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Leaf, Root & Fruit

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If you have access to a greenhouse, or a very warm If you have access to a greenhouse, or a very warm, sunny, protected spot, then consider growing your tomatoes from seed. July is a good time to get them started in preparation for transplanting in spring. Planting tomato seeds in July will mean transplanting the successful seedlings once or twice during the growing season into successively larger pots. For more information on growing great tomatoes check out this blog post. https://leafrootfruit.substack.com/p/how-to-grow-tomatoes If you have a greenhouse, you can consider getting a head start on your capsicum and eggplant seedlings now as well.
🪓 Chop Chop I’ve fulfilled the drastic promi 🪓 Chop Chop I’ve fulfilled the drastic promise I made in my recent Orchard Nightmare article. I’ve taken the chainsaw to the “bonus trees” in my garden. The productive garden now looks sparser against the grey winter sky. I now have fewer fruit trees to maintain, a small mound of woodchips and a pile of fruit tree trunks. I’ll carefully dissect some of the trunks (with the chainsaw) to examine the internal structure of graft unions and other features. I’m amassing a great collection of such artifacts, which are useful demonstration materials when I host workshops. The rest of the timber will be consigned to firewood to heat our house. Apple wood is a divinely aromatic timber to burn. Where it didn’t overly affect the surrounding garden, I carefully excavated the root systems. It was amazing to see how the different types of tree roots had spread and responded to the drought conditions. The mulberry roots were by far the most invasive. The thick yellow roots radiated in every direction and slowly tapered to a fine mesh of feeder roots. In the Orchard Nightmare article I described an espaliered apricot tree grafted on a vigorous rootstock (the rootstock was myrobalan). When I removed that specimen, I found that the roots had tended to grow perpendicular to the espalier. Some roots had headed straight for the adjacent edible forest garden bed, which receives more frequent watering than the espaliers do. Others had headed west into the berry patch and choked the space around my blueberries. It explained why those blueberry plants had fared so poorly this summer. I assumed it was the nearby bluegums and their exploitive roots, but instead it was an enemy within. The apricot wasn’t overly productive anyway, but the possibility of having corrected the reduced blueberry yields makes me feel more positive about the tree’s removal. I originally planted it to demonstrate the folly of growing fruit trees on the incorrect rootstock. Little did I realise how much I would learn by removing it.
🫛 Pea plants will thrive all year here in my co 🫛 Pea plants will thrive all year here in my cool temperate climate. The plants will grow strong and healthy regardless of the season. But there’s a catch. If the plants are flowering when the frost bites, the flowers will be damaged. If my plants flower in the depths of winter, I won’t get any peas from them. This is why I sow my first crop of the year in July. This leads to plants flowering in spring, when frosts are less severe and I’ll get to pick some pods. Warm temperate growers have far more flexibility with timing and can sow them any time of year, but now is as good a time as any. ➡ Check out my guide to growing peas for more information: https://leafrootfruit.substack.com/p/how-to-grow-peas
🌱 What to plant in July 🥬 Now that we're in 🌱 What to plant in July 🥬 Now that we're in the middle of winter, your planting options are slim. Leafy greens such as spinach, silverbeet, kale and lettuce will grow well over winter. 🥕 My planting guide generally refers to vegetables planted in the garden (as opposed to a greenhouse). This planting may consist of seeds directly sown (my usual and preferred method) or plants transplanted as seedlings. ✅ Here's my guide to some of the things you could consider planting this month in a warm temperate climate like Melbourne’s. 👀 Check out my free monthly newsletter and garden update for more tips on what to do in your own garden this month. ➡ https://open.substack.com/pub/leafrootfruit/p/july-2025-planting-guide-and-garden?r=2aoogj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
🌞 Happy Solstice 🔥 I won’t dance naked th 🌞 Happy Solstice 🔥 I won’t dance naked through the garden. I won’t host a feast. And I certainly won’t sacrifice any animals or children. I won’t even light a bonfire. But today I will enjoy some time pottering in the garden, and a quiet dinner with my family. 🌏 The winter solstice is a special time. It occurs when the Earth’s south pole is at its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It only lasts a moment (this year, for me and everyone else in the same latitude and time zone, it is Saturday 21 June at 12.41pm) but the day on which it occurs is the shortest day of the year. 🤸‍♂ The reason why I love the winter solstice is that it’s a turning point. For the following six months, the days will increase in length. Many plants and animals can sense this change in the day length. 🐣 The changing day length after the solstice usually stimulates chickens to get back on the lay, birds to initiate their courtship behaviour, queen bees to start laying eggs for swarming in spring and the beginning of photoperiodism in the leafy greens. It takes a while for the outcomes of those events to become apparent, but if you look, the signs of spring are everywhere in early July. The weather doesn’t change with the solstice, but my optimism does.
