TINO: Autumn in Tassie is a beautiful time of the year.
If you're lucky, you'll get some days like today -
cool, crisp and perfect for gardening.
The smell of spring is still a long way off,
but the Patch has a certain sweet sherbet-like scent in the air.
And that's because the feijoa trees are absolutely buckling with fruit.
In a cool climate like Tassie,
they ripen at the end of the fruiting season, in autumn,
and when it rains...
..it pours - feijoas.
The fruit will fall to the ground when they're ready to be harvested.
Make sure you clean up around them regularly,
'cause if you leave the fruit on the ground,
it'll tend to rot and attract pests,
and they fruit so prolifically.
These three trees here produce about 100kg per season.
So make sure you got plenty of mates that like feijoas
and always have a good jam recipe on hand.
Feijoas will get up to three to five metres high, with a good spread,
but they can be kept lower,
and if you need to restrict their growth even more,
they're quite happy in a pot.
They can be grown anywhere,
from Tasmania's cool climate all the way into the subtropics.
Feijoas taste like a mix between pineapple and guava and sherbet.
So make the most of feijoa season
by getting as many in your belly as you can.
Or better still, pop a whole tree in the ground.
If you don't have a feijoa plant in YOUR garden yet,
as luck would have it, autumn is the perfect time to be putting them in.
Now, when it comes to conditions, they're a pretty tolerant plant.
But to get the most out of your tree and therefore the best crop,
you need to select an open sunny position,
and they prefer a rich, well-drained soil.
And this bed is perfect.
Because you've got a retaining wall here,
any excess water's just gonna drain away through gravity,
but I'm still gonna cultivate it well
and add a good amount of well-rotted compost.
That way, I'll feed the soil as well as the young tree.
Now, at the nurseries, you'll generally find
two different types of feijoas,
seedlings and grafted ones.
If your budget allows,
always go for a grafted.
Seedlings tend to be very vigorous,
but because they're not a guaranteed cultivar,
the size, quality, flavour and amount of fruit that you're gonna get
is questionable,
and, in fact, sometimes it can take
up to 10 years before you get anything.
They are cheap, though, and they hedge very well.
I like to just dig the hole with my hands.
That way, I know that the soil is nice and cultivated.
That's lovely and soft.
Break up any large bits, then get your plant.
Now, because it's a grafted variety, you have to watch out
for any of the rootstock shooting.
I like to rip this lower growth off, for a bunch of reasons -
one, because it can be below the graft, but two,
by ripping this lower bit of growth off, you're actually promoting
a little bit more height straightaway in the plant.
And just pop it out of its pot.
That's got a nice little root zone on it.
It's not wrapped around itself.
That can go straight in.
And now the fun part - backfilling.
Now, to finish off the planting, I like to form a little well or a moat
around the young tree.
That way, any water
or rain that falls down
will be collected in the moat,
be directed down to the roots,
where it's needed.
Mulch is always a good idea, but most importantly,
make sure that you water your tree in well after you've planted it.
Give 'em a feed in spring to encourage flowering,
but don't go too heavy on the fertiliser
for about three years after planting,
to let the young tree settle in.
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation