Perennial Vegetables For Sale in Australia

Even though this blog post was written a decade ago I update it often.  It is the year 2024, and I am still selling seeds and plants.  If you are viewing this on your mobile phone you may need to scroll down below the comments and click on 'view web version'. 

To order send me an email, my email address will need the spaces removed, @ instead of the 'at' and . in place of the word 'dot': damien_beaumont at yahoo dot com dot au

This is my For Sale page, with heirloom vegetable seeds, berry plants, and perennial vegetable plants for sale in Australia, this page is updated regularly.  For notes on how to grow perennial vegetables please visit here.  Many of the plants or seeds below also have a hyperlink to a blog page on growing them.  If you would like growing notes on anything that is not listed on the growing notes page please let me know and I can email them through to you.  I can't tell you the 'right' way to grow them, or even the 'best' way to grow them, I can only tell you what works well for me.  

For a list of vegetable days to harvest from planting seed please click here.  
 

 

To order: please send me an email saying what plants/seeds you would like and I will reply with prices/payment methods.

My email address will need to remove the the spaces, put @ instead of the word 'at' and . in place of the word 'dot': damien_beaumont at yahoo dot com dot au



Organic Perennial Vegetables for sale – plant once, harvest forever!
 
POSTAGE: for plants/bulbs I post at cost $10.90 for regular post.  I post plants bare rooted on the Monday after payment has cleared.
 

Babington's Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii)  This is an extremely rare and fun perennial vegetable to grow.  Similar to a tree onion it grows many bulbils on the flower stalk instead of producing seed.  It is used in the same way and has the same taste as a regular leek.  This will prove to be a talking point in any garden and a great heirloom to pass on to your kids.  Extremely hardy and productive but for some reason it is so rare that it is almost extinct.  Please read my Babington's leek growing notes prior to ordering   

Perennial Leek (Allium ampeloprasum) rare and hard to find but one of the best plants for home growers.  These grow and taste like regular leek but instead of growing viable seed they reproduce by sending up numerous babies from their base.  Much faster and easier than growing from seed.  If hot and dry over summer they can die down to bulbs.  These are hardy once established and incredibly productive  $4 per small plant SOLD OUT FOR NOW

Everlasting Onion (Allium cepa perutile) grows like a spring onion but does not often produce viable seed, reproduces quickly by splitting in half.  Will also grow a small bulb similar to a French shallot in some climates.  This is possibly the hardiest, most productive, and easiest to grow of perennial vegetables.  One of the best permaculture vegetables.  Very easy to grow, you will never have to buy spring onions or shallots ever again!  $5 each 

 

Tree onion, aka topsetting onions, aka Egyptian walking onion (Allium × proliferum, formerly Allium cepa var proliferum).  It is a stable hybrid dating back to the 1850s that is worth having around.  Bizarre looking plant grows a golf ball sized onion that divides underground then grows tiny onions instead of seed on the flower stalk.  Sometimes a flower stalk will have a tiny onion with its own flower stalk with tiny onions on that and you end up with three or four levels on the one plant.  These flower stalks bend under the weight of all the onions allowing the plant to “walk”.  These were very common once and are now rare and hard to find  $3 per small plant or bulbil

  

Amiah potato, the great taste of a diploid potato without the low yields that are common among diploids. The size of potatoes is reasonable, they don’t need peeling, and easily produces two crops per year.  It is healthier and better looking than white potatoes due to its rich yellow flesh and interesting skin colour. They produce two crops per year here, and always survives over winter in the soil with no care from me.  As well as all this they produce huge numbers of beautiful purple flowers.  Plant them now as they don't store well out of the soil   $6 for three small seed potatoes  SOLD OUT FOR NOW

Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) a massively productive low maintenance perennial vegetable that is high in inulin.  Can be eaten raw or cooked and is used in any way that you would use a potato.  Very productive, one small tuber fragment can produce well over 1kg!  When grown in good soil and watered occasionally each plant can produce well over 3kg of tubers.  Great food for people, pigs, poultry, sheep, cattle, guinea pigs etc.  Masses of yellow sunflower like flowers in autumn attract honey bees and are good to use as cut flowers.   ONLY available in Winter/Spring,  $3 each  tuber 

