Just like Maslow's 'Needs Theory' of humans requiring air, food, shelter
and water, so does a healthy organic garden. Over the last few articles we have explored the need to site plan a new vegetable patch, ensuring that the plot has adequate sunlight, good drainage and quality soil.

All these elements are essential, however, water is the vital ingredient. If it is not readily available, clean and from a consistent source, gardening can be difficult, if not impossible.

Recently South East Queensland experienced drought and lots of gardeners in the affected areas got very creative with water harvesting, recycling and garden adaption. These elongated dry seasons make us look at every drop as a very precious resource that we must value and conserve. This is all important when designing an organic garden.

Embraced by the Asian and South American communities, the Yam Bean or Jicama may not be quite so familiar to many other people; however it is frequently seen at the greengrocers and is widely utilised in a variety of Asian dishes.

This plant is hardy, productive, and pest free and thrives in the tropical and subtropical garden, so it is a vegetable worth knowing more about. It also thrives during the warm wet humid months prevalent over summer in much of northern coastal Australia.

The Yam Bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) produces an enlarged tap root with a sweet, crisp, white flesh. It is used rather like water chestnuts, to add sweetness and texture to a dish, and is commonly used in stir fries and spring rolls; raw in fruit and savory salads; and roasted, steamed, boiled and fried in a large variety or other savory and sweet dishes.

In Italy it is called 'Zucchini' and in France 'Courgette' and while we might have once used the French name, Zucchini has definitely become the norm in this country. No matter what you call this vegetable it is one of the easiest summer season vegetables to grow.

Generally eaten when 10 to 15 cm long. You can eat them when very young with flowers still attached and you can even eat the flowers on their own. Flowers are becoming all the rage in gourmet cuisine, especially stuffed with a delicate herb fetta and deep-fried. Leave the fruit on the plant for too long and you will end up with a monster marrow, which tastes rather woody and bland.

Topics covered are:

• The Facts
• Culture
• Pest and Disorders
• Cultivars
• Eating

Most people love citrus, whether it is an orange, lime, mandarin or lemon. The Tangelo is a less well known fruit gaining popularity due to its juicy nature. It is a hybrid fruit, typically the result of a cross between a mandarin and a grapefruit. Some references indicate pomelos are sometimes used in the breeding.

One cultivar, 'Minneola', with its deep orange-coloured fruit and distinctive bump was first grown commercially in Australia in 1992. It is a cross between a mandarin (Citrus reticulata 'Dancy') and a grapefruit (Citrus paradisi 'Duncan').

Early season Tangelos come from Mundubbera and Gayndah in Queensland, then progressively from New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. While slightly more tart in flavour than mandarins, Tangelos are popular because they are easy to peel. The virtually seedless segments are one of the juiciest of all fruits.

Topics include:

• Cultivars
• Uses for the juice

Longan Dimocarpus longan (syn. Euphoria longan)
Also known as 'Dragon Eye', this is a large growing hardy tree that crops well in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate zones. If you travel to the monsoonal regions of China, you will see this tree growing naturally wild on the hillsides and it is very popular with the locals.

Lychee Litchi chinensis (syn. Nephelium litchi)
A beautifully shaped and sized tree, the slow-growing Lychee grows from 8 to 12 m tall, being much smaller than the Longan. It is however easily pruned to a more manageable size if this is done on a regular basis. The Lychee is native to the tropical to subtropical lowlands of China.

Rambutan Nephelium lappaceum
The Rambutan has the most visually striking fruit of these
three trees. The fleshy, soft, spined fruit are produced in clusters. Typically red in colour, orange, yellow or pink fruited
cultivars are also grown.

There is also a table of the Summary of the fruit trees.

A large genus, Rubus has about 250 species, distributed worldwide, the most familiar members of which are probably both the Blackberry and Raspberry. Referred to as 'brambles' due to their rambling habit and prickly nature, the various Rubus species are generally associated with cooler climates. Australia is home to several indigenous species, most of which are found growing on the margins of our subtropical and tropical rainforests.

All our native Raspberries have edible fruits though there is considerable variation between species and individual plants in their flavour, succulence and palatability. Of the four most commonly occurring species, R. moluccanus, R. parvifolius, R. rosifolius and R. probus, it is R. probus that is arguably the best performer as far as taste, prolific fruiting and berry size go.

with Colleen Keena
Images Geoff Keena

A large genus, Rubus has about 250 species, distributed worldwide, the most familiar members of which are probably both the Blackberry and Raspberry. Referred to as 'brambles' due to their rambling habit and prickly nature, the various Rubus species are generally associated with cooler climates. Australia is home to several indigenous species, most of which are found growing on the margins of our subtropical and tropical rainforests.

All our native Raspberries have edible fruits though there is considerable variation between species and individual plants in their flavour, succulence and palatability. Of the four most commonly occurring species, R. moluccanus, R. parvifolius, R. rosifolius and R. probus, it is R. probus that is arguably the best performer as far as taste, prolific fruiting and berry size go.