Vegetables

Carolina Reaper and other superhot seed is slow and fussy. Why a tray sits for weeks, the warmth and patience it needs, how to fit a long ripening season into your Australian climate zone, and how to handle the pods safely.

Late spring frost and an early autumn leave cool and alpine gardens a short summer. Here is how to count your frost-free weeks, choose quick crops and get them ripe in time.

When spinach and lettuce bolt in spring, a different set of leafy greens takes over. How to sow, pick and safely cook seven heat-loving greens, plus sweet potato leaves, zone by zone.

Melons are not hard, they are just fussy about heat and water at the end. How to sow rockmelon and honeydew, how many fruit to leave on a vine and how to pick at peak sweetness.

A cucumber grown up a trellis is cleaner, straighter and easier to pick than one sprawled on the ground. How to sow, train, water and harvest cucumbers in an Australian summer.

Sweet corn is wind pollinated, so a short fat block beats a long thin row every time. Here is how to sow it, feed it, water it at the right moment and pick every cob at its sweetest.

Learn how to grow tomatoes from seed with this back-to-basics tutorial. The best gardening tips to growing tomatoes in your own garden.

Capsicums and chillies from seed Capsicums and chillies are close relatives grown for different ends, and they want the same things: warmth, a long...

Why cucumbers turn bitter Planting cucumbers beside sunflowers does not make them sweeter. Bitterness comes from cucurbitacins, natural compounds t...

Prepare your garden Put the plant support in the bed before you sow. Most squash can be grown upright, which saves space and keeps the leaves off t...

Okra in the Australian garden Abelmoschus esculentus, or okra, is an increasingly popular summer vegetable here. It usually starts setting pods abo...