Last week I picked my persimmons. I planted my Nig Last week I picked my persimmons. I planted my Nightingale tree to be a focal point in the garden and it is developing into a stunner. Between removing the netting and picking the fruit I spent time admiring the tree. Here's a few images that I took. Persimmons may well be the ultimate fruit tree for temperate gardens. They’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love them. Their soft and squishy pulp has incredible flavour. But it’s not just the taste that I adore. The trees themselves are stunning. They have a great shape, the autumn foliage is spectacular, and once the leaves have fallen, the tree really becomes the highlight of the garden. Usually, the fruit will stay hanging on the tree until well after the leaves have fallen, which means the otherwise bare tree has bright orange globes hanging from the branch tips. With a clear blue autumn sky behind it, it makes quite a sight.
📨 Yesterday I emailed my newsletter subscribers 📨 Yesterday I emailed my newsletter subscribers with an offer of tomato seeds. 🎂 June is my month of anniversaries. 🥕 This June marks six years since my partner Caryn and I bought our forever home in Kyneton. It marks 11 years since I started my Leaf, Root & Fruit business. It also marks two years since I sent my first email from the Substack platform. I’ve showed up and emailed my subscribers every week, without fail. I’ve now shared 171 Substack articles to help you to grow your own food. I’ve enjoyed the ongoing connection that I’ve fostered with you. Thanks for sharing the journey. 🎁 To mark the occasion and to express my gratitude, I'm sending subscribers a gift of tomato seeds saved from my garden. If you're not yet a subscriber then it's not too late. Find out how to claim your seeds here: ➡ https://open.substack.com/pub/leafrootfruit/p/seeds-of-gratitude?r=2aoogj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webr=2aoogj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
🌧 I measure the rain every morning at 9am. This 🌧 I measure the rain every morning at 9am. This morning, I tipped 7 mm out of the gauge. Looking at a snapshot of yesterday’s falls across the state I can see that I was right on the cusp of much more rainfall. Just south of us there were recordings in the low thirties. I could feel ripped off, or frustrated that it wasn't more. 🚱We might have only received 7mm yesterday. But if you had said to me on Thursday, that over the long weekend 37.5 mm would fall on my property I would have laughed at you. So many times, this autumn the rainfall forecast was a false prophet. 🎉 But not this time. ✏ Seven millimetres is twice as much rain as I recorded for the whole of May. I’ll happily record it on my rainfall chart thanks. 🌞 It looks like there might be a few more showers on the way today, but right now it’s sunny. I’m going to take the opportunity to get out into the garden and appreciate all the rain that fell over the last few days. ❓ What about you? How’d your rain gauge go this weekend? Are you singing in the rain or despondent in the dust?
