. A sq**rt with EcoOil will kill these.

**Bird flu**
As if we needed another pestilence! 😫

The Department of Agriculture has guidelines for those of us with backyard poultry.

In Winter the pickings can seem a bit thin for bees and other pollen and nectar feeders.However there actually are plent...
31/07/2026

In Winter the pickings can seem a bit thin for bees and other pollen and nectar feeders.

However there actually are plenty of winter-flowering plants, and these are some.

A bit of soul food for the gardener too!

July - late winter in the food garden 🥶Harvesting now: loads of citrus: lemons, limes, mandarins, cumquats.Windfall grap...
13/07/2026

July - late winter in the food garden 🥶

Harvesting now: loads of citrus: lemons, limes, mandarins, cumquats.
Windfall grapefruit, tangelos and oranges are still pretty tart but juiced with sweeter oranges make a delicious drink.
Kiwi fruit here were picked a while back - as soon as the wildlife started eating them. They ripen up inside.
Asian and salad greens, silverbeet, kale, broccoli, parsley, coriander and spring onions can be harvested if you got them in early enough (some we did; some we didn’t 😕).
With a bit of ‘bandicooting’ spuds can be found too.

It’s time to sow these vegies: Asian greens, broad beans, broccoli, cabbage*, onions*, peas, salad greens, spinach, turnips.
* Check the seed packet.

They’ll be slow to germinate but coriander seeds can go in too. 🌱
Speed things up by sowing them into pots under cover of a greenhouse.
Bottomless pots made from cut off 2L milk bottles are good as coriander seedlings don’t enjoy their roots being disturbed when transplanted.

Plant out potatoes, rhubarb and asparagus crowns.

Fruit trees and berries:
Some pruning can be done - probably best on a fine day so cuts can dry out quickly.
With the leaves of deciduous trees gone it is easier to see criss-crossing branches that need to be removed.
Aim to keep smaller lateral growth rather than vigorous vertical growth.

On peaches and nectarines look out for sets of three buds on last season's new growth. These will produce flowers (the two outside buds), and then fruit. Most of the stems that produced fruit last summer can be cut back.
Dispose of any mummified fruit to avoid the spores affecting next season's fruit.

If your plum trees were affected by aphids (new leaves curled and distorted) spray will EcoOil now, and again when leaf buds appear.

Dead berry canes that fruited in summer can be removed, as can spindly canes if there are lots of them. Tie up the remaining canes to keep them off the ground and at a good fruit-picking height.
Tips of brambleberry canes that reached the soil may have grown roots. Snip these off with about 20cm of stem attached and pot them up to produce new plants.

Time to plant strawberries.

Garden pests:
Look out for snails after rain - go collecting!

Adult Queensland Fruit Flies over-winter in sheltered spots. Keep out bait stations for both male and females just in case they emerge to look for a bit of food.

Rat and mouse populations are probably lower at this time of year, so it's a good time to set out traps and (hopefully) reduce their numbers even more before the warmer season provides them garden banquets.

Despite the cold there are flowers that will brighten the garden and bring cheer to both you and beneficial insects. Enjoy them and add more!

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Heathmont, VIC
3135

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