Duckweed (Lemna sp most likely Lemna minor) is a free floating plant and one of the smallest flowering plants in the world.  I have grown this continuously and moved it with me for the past 20 or so years and have never actually seen the flowers.  It grows very fast and can be used to clean water, as animal food, in aquariums, and can be eaten raw by people if you are certain there are no water snails.  It has a mild taste, good levels of many important nutrients and is surprisingly high in protein  $3 for a scoop
 

 Azolla (I'm not certain of the species, likely Azolla pinnata) also known as mosquito fern, fairy moss, and a few other cute names.  Azolla is a free floating water fern.  It sequesters nitrogen from the atmosphere and can be used as living mulch, biofertiliser, animal feed, human food, water cleanser, mosquito control etc.  This has high percentage of protein and is readily eaten by poultry and fish.  It grows fast and doubles every day under ideal conditions   $3 for a scoop

Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is commonly grown as an ornamental houseplant, but the leaves and roots are both edible.  Tolerates low light, poor soil, and dry conditions.  Grows white flowers and cute little baby plants on long stolons that can dangle from the mother plant and look very attractive.  Perfect for hanging baskets and a great office plant.  Spider plant survives a lot of neglect and should be protected from heavy frost.  Choose from variegated (white in middle of the leaves, green outside), reverse variegated (green in middle, white outside), or completely green.  Small plants  $3 each

Pink dandelion (Taraxacum pseudoroseum) is a different species than regular lawn dandelions.  All parts are edible by people, poultry, and livestock.  Leaves are more nutritious than most vegetables, roots can be made into a caffein free coffee substitute, and the flowers are pink with a yellow center.  The pink gets darker each day the flower is open.  These perennial plants are more fragile than common dandelions so tend not to escape into your yard.  $5 per bare rooted plant SOLD OUT FOR NOW

Asparagus 'Precoce D'Argenteuil' (also called 'Early Argenteuil'), the history of this fast growing gourmet heirloom variety is rather obscure and vague, some sources state it was developed in the 1700’s, others claim it was developed as late as 1885.  Produces fat flavoursome spears that are green tipped with pink to purple.  This is likely to be the best tasting green variety you will ever eat, I have heard it described as ‘delicacy incarnate’.  One year old plants $5

Asparagus 'Purple Passion' was originally bred in California and is the progeny of Violeta d’ Albinga. They are said to have a bit of a fruity flavour, lower fiber and are often claimed to be 20% higher in sugars. To me they seem sweeter than green varieties, and they do produce delightful fat spears that are tender and delicate, but can have a lower yield.  One year old crowns $5

Duck Potato (Saggitaria sp) also known as arrowhead, wapato, swan potato and a host of other names.  It is an attractive edible aquatic perennial vegetable similar to Chinese water chestnuts but better suited to cooler climates.  Large green arrow shaped leaves.  Highly productive and simple to grow.  This particular one does not flower which means that is poses no weed threat   $3 per small plant or tuber depending on timing

Skirret (Sium sisarum) very rare, endangered, and ancient perennial root vegetable which is very simple to grow.  Sweet roots taste like a delicious sweet potato or parsnip but far better.  Used in any dish that calls for potato, carrot or parsnip.  The celery tasting leaves can be added to salads and the seeds are edible but it is the sweet roots that are the main crop here.  This is the most delicious roasted vegetable ever.  Flowers attract many beneficial insects to your garden   $5 per small plant or offset

Affiliate program - follow the link, buy some of these

Fruit shaping moulds - grow square lemons, heart shaped apples, scary face pumpkins, square watermelons and more.  It is so much simpler than you think, plus you do it at home with your organic produce.  To order plastic fruit shaping molds use this link and note this is an external site, and I do earn a commission from each sale. 

Organic Heirloom Vegetable Seeds - most are not perennial but it is certainly worth growing these.

Postage of seeds only within Australia: $3.50  for any number of packets.  If also buying plants use the plant postage rate as I will send everything in the one package.  I can also post some seeds overseas but I post at cost so need to confirm postage costs with the post office. 
 