🎂 June is my month of anniversaries. 🏡This 🎂 June is my month of anniversaries. 🏡This June marks six years since my partner Caryn and I bought our forever home in Kyneton. Angus was two and Emily still in utero. Now they are both in school and our Melbourne life is a distant memory. 📨 It marks two years since I sent my first email from the Substack platform. I’ve showed up and emailed my subscribers every week, without fail. I’ve now shared 171 Substack articles to help you to grow your own food (access them all here: https://leafrootfruit.substack.com/). I’ve enjoyed the ongoing connection that I’ve fostered with you. Thanks for sharing the journey. 🥕 It also marks 11 years since I started my Leaf, Root & Fruit business. I recently re-read last year’s post reflecting on my first 10 years of running the business. It reminds me of the bumpy ride and how much I’ve grown – both in the garden and personally. I've been gardening since I could walk. But this hasn't always been my paid job. You can read about my gardening journey here: ➡ https://leafrootfruit.substack.com/p/happy-birthday-to-leaf-root-and-fruit
Another 12.5 mm overnight here in Kyneton. That's Another 12.5 mm overnight here in Kyneton. That's a total of 30.5 mm for this rainfall event. AND it's still falling. There's a very promising radar for the day ahead. Please keep sharing your tallies. I love seeing how much rain has fallen across the state and beyond. Don't forget to include your location. #jumpingforjoy #sendmorerain #Victoriandrought #happydays
🍊 Citrus surprise ‼️ 😎 The mild autumn 🍊 Citrus surprise ‼️ 😎 The mild autumn has confused my citrus and therefore me. I know the annual patterns for citrus in Melbourne. They’re predictable. But here in Kyneton, citrus growth patterns are unique. This year I’m appreciating how wildly erratic those patterns can be. Here in my cool temperate climate, citrus typically ripen later in the year. Most notably, the sweet citrus, such as oranges and mandarins, ripen in spring. I love citrus and I’m keen to find varieties that will ripen in late spring when the days are warmer. It should lead to sweeter citrus, which has so far eluded me (you need heat for sweet citrus). But I can’t reliably extrapolate data from elsewhere to help with choosing those varieties. Regardless, I’ve made some educated guesses and planted a few different candidates. 🤯 Well, this year everything in my trial has gone out the window. My Okitsu Wase mandarins are already ripe. That’s a lot earlier than they have been in the previous two years. The fruit is tangy and I’m interested to see if the sweetness increases any further, but it’s going to take some nerve to hold off harvesting. Mandarins aren’t great keepers. There is only a fortnight of optimal ripeness before they start to turn dry and puffy. 🤷 I’m not sure how long to leave them to sweeten up on the tree. The kids seem happy enough to eat tangy mandarins and I don’t mind them either. But I wonder if they are at their full sugary potential yet. Will patience reward or punish? To find out, I plan to harvest a few each week – although the kids are already sneaking extra fruit straight from the tree and I don’t have the heart to stop them. 📅 If trees such as this mandarin are any indication, then I may never have a set season for harvesting citrus in my garden. Citrus season needs to be renamed citrus surprise. Read more about the challenges of growing citrus in a cool-temperate climate here: ➡ https://leafrootfruit.substack.com/p/growing-citrus-in-a-cool-temperate-climate ♨️There’s plenty of advice that’s also applicable to warmer climates, such as Melbourne’s.
🌧🎉 How good is this rain?! ☔👍 🍂 Thi 🌧🎉 How good is this rain?! ☔👍 🍂 This morning I’ll have to clear the gutters. We have many deciduous trees around the house and the gutters quickly fill with leaves at this time of the year. Every time rain was forecast, I’d diligently clear them. And every time rain was forecast it didn’t fall. This time I left the leaves in the gutters to tempt fate. To encourage the rain. And just like all those folks washing their cars, planning to camp and doing rain dances – it worked! After months of drought it has finally rained. I am so relieved. 🛌🏻 I went to bed with the sound of rain on the tin roof. ⏰ I woke up to the sound of the rain. 😁 Bliss. 🪣 This morning, I evicted the spiders from my gumboots, dusted off my raincoat and went straight to the rain gauge. At 9am I tipped out just over 18 glorious millimetres. I’ve jumped in puddles and rejoiced at the good soak that we received overnight. I’ve knocked on all the tanks. They are still a long way off full, but I’ve finally turned off the irrigation. Hopefully that’s it for the season. Hopefully the bore pump can stay switched off. ⛺ The best news is that there is still plenty more rain to come this weekend. Sorry, not sorry to anyone away camping for the long weekend. ❓ How much rain did you receive?
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