Sue & Ray Garden: Tomatoes and Paw Paw

Sue and Ray's garden was a well laid out but simple affair as far as gardens go. Importantly it was in full sun and there were few if any larger ornamental trees to compete with food plants. Their very healthy tomatoe crops were in large raised beds with shade cloth over the top and orchard netting around the sides. The Orchard netting probably stopped large butterflies and grasshoppers from getting in, but occasionally the butterflies still layed their eggs on the edges.

Tomatoes in raised bed with Orchard netting on the sides

The very healthy Paw Paw trees were young and vibrant. The secret? Panting them with fish scraps beneath - lots of phosphorus and potassium and nitrogen.

Paw Paw thriving

Sue had a mint variety growing that I recognise as a more hardy tropical variety. This variety has a sharper tip to the leaf rather than a rounded tip. Further back in the yard a row of Lemon grass was establishing well.

Bungalow John's Garden: Pots big and small

Growing annuals in pots has been a common theme in the gardens on Cocos and Johns' Garden was no exception. What was exceptional was that everything looked so good and healthy.

Large raised bed with fly screens to protect from pests

 One of Johns' largest pots (more like a garden bed) was caged in with fly screens that could be easily taken off when you needed to get at the vegetables. Johns' soil mix was 75% compost made up of seaweed and all sorts of other refuse.

Within the large caged area he was growing silverbeet, French beans, Zucchinis (which would not set fruit or even open their flowers), Tomatoes, Pumpkins which had their roots in the raised beds then crawled around the garden. Outside in other pots were Cucumbers, Snake beans and more Tomatoes setting plenty of fruit. Daily observation and hand picking of pests was practiced on the vegetables outside the caged area.

John actually had some good pumpkins to show. Many butternuts that we had seen were growing 'Mini' fruits that were 4 inches long. I'm not sure if these were perhaps just not pollinated or if the soil was not right or something else.

The best Pumpkins i observed on Cocos however was on Home island .

The Pumpkin patch - Coconut fronds are used to keep them off the ground

These were all growing in the ground on an area that was used fro burning organic waste. This meant that the soil was full of charcoal and potash. There was probably also some benefit from being grown with a legume which would have set nitrogen in the soil.

Pumpkin growing with a legume (Macroptilium atropurpureum)

I think the variety of pumpkin was also important. It appeared to be a Jap crossed with a butternut. Japs' grow well in the tropical heat and Butternuts have a tough skin to protect them from rotting.

Grahams' garden

Grahams' garden was a fairly recent creation  although you didn't get that impression because it was so shady and protected.

We were told that each tree was planted with a bale of hay beneath it to compensate for the lack of organic matter in the soil.  He established significant windbreaks which has cut down on salt spray , wind and rain from coming onto the verandah. The windbreaks have also no doubt made a big difference to what can be grown here easily.

There were numerous fruit trees planted amongst the ornamaental plants in the garden but as many of these plants were planted at more or less the same time, the fruit trees have had a chance to compete and were doing quite well. 

On the vegetable front, Graham  had gone to some effort to put in a hydroponic set up that was covered in shade cloth to keep the caterpillars at bay. His Tomatoes (Climbing Romas and Grosse lisse) looked very healthy and were just getting around to setting fruit - all of which were painstakingly hand pollinated. This is probably necessary because there was very little wind penetrating the shade house and wind is needed to dislodge the pollen in the tomato flower to achieve pollination. There was also Rocket and Lettuce growing quite happily although the lettuce was now going to seed.

In the past Graham had problems with mildew on his tomatoes after extended rainy periods. One suggestion to help solve this problem was roofing  the shade house in polycarbonate transparent sheets to protect it from rain. Hydroponics don't need rain after all.

 The hydroponic set up was run on rainwater caught from the roof of the house.

 There were also some Tomato plants that he had planted outside in pots and they were doing very well thank you very much. 

There was one banana tree in a box full of organic matter but, the plant wasn’t over the moon about the conditions – there may have still been some heat and rotting going on in the lower parts of the box. It was at Grahams house that i saw  the first decent Mulberries- the trees were perhaps 10 feet tall and fruiting, although not heavily (In the tropics you get a springs crop of fruit and an Autumn crop). Another recently established tree was Breadfruit which was  10 feet tall (18 months old) had already produced some fruit. He was also growing Jambo which was common in the gardens of Home island. Amongst the ornamental plants were some stunning Gingers and Heliconias.

Purple King beans in recycled timber box

In another part of his yard he was growing Purple King climbing beans which although not stunningly healthy were still producing some fruit and seeds. They has been planted into boxes that he had constructed out of used palettes that had been lined with some other waste plastic to reduce the effects of rotting on the woodwork. They looked very smart and all you really needed to construct them was a drill and some screws. Graham had done a lot of salvaging of driftwood which he then milled with his “Lucas” mill. He had certainly been able to save a lot of money as well as recycle a lot of timber which he then used to build all manner of structures.

Graham had a selection of compost bins and through using them had come to the conclusion that the tumbler was the best thing. The tumbler is different from conventional bins (which are usually anaerobic) in that it works with aerobic bacteria which work a lot faster. Tumbling the bin aerates the compost and encourages these bacteria.

Other fruit trees Graham had include a Mangosteen, Custard apple and possibly Sapodilla. There was one unidentified fruit tree which had not successfully fruited so far but looked related to the Black Sapote. Dragon fruit were doing very well but had not managed to fruit. Again this may be due to the lack of pollinators.