Immali Corn (Zea mays) a beautiful and delicious coloured sweet corn.  I have created this amazing variety myself, the colours are not changed during cooking (we ate the cob in the photo).  Produces 2 to 6 cobs of coloured sweet corn per plant.  This is high in anthocyanin, antioxidants and vitamins.  Why grow yellow corn when this is prettier, tastier, and healthier for you!  Corn will cross pollinate with other varieties of corn so you may have some yellow seeds if someone is growing yellow corn near by   $4.00 per packet of about 20 seeds

Giant Heirloom Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) a mix of seeds containing both "Julia Child" and "Giant Siberian Pink" (known in Russian as: Sibirskiy Velikan Rozovyi).  They are both delicious and large tomatoes.  'Julia Child' grows regular leaf and 'Giant Siberian Pink' grows potato leaf so you can tell from a young age which seedlings are which.  These are open pollinated varieties that are both indeterminate.  $4.00 per packet of about 20 seeds

Angora 82 tomato small plant which grows to about 1 foot tall, may or may not be dwarf, very productive with about 20 flowers per truss.  Small, red, round tomatoes which taste really nice and sweet.  This plant gave a large yield very early, has regular leaf and appeared to be determinate but kept putting out occasional new branches with flowers until the frosts.  $4 per packet of about 20 seeds

Igloo tomato, stocky plants, around 1 foot tall.  Highly productive, producing about 12 kg of remarkably consistent red round fruit that weighs just under 50g each.  Each truss usually contains about 16 flowers.  Very early cropping, great for producing a lot of food under short seasons and small spaces.   $4 per packet of about 20 seeds

Little Oak Like tomato small determinate tomato that produces red ping pong ball size tomatoes.  Like many other old Russian varieties it has a very rich tomato taste.  Looks much like 'Igloo' but slightly less stocky, a bit tastier, and less productive.  Very early cropper great for areas with a short growing season.   $4 for a packet of about 20 seeds

Micro Tom tomato the smallest variety of tomato in the world!  I have never had one grow over 10cm tall.  Being so small they can easily be grown in a cup of soil, easy for kids to grow, easy for elderly people who no longer have a garden, easy to grow in apartments if you have a sunny window, and great for school experiments due to its short life cycle   $4 for 15 seeds


 

Yellow Pear Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) a sweet, yellow, pear shaped cherry tomato.  This is an old and loved heirloom variety dating back to the 1700’s.  It was the first yellow tomato I ever grew.  It can grow to be a large plant if given support and is very productive if treated well.  Beautiful, delicious, sweet and easy to grow, kids love the look and taste of the fruit.  Heirloom tomato can and will cross with other varieties of heirloom tomato so be a little careful if saving seed  $4.00 per packet of about 20 seeds

Skirret (Sium sisarum) very rare, endangered and ancient perennial root crop which is simple to grow.  Sweet roots taste like a delicious sweet potato or parsnip.  Used in any dish that calls for potato, carrot or parsnip.  Leaves can be added to salads but it is the sweet roots that are the main crop here.  Flowers attract many beneficial insects to your garden.  Unlike many other perennial vegetables, seed grown plants will produce a crop, divide numerously, flower, and set seed the first year   $4 per packet of tiny seeds

Superior Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) mixed seeds of around a dozen varieties including 'slow bolt', 'long standing', and 'Bengal Giant'.  This is an excellent producer of both leaves and seeds.  There has been deliberate crossing of varieties so you will have great genetic diversity and be able to breed a superior variety that performs well in your garden.  Cull plants that flower early and only save seed from later flowering plants to quickly and easily develop your own variety that is is slow to flower and produces abundant leaves   $4 per packet of seeds

Cape Gooseberries (Physalis peruviana) is also known as Incaberry, goldenberry, pichuberry, and a few other common names. Highly productive plants producing over one kilogram of small ~2g fruits that are covered with a protective paper husk. The fruits fall from the plant when ripe. For me they take a little over 80 days from planting the seed until eating perfectly ripe berries  $4 per packet of tiny seeds

Hillbilly tomato has firm flesh that is reasonably dry and somehow smells very fruity.   Produces a medium yield of glossy fruit over the season, it has regular leaf and is indeterminate.  Good size for slicing on a sandwich, the colour, glossiness, and fruity smell are all enjoyed by my kids.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds

Cherokee Purple grows large tomatoes, some round, some a little odd shaped.  People often say this tomato has a smoky taste or taste of good red wine.  A little salt adds more depth and complexity to their taste - Unbelievable!  This plant produces a medium to large yield of large fruit, it has regular leaf and is indeterminate.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds



Japanese Black Trifle (spelled various ways,  originally called "Yaponskiy Trufel Chernyi" or in Russian "Японский трюфель черный").  This old Russian variety has a deep, rich, sweet, tomato taste that is difficult to describe but easy to remember.  One of my all time favourite tomatoes.  Japanese Black Trifele tomato has potato leaf and is indeterminate.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds


Helsing Junction Blues are great high anthocyanin cherry tomatoes.  These taste sweet and are very productive.  The unripe fruit is bright purple, only goes blue/black where the sun hits and stays red when shaded by a leaf so you can make patterns using stencils similar to apples.  Ripe fruit is red with black where it used to be purple.  Plants have regular leaf and are indeterminate.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds

 

Tommy Toe tomatoes (I didn't take a photo) grow into a large plant with high yields of small tomatoes.  An excellent tomato for back yard growing due to their rich tomato taste, abundant yield, and pretty red round cherry tomatoes.  One of the more common varieties I grow as they are well worth growing.  Plants have regular leaf and are indeterminate.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds

Sarah's Galapagos tomatoes grow a large plant, high yields of small red cherry tomatoes.  They have a surprisingly deep rich taste for such tiny fruit.  It is said to be originally found on Galapagos Islands where they were eaten and dispersed by giant tortoises.  Plants have regular leaf and are indeterminate.  $4 per packet of 20 seeds

Giant Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is an absolutely massive strain of flat leaf parsley that is very simple to grow.  Leaves can be used as vegetable or herb, petioles can be used in place of celery, roots are delicious roasted.  Contains wide genetics and will produce a diverse population containing some large plants and some stunningly massive plants.  If allowed to flower it will attract many beneficial insects and pollinators, and will gladly self seed.   $4 per packet of seeds

Giant Edible Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) produces incredibly large plants from improved parent stock.  Dandelion leaves are more nutritious than most vegetables, the thick long roots can be roasted or turned into delicious coffee substitute, even the pretty flowers are edible.  Poultry and livestock love to eat dandelions.  Deep tap roots mine minerals from deep in the soil, leaves can be used as compost activators.  They are great companion plants for most fruits and vegetables.  The flowers are pretty and are great for bees, and kids love to blow the seed heads.  Open pollinated plants may display some genetic diversity   $4 per packet of seeds 

Wasabi salad herb (Diplotaxis erucoides) is a leaf vegetable/herb that is far simpler to grow than true wasabi, tastes similar to wasabi, gives a similar nose tingling feeling as wasabi, and lacks the extreme heat of true wasabi.  Great in salads and on sandwiches.  It happily self seeds in my garden, sometimes pops up in my lawn, and is low/no maintenance.  It is can form a self sustaining patch that flowers all year and is excellent bee forage.   $4 per packet of tiny seeds

Purple Mustard - back in 2012 I bought some seeds for purple mustard.  My son loved purple mustard, and has saved seed and grown it every year since.  Leaves can be used as vegetable, or garnish, and seeds can be used to make condiment.  They produce large purple leaves with some green, profuse yellow flowers attract honey bees and other beneficial insects.  All profits from this go to my son for pocket money  $4 per packet  

Senposai (Brassica napus) - this is a stable cross between an Asian cabbage (Komatsuna) and a European cabbage that combines the best of both worlds.  These plants are vigorous growers, take up a lot of room, and produce a lot of food.  Like all brassicas the flowers are adored by bees and other pollinators.  Can be eaten raw or cooked, and used in any way you would use a cabbage.    $4 per packet 

Glass Gem Corn (Zea mays) - this is good popcorn, beautifully coloured and incredibly ornamental.  These cobs grow all the colours of the rainbow and are incredibly beautiful.  If popped as pop corn they still pop white (just like regular yellow popcorn).  The cobs average around 15 cm long, and I average 4.5 cobs per plant but could have had more if I gave them more space.  Do NOT grow near other types of corn, popcorn, sweet corn, as it will cross pollinate and ruin your cobs.   $4 for packet of about 20 mixed seeds

