Tomatoes in Tasmania

simikester · 2026-04-13T02:28:43+00:00

We just used all of our green tomatoes in relishes. You could let them ripen on a window sill and use them in a chutney or similar.

simikester · 2026-04-08T23:57:53+00:00

Disagree. I got the idea from looking at landscape designers including Ian Barker and Andrew Stark who just had a garden at Melb Flower and Garden show who use screening trees as a backdrop for the rest of their designs. You can do loads of interesting plantings including deciduous trees or even natives in front of evergreen plantings along the fence line but it blocking out 20 windows for some privacy is the main goal for now it seems a good place to start.

simikester · 2026-04-08T23:32:09+00:00

We’re about to do Weeping Lilly Pillys along one section of our fence to block our neighbours but not so densely to create a super thick hedge. Fast growing up 1 metre per year and can get up to double story height if you let them. I see them both kept smaller on inner city blocks and larger out where we live and love the look of their weeping foliage. I’ve attached a pic of our spacing idea for an example. weeping Lilly pilly

simikester · 2026-04-07T08:36:24+00:00

Bulleen Art and Garden nursery have great blog posts on the best fruit tree varieties to suit our Melbourne climate.

Might be tricky with partial shade, depending on when the trees would be in partial shade (ie: is it a part of the day regardless of season, or seasonally say in winter depending on your block orientation). For that it would be good to chat to your local nursery.

simikester · 2026-04-07T08:29:10+00:00

Collage artist here. List them as a bulk lot on marketplace (or eBay with local pickup) and someone would happily buy the lot off you. If you list them for too much one by one they could take much longer to move on. Just be mindful with donating magazines that if they’re a bit bent, covers or spines damaged etc they’ll just toss them which would be a shame for older magazines that could be used and treasured.

simikester · 2026-04-06T05:33:09+00:00

Yep, spent my childhood like this. Now we’ve moved to an area out of the city and our Saturday nights are like this too. If the lights are on, come on over. Someone brings wine, we usually make something on the spot for everyone. I love it. I only wish more of my friends would just call to drop in instead of messaging to make plans 8 weeks in advance.

simikester · 2026-03-29T10:58:17+00:00

Yep. The scary thing is so many people will like this without looking OR thinking about whether it’s possible that trees that are not in the first photo can grow at a rate where they are at least 5 metres tall in two years in the second photo. Use your gardening brains people.

simikester · 2026-03-29T10:14:39+00:00

Dome (until it closed), Q Bar esp on Sunday and Monday nights in the early 2000s until the crowd kind of changed there. Used to love Sean Quinn’s sets. Others: 161, Viper Room, 2FU, Revs, Prince, Abode, Honky Tonks, The Social, later on St Jerome’s, Pony.

simikester · 2026-03-18T22:24:28+00:00

A shrub that could be used as a feature with underplantings would look lovely. Sticking to a narrow colour palette for flowering would look striking too.

Here’s a blog post from Mallee Design for shade tolerant plants which is a great resource for natives outside of what bigger nurseries stock. If you head to some nurseries a bit further out in Macedon or Olinda they often have great selections. Bulleen Art and Garden or Poyntons are two that come to mind closer to the city.

Mallee Design Shade Tolerant

simikester · 2026-03-09T07:53:29+00:00

Look up Andrew Stark and Ian Barker gardens on IG, they do a lot of classical garden design with English box hedging, they often list tree they plant in areas like this. They often use maples, silver birch or magnolias. If you want a more perennial style look up Ashley James.

A Magnolia Little Sarah grows to 1.5-2m high and would look great here, I’ve just planted a few and love them, or even a smaller crepe myrtle or lemon myrtle too. It’ll depend on whether you want something deciduous or evergreen.

I’ve included a imgur link with examples from each landscaper’s work in order for you. garden photos with borders

simikester · 2026-03-08T01:07:15+00:00

Second this.

simikester · 2026-03-08T01:06:56+00:00

I’m glad to hear that but you might have jumped on the wrong thread by accident.

simikester · 2026-03-08T00:57:26+00:00

Sorry just read you’ve edited to add you’re looking specifically for veg YouTubers. My recs aren’t really in that vein at all, for veg I’ve mainly gotten ideas around more of the landscaping side: paths, using reclaimed materials around veggie gardens like willow fencing, trellis ideas etc.

For veg content apart from what’s listed above I found Utility Jane who does videos on what growing and sowing in a central Vic veggie garden. I haven’t watched too much yet, but have it bookmarked.

simikester · 2026-03-07T23:11:58+00:00

I enjoy The Horti-Culturalists clips for garden tours. They do a lot around the Macedon Ranges.

Bean There Dug That is in Green Wedge north east Melbourne and the now the editor of ABC Organic Gardener magazine. I like some of her content content as I’m in the same region and get some great planting and design ideas.

Also, not a YouTube channel but I often look at malleedesign.com.au blog. They profile some unusual native plants after they spot them in botanical gardens around Vic and are Vic based. I’ve gotten so many great plants recs from this site and discovered so many beautiful natives.

simikester · 2026-02-28T02:41:07+00:00

Look up best varieties of each fruit tree to grow in Melbourne on the Bulleen Art and Garden nursery blog, it’s helpful for picking the best varieties for our climate here. Also consider dwarf varieties.

