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Looking for a tree that will enjoy our roasty toasty climate? That will bear delicious fruit, year in, year out, with very little required from you? Tropical trees are where it’s at!
We are lucky enough in Perth to have mild, frost free winters that allow us to grow a delicious range of tropical trees. And I’ve found, in my own garden, that these trees grow especially well!
So for todays newsletter, please allow me to coerce you into adding even more edible plants to your plot…Here are my top 6 picks of edible tropical trees for your garden. Grow one, grow two, grow them all!
Bananas
Every Perth garden should have a banana tree! They are THAT easy to grow. And beautiful. And delicious. The common theme with my tropical trees (actually all of the trees in my garden) is that they ask essentially nothing of me and reward my lazy neglect with delicious fruits. Our banana tree has provided us with glorious bunches of bananas for the last few years and it gives the most lush, dynamic backdrop to the garden. Bananas, as you might know, are a herb, and after each tree has shot out a bunch of bananas it will start to die (which doesn’t matter a whit because the trees grow in a clump and new baby banana suckers spring out from the clump as each mature tree dies).
Once your banana tree has fruited it’s a good idea to cut that trunk back to ground level, which is so easy because the trunks are lightweight, you can slice through them almost like butter. In fact, I saw a cool trick on Instagram the other day where a gardener had used the chopped down banana trunk as a planting vessel for a bunch of veggies. They’d cut holes in the trunk, added a bit of soil and planted straight into it. It’s a clever idea because it makes use of the trunk (which holds a lot of moisture) while allowing it to break back down into the garden.
Bananas are a cinch to grow, just plant yours in a sunny position that is sheltered from the wind (otherwise the beautiful leaves will tend to get ratty and ragged).
Mango
As of this year, I can officially recommend that you grow a mango tree. Ours took eight (eight!) years to bear a proper number of fruit. This may be partially my fault as the first three years or so I had unwittingly left a tie around the base of its trunk that was slowly strangling it. It now has a weird little lumpy lower trunk that is substantially thicker than the trunk above it. Oops.
If you don’t partially suffocate your mango you may enjoy fruit earlier than we did. At any rate, the tree gave us 30(!!!) mangoes this year and they were bloody good. I made the Mango & Avocado Soba Noodle salad from my cookbook with them and it was pretty much the best and most smug garden-y feeling I’ve had in ages. Plant one!
Papaya
Papayas are a fairly short-lived, fast growing tree that thrive in our climate and fruit easily! If you decide to buy one, make sure to check what kind you are getting - papaya plants can be males, females or hermaphrodites. The males do not fruit; they only produce pollen. The females, if not pollinated by a nearby male, will produce only small, hard fruits. Hermaphrodites can self-pollinate as they have male and female flowers.
Nowadays, most commercial papayas sold are hermaphrodites and will fruit easily on their own, but it’s worth checking before you buy one. If you have a papaya that isn’t fruiting, check whether it’s a male or a female and buy it a companion papaya to whisper sweet nothings to in the cool of the evening so you get some fruit.
Custard Apple
Our custard apple has finally hit its stride and is getting bigger and bigger by the month. I got it several years ago and flung it into one of my most neglected patches of garden. I have given it close to zero love apart from some mulch and manure each year. It hasn’t fruited yet (have you tried custard apples?! They are INCREDIBLE!) but its a very beautiful tree in its own right and now it’s getting so much bigger I feel like fruit can’t be too far off.
Panama Berry
Ok I’m not growing a Panama Berry but I wannnnnnt oneeeee!! I recently tried the fruit from this beautiful, fast growing tree and ooooooo. It tastes like a strawberry custard tart!! It has a slightly grassy flavour right at the end, but it’s definitely a strawberry custard tart. The fruits are small and red and look a lot like cherries, and the tree has a beautiful arbour and a light-coloured trunk. Highly highly recommend.
I am currently trying to work out how I could possibly cram one into our garden…
Curry Leaf Tree
If you like curries and you like beautiful, easy to grow trees, you should grow a curry leaf tree! These do so well in our climate (although when they are immature they can sometimes look a bit sad by the end of winter). They lose their leaves during winter in colder climates but cling onto them OK in Perth and by the time summer arrives they have returned to their previous warm-weather glory. Our tree is now big enough that it kept all its leaves through winter and actually looked lovely! If you have deciduous trees in your garden and find things are looking a bit bare in winter, a curry leaf may be the evergreen tree you never knew you desperately needed!
The arbour of the curry leaf tree is beautiful - with delicate, almost feathery leaves that you can chuck into all your curries, and a great, strong fragrance. Apparently you can even eat the berries although I have it on good authority they taste like purple skittles crossed with tar…so I must admit I haven’t exactly leapt at the opportunity to give one a nibble.
They self seed very easily so if you grow one you may very well find a mini forest of little curry trees growing underneath your tree in autumn. This isn’t really a problem, though - they’re very easy to pull out and if you pop them in a pot and grow them on before too long you’ll have beautiful free gifts to give all your friends (a great way to slowly but surely convince the whole of Perth to add more tropical trees to their patch!).
Hi, I’m new to Perth and would like to plant some of the trees discussed. Could you perhaps recommend a few good tree nurseries. I’ve had a few disappointing purchases.
Hi Casey, I have some of these trees currently growing in pots but I’d rather plant them in the ground. Only thing holding me back is we have a septic system but I’m not sure where it is. Do you know if the fruit would be safe to eat when there is a septic system in the same area?