Pink Glass Gem Corn (Zea mays)  - I planted some glass gem corn in blocks of the same colour.  My daughters like the pink popcorn.  These are seeds from cobs that were mostly pink, they were growing in my pink block.  There was some cross pollination with other colours of glass gem corn, and some hidden genetics that are not expressed in these seeds, but the cobs produced should be mostly pink with only a few seeds here and there of other colours.  The cobs produced should look similar to the photo on the left.  All types of corn will cross pollinate a lot, do NOT grow other types of corn nearby or they will cross pollinate a lot.   $4 for a packet of about 20 pink or white seeds

Litchi tomato (Solanum sisymbriifolium) also known as Morelle de Balbis, Fire and Ice plant, or my kids call them "Prickle Tomatoes".  Litchi tomatoes are somewhat related to tomatoes, tomatillos, and ground cherries.  Like many of the fruiting vegetables we grow, they are a perennial that is treated as an annual.  Intriguing plants with delicious berries.  Difficult to describe the taste as they vary depending on how ripe they are when picked.  They can taste like cherry, kiwi fruit, or sometimes really bland.  I am told you need more than one plant for pollination and fruit set so I grow several seeds in one hole to save space   $4 per packet of about 20 seeds

Black Nebula Carrot (Daucus carota sativus) these heirloom carrots are the darkest of the dark.  They are so dark purple I would almost call them black. They really are incredible to see.  They are dark purple/black all the way to the core and will have a small amount of white flecked through.  I am told that these have undertones of berry taste, but I can't taste berries at all.  I found them to taste like a mix of carrot and beetroot, which I really like.  Even if you are not a fan of carrots these taste great.  These carrots retain their intense purple colour when cooked.   The juice can be used as a dye, and if you add some acidity it will turn bright pink.  Carrots will cross with other varieties of carrot and Queen Anne's Lace so take care if seed saving    $4 per packet of seeds

Huacatay (Tagetes minuta), is also called Peruvian Black Mint, is an annual herb.  It is not related to mint, but does taste and smell similar to mint, and can be used in similar recipes.  Used in sauce or herbal teas and an essential ingredient in many Peruvian dishes.  This herb is very simple to grow and very productive.  It grows tall over the warmer months, often about 5 or 6 feet tall (I had some reach over 9 feet tall) or shorter in poor soils.  Simple to save seed and grow the following year   $4 per packet of seeds

Pink dandelion (Taraxacum pseudoroseum) is a different species than regular lawn dandelions.  All parts are edible by people, poultry, and livestock.  Leaves are more nutritious than most vegetables, roots can be made into a caffein free coffee substitute, and the flowers are pink with a yellow center.  The flower opens white/light pink with a yellow center, pink gets darker each day the flower is open.  These perennial plants are more fragile than common dandelions so as much as I wish they would they tend not to escape into your lawn   $4 per packet of seeds

Organic Culinary Herb Plants

Unless started all herbs will have been grown from cuttings so that I can assure the quality of the plants, some herbs grow true to type from seed whereas others tend to be a little variable.  Most herbs (other than root cuttings, which are just a segment of root) are sold bare rooted, or with minimal soil on the roots to lower weight and reduce the postage cost.  Most will be wrapped in damp newspaper and put into a plastic zip lock bag.  Some may be dormant over winter and will not put on a lot of growth until Spring.  

I do not have large quantities of any herbs, if you want a larger quantity please ask me and I will let you know if I can help out.

Winter Savory (Satureja montana) is a highly aromatic perennial herb with peppery flavor with notes of marjoram, mint, and thyme.  Winter savory looks similar to thyme but has larger leaves.  It does well in roasts and stews, used to make salami, and is an essential ingredient to make Bouquet garni.  This was a popular herb in Europe and used in similar ways as pepper back when pepper was an expensive spice.  It flowers well and is very attractive to bees and other pollinators.  I don't know why this is not grown more frequently in Australia as it is an excellent perennial edible herb.   $5 per small seed grown plant 

Native Water Mint aka native rivermint, native peppermint (Mentha australis) this perennial Australian native herb is very rare in the bush and is rarely found in shops or gardens.  Flowers are great for native bees and other native pollinators.  It likes being well watered but can cope with reasonably dry soil.  It is used in much the same way as regular peppermint but is far less invasive and the small flowers are great for native pollinators.  It makes an excellent herbal tea served hot or iced   $5 per small plant 