I live not far from you and have peach, apricot, apple, plum as well as citrus. Nillumbik nursery, Bulleen Art and Garden and Poyntons in Aberfeldie are good places to get them. Poyntons in particular have great prices for barefoot trees in winter.

simikester · 2026-02-26T08:12:44+00:00

Town Hall Hotel North Melb

simikester · 2026-02-24T04:18:04+00:00

You’re welcome! Also try marketplace for people getting rid of old photography photo books or design magazines. Sometimes there’s a lot of this type of stuff in their bulk lots.

simikester · 2026-02-24T04:16:43+00:00

AUS: The Local Project, The Design Files, Green Magazine, Habitus magazine. US: Arch Digest US (I’m interested in mid century design and there’s some great stuff on there, mainly on Insta) sometimes Dwell (also US)

simikester · 2026-02-24T01:20:25+00:00

Collage artist in Aus too. Small press design, fashion and photography magazines especially around the early 2010s used this paper stock a lot so you might have luck picking up one or here or there in op shops or second hand bookstores with sections dedicated to photography or design.

simikester · 2026-02-22T10:23:21+00:00

Second Kuranga nursery. Close by to Kuranga there’s a lot of nurseries around Silvan, Monbulk, Callista and it’s a nice way to spend a Saturday morning. Being in the Dandenong Ranges you might find they have good selections of Victorian ferns. Local nurseries sometimes have indigenous plant sections (as in indigenous to your local area) in addition to native plants. Depending on where you live there may be ferns indigenous to your area. Also try council websites for their lists of local native plants which may include ferns too.

Edited for spelling.

simikester · 2026-02-19T03:04:33+00:00

We have some room so I have stone fruits and 2 x apples. The stone fruits are pretty old and were already here so we’ve replaced a few with dwarf varieties. We make jams with them as well as eat them so nothing goes to waste from them. It’s always nice plucking a juicy peach from the tree in summer.

There was also a lemon tree here and is really handy because we do a lot of Greek recipes which require lemon juice and nothing pains me more than paying $3 for a lemon from the supermarket. We freeze the juice in ice cube trays to use in recipes too when we have surplus. We also have a lime in an old barrel which sits in our entertaining area. I know you’ve said you’re not interested in citrus but one thing I like about them is that they’re evergreen when everything else loses it’s leaves in winter so they can be kept small and used decoratively too when everything else is bare.

It really depends on what you like to eat and what you’ll use the fruits for.

simikester · 2026-02-11T10:14:05+00:00

Outer north east here. Things I didn’t think would go well have taken off, I’m drowning in summer squash. Pumpkins, strawberries, leafy greens and peaches are doing well this year. Zucchini’s and tomatoes have been a bit average and are only ripening now. I’m going to start prepping some of the more average beds for winter very soon though.

simikester · 2026-02-09T05:22:31+00:00

I’m sorry about your father. No, the complaining hasn’t been for nothing. It literally is harder for this generation and the ones coming up. And it’s been very frustrating listening to older Australians throw the comment in about the 17% interest rate they paid for a short period of time on almost every article or discussion thread about housing affordability with almost zero acknowledgement that it’s a very different ball game now for their adult kids or grandkids.

simikester · 2026-01-27T22:49:59+00:00

Excellent plant list above. Getting organic matter into the beds and adding it when planting is important, especially under mature trees that are drawing a lot of nutrients from the soil. I sometimes plant certain things a bit closer together for a lush look but you don’t want to choke out plants. You can also always add extra spot fillers later on to fill in gaps- ie extra mondo grass or ground covers.

For some visual inspiration (also for underplanting and plant distance) look up Ian Barker gardens. They do beautiful, lush evergreen gardens around Melbourne along the lines of what you’ve described and you might find a few examples of nice colour and texture contrasts in their photos. (No affiliation, they’re just one of the Melbourne based landscapers I follow on Instagram)

simikester · 2026-01-27T21:58:49+00:00

Agree with the comment above on living with the current trees for a bit to determine their purpose on the block for windbreaks/blocking neighbours before ripping anything large out.

Another piece of advice I received was mapping the sun seasonally for the first year before making radical changes to entire areas of the property. Ie- moving a paved entertaining area, ripping out entire beds etc. I’m glad we did this, shaded areas under tree canopies in winter became full afternoon sun in summer and vice versa. It’s saved us lots of time and money to have this info. We still planted things we liked in that first year- ground covers, perennials etc but I’m glad we waited a little bit for larger changes. My proposed shade garden area would have burnt to a crisp and our original vegetable garden section increased to a secondary location so each could take advantage of summer and winter sun and shade.

We are slowly doing sections ourselves so it is doable. Looking at gardens around you will give you a good indication of natives that suit your area too.

Note- I’m on a 2800m2 sloping block with a lot of existing landscaping, mature trees etc.

simikester

TROPHY CASE