Variegated Water Celery aka water parsley, Java waterdropwort, Japanese parsley, Chinese celery etc (Oenanthe javanica - flamingo)  is a perennial vegetable that is under utilised and strangely uncommon.  Extremely prolific and simple to grow.  Can be grown in the vegetable garden or as an emergent water plant.  Smells and tastes a lot like celery, add at the end of cooking or much of the taste will disappear   $5 per small plant

Vietnamese Coriander aka Vietnamese mint, laksa herb, hot mint, Cambodian mint, praew leaf (Persicaria odorata) is an amazing perennial edible herb.  Simple to grow, extremely productive, delicious, and versatile, I can't believe how uncommonly this is grown in Australia.  The internet says Vietnamese coriander has a “lovely coriander taste with a clear citrus note; refreshing with a hot, biting, peppery after taste”.  I grow as an emergent water plant but also happily grows in vegetable garden.  It goes well with chicken and combines well with lime, chillies, garlic, ginger and lemon grass, what is not to love about this plant!   $5 per small plant  

Vietnamese Fish Mint (Houttuynia cordata) also known as dokudami, 'poison blocking plant',  lizard tail, heartleaf, fishwort, bishop's weed, and a bunch of other names.  Commonly used in Vietnamese cooking, herbal tea, as well as a host of different traditional medicines.  It tastes like fish sauce.  I am selling small plants of the vigorous green form.  This plant can become invasive if planted in the garden so please restrict it to growing in a pot.  Dormant over winter   $5 per small plant or well rooted cutting
 

Jekka's thyme (Thymus sp) is an extremely vigorous growing edible thyme with relatively long green leaves.  This has a strong thyme smell and taste.  It is the most vigorous thyme I have ever grown.  It flowers like crazy in spring and provides great bee forage.  Taking cuttings every few years will refresh it and provide you with more plants.   $5 per small plant

Common Spear Mint (Mentha spicata) this fragrant, strong smelling plant is one of the easiest and most rewarding herbs to grow.  Great plant to get children introduced to gardening and connected to the land.  Used to make mint sauce, garnish and in a host of different ways while cooking.  When I was a child it was grown in every garden, starting to become difficult to find for some reason.  Grown organically from cuttings as seeds can be variable and often give undesirable traits.  Grow in a pot to prevent it from taking over your garden   $5 per small plant 

Lavender mint (Mentha piperita 'Lavendula') this edible mint smells like lavender!  I use it in herbal tea and my kids love it, it also goes well in cold summer drinks, and I am told it goes well with chicken and other white meats where it imparts a floral aroma.  Lilac flowers attract bees and butterflies.  Large almost fluffy leaves not only smell great they also look and feel nice.  Lavender mint is my second favourite variety of mint, and it is the most vigorous in growth so please grow it in a pot to prevent it taking over your garden  $5 per small plant

Willow herb (Epilobium parviflorum).  Other common names include 'small flowered willow herb', 'hoary willowherb' and 'small flowered hairy willow herb'.  This is a perennial edible herb, the leaves can be added to a salad and eaten raw or cooked, or dried and used in herbal teas.  This herb has been used as medicine to treat prostate and kidney issues and to reduce tumor growth, there are a few studies indicating it could be effective in treating these ailments.  This plant loves water.   $5 per small plant 

Organic berry plants

Atilla Alpine Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a red fruited wild strawberry that is day length neutral.  It is an extremely rare alpine strawberry that produces runners and can form an edible ground cover.  The strawberries are much smaller than supermarket strawberries, but they taste meltingly delicious and they smell truly amazing.  If you have never eaten a wild strawberry you don't know what you are missing.  Alpine strawberries are also known as gourmet strawberries or fraise des bois   $5 per plant

 

Pineberry strawberry produces small white berries with red seeds.  They get a pinkish blush when ripe and taste a bit like pineapple.  These only produce female plants, so need another strawberry to pollinate them and they never grow true from seed.  It crops twice per year in my garden.  Throws a lot of runners  $5 per plant

Virginian strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) are a species of wild strawberries from North America.  They taste similar to garden strawberries you can buy from the markets but with far more intense and sweet flavour.  These have been selectively bred for larger sized berries as wild plants produce tiny berries.  Berries have deeply set seeds.  Grows lots of runners, flowers twice per year in my garden.  Very hardy plants   $5 per plant 

Carnivorous Plants
I know this page is mostly for perennial vegetables and other organically grown edibles, but please don't get confused and start to eat your carnivorous plants!    

Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) are the most famous and one of the most intriguing of carnivorous plants.  They grow best in areas with frosts but can be grown in frost free climates.  Never shut the traps with your finger, don't feed them, and don't fertilise them.  Growing notes can be found here.  $8 each small bare rooted plant SOLD OUT UNTIL LATE SPRING

Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis) is one of the easiest of all carnivorous plants to grow.  They were the first carnivorous plants I ever grew successfully as a child and from them I learned how to grow other carnivorous plants.  These catch numerous flies, moths, mosquitoes, and other insects.  Don't feed them unless you know what you are doing or you may kill the plant.  Grow them in damp peat moss (never soil) in a tray of water, never fertilise, and protect from heavy frosts.  They tend to lose their 'dew' and sulk after being posted, but it doesn't take them long to pick up again.  You choose between 'typical' and 'alba' varieties.   $6 per small plant

Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis) SEEDS.  These carnivorous plants are surprisingly simple to grow from seed but very few places ever list seed for sale.  Simply place damp peatmoss in a small pot, keep a tray of water under at all times, and sprinkle the fine dust like seeds on top.  Most will germinate in a few weeks.  I have 'typical' has red tentacles and pink flowers, 'alba' has green or light pink tentacles and white flowers.  Seeds are tiny as per the picture on the left. The seed packet is a mix of 'typical' and 'alba' seeds   $4 per packet containing hundreds of tiny freshly collected seeds





Ornamental - non-edible plants or seeds

String of Pearls plant (Senecio rowleyanus).  Very simple to grow and very beautiful.  They grow tiny white flowers in winter that smell like cinnamon.  Grow them somewhere that they can trail over the side of their pot.  When you receive the cutting please remove the lower few pearls (leaves), plant the stem in soil and water it well.  If you buy a plant it will need to be planted in a pot of soil.  These look delicate but are surprisingly hardy and grow reasonably fast.  These are ornamental only, please never eat any part of them   $5 per small bare rooted plant, $2 per cutting

Muscari seeds (Muscari armeniacum) also known as grape hyacinth, are a spring flowering bulb that produces sweetly fragrant blue flowers, sometimes blue and white, or even just white.  Simple to grow, naturalises well, loved by honey bees, and dies down over summer so is water wise. Simple to grow from seed but won't flower the first year.  Seeds are far cheaper than bulbs so you get far more plants for your money.  Each seed grown plant will be genetically unique but most look similar to their siblings   $4 for packet of 35 fresh seeds

Candle Making

I have seen these candles for sale for up to $13, with $9 each being about average, so buying a mould and making some of your own works out well.  If you enjoy it you can get more wax and make more candles, or experiment with fragrances and essential oils etc.

Candle making mould - skep

These produce really cute little beehive candles with bees on them.  I use around 40g to 50g of wax.  One silicone skep mould can be used to make hundreds of  candles, and I can provide simple instructions  $10 for the mould

Note: candle not included, you are buying a pink silicone mould to make your own candles

 

Candle making kit - owl
This mould is easy to use and produces little owl candles with an incredible amount of detail.  Candle making is a great project to do with kids on a rainy day.  The price is for one owl silicone mould can be used to make hundreds of candles,  and I can provide simple instructions $10 for the mould 
Note: candle not included, you are buying a pink silicone mould to make your own candles

 

 

1 Corinthians 3:6-7  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 

Alpaca Cria

Our first alpaca cria, born 08:00 April 25 2013

This little girl is still a little wet as she is less than 2 hours old in this picture

Big sister having a look

Mum having a good look, must be an interesting little one!

Sure is dry out here

drinking some milk

Glass Bead Corn

When I was younger we used to grow some beautiful multi coloured corn, as a child I loved the stuff, it was inspirational and looked amazing.  As a child I would carefully save seeds each year and only plant the most amazing ones, every year the resulting cobs were far superior to their parents.  

While not the best photo of the Glass Bead corn you can see some of the different coloured and spotted seeds

After doing some research it appears that each colour has a different nutrient profile and pretty much every colour other than white is better for you than the usual yellow colour.  In Australia we pretty much only see yellow corn, in Africa they only see yellow corn when they are starving and foreign aide comes in, other than that they predominantly grow white corn as they see yellow corn as a famine food, native people in the Americas who originally domesticated corn grow a multitude of colours.

After moving here and having a little extra space I wanted to track some coloured corn down again to grow for cornflour as well as animal feed.  Nowhere had it listed for sale.  I emailed all of the seed companies that used to stock it and they all replied saying that they no longer stock it.  I then emailed a few seed saver groups to ask if any of their members had some that they were willing to sell me, the replies ranged from "we do not save seed, we only buy bulk heirloom seed to distribute to members" to "we do not sell seeds, please google heirloom seeds and leave us alone".  Further research showed that many of the corn varieties that I used to grow are now extinct in Australia.  This is rather worrying as corn seed not be imported into Australia easily.

After much searching and asking around I found a lady in Western Australia who had several varieties of multi coloured corn.  She had one variety that she called "glass bead corn" that she had selected from the prettiest seeds from the best cobs of an Indian corn that she had.  She claimed that some of her cobs looked similar to the glass gem corn that you may have seen on the internet.  I ordered two packets of these corn seeds, one to grow and one as insurance in case I lost the crop and had to replant, and eagerly waited for them to arrive.

Not my picture unfortunately, but many of my cobs had coloured silk like this

When the seeds turned up I was a little disappointed, there were 60 seeds in the packet and only 10 of them were anything other than yellow.  Some were nicely coloured, some had a single coloured spot on them, but most were just yellow.  I know that the yellow seeds carry hidden genes for colour, but I had hoped for a few more coloured seeds in the mix.  I carefully planted the seeds out in a way that would maximise the coloured pollen landing on the yellow cobs and hopefully would result in a lot of coloured cobs.  

Glass Bead Corn - huge array of genes at play here

Then the birds came, they scratched through the garden and kicked mulch everywhere.  I was not certain if any of the seeds were left in the soil but I continued to water them, to my surprise most of the glass bead corn seeds had not been eaten and they germinated for me.

I am no photographer, this is the most beautiful cob in real life but looks ordinary in the photo

The corn plants themselves were remarkable, they have a lot of genetic variation which means that this strain is not overly inbred and should adapt to various climates well.  They survived an extreme summer here by growing to a height of between 2 and 3 metres tall.  We had no rain, extreme heat, and high wind, some plants were blown over or even snapped by the wind, but overall they all grew very well.  We had also grown a packet of sweet corn, only one single plant survived to maturity as the conditions were too harsh this year, that highlighted the strength of this amazing strain of glass bead corn.

As the plants grew some of the leaves were variegated, some of the stalks were bright red, some of the pollen bearing tassels were purple or red, some of the silk was red or purple or yellow, even some of the sheaths covering the ears were coloured, on top of that most plants were producing two large ears of corn, I had a good feeling that I could turn this corn into something great.  Next year I will have to try and remember to get some pictures of the plants as they are growing, some of them would not look out of place in an ornamental garden.

Corn was traditionally grown with a multitude of colours - this is more of our Glass Bead Corn

You can see some of the spotted seeds of the glass bead corn

After harvest I had some beautiful cobs as well as some mediocre ones.  When people see these cobs they are amazed by the colours and patterns of the seeds, there are yellow, white, purple, pink, red, orange, black, brown, striped, spotted and even marble swirled coloured seeds on each cob.  It is not quite as good as the ones I grew when I was younger, but I plan to eat all the substandard cobs/seeds and only plant the best, this way it will only take a few years to turn this into something truly amazing.

These are a dark red/coffee colour with a few black seeds in real life - Igloo's favourite

I will probably sell a small amount of the Glass Bead corn seeds in Australia each year.  These are non-hybrid, organically grown, open pollinated and non GM seeds.  There will be some yellow seed in each packet as well as a mix of colours, these yellow seeds will all carry recessive genes for a multitude of colours and patterns and besides that cobs look nice with a small amount of yellow mixed through.  I will put details on my "for sale" page so that you can contact me.

Glass bead corn - not too shabby considering the conditions it survived