Growing watercress in Canberra: Anna Roberts shares her experiments

A runner-up in our recent spring giveaway, Anna Roberts, of Curtin, is growing watercress for the first time. She bought the tiny seeds on eBay from people in a climate similar to that of Canberra and did some online reading, which said the plant needed to be kept very wet. She put a few trough-shaped pots in a polystyrene box with about 5 centimetres of water after soaking the free-draining growing mix.

The watercress is slow growing and Anna is mollycoddling it, as an experiment. She has been changing the water every two-to-three days and feeding the seedlings with a very weak solution of Thrive.

The watercress was kept in the shade but the 10-millimetre babies looked a bit leggy so she has tried sunning them for a few hours in the morning. The plant prefers shade and cooler weather.

Meanwhile, I was browsing at Rodney's Nursery and a staff member there found a small Oasis pot of watercress (Nasturtium officinale), which I bought . Friends have been sampling the small, green rounded leaves and everyone likes the bitey, peppery taste. My plant was potted on into a larger pot and is kept in the shade by the kitchen door so it is well watered. Watercress can be a problem in waterways and you need to know where it has been grown because it can harbour liver fluke.

Watercress contains phytonutrients and vitamins, and medical tests done in the past three years have confirmed its value in the diet. For one trial, reported online, women aged 23-58 ate 80 grams of uncooked watercress a day for four weeks in salads, sandwiches, to garnish cooked pasta and whizzed into smoothies.

Anna Roberts hopes to make watercress pesto with cashews, garlic, evoo and parmesan and a watercress, home-grown kale and extra-virgin coconut oil soup.

Top tomatoes

The Melbourne Cup runneth over so it is time for Canberrans to plant tomato seedlings in the ground. This season, if you did so in early October, you are probably celebrating.

Rupert Summerson and Janet Hughes, of Barton (Kitchen Garden July 2013),have Canberra's most beautiful heritage quince tree and she sent me photos of this year's blossoms.

Janet also said that Rupert orders tomato seedlings from Iris Philp in Murrumbateman. They find that dark-skinned tomatoes suffer in really high temperatures; some varieties split more if it rains; small, yellow pear-shaped ones do well regardless; bright red and yellow tomatoes are the biggest temptation to currawongs, whereas black krim and green zebras are less prone to probing beaks.

Horticulturist Iris Philp has been raising heirloom tomatoes for the Murrumbateman Field Day for a decade. This year the event was held on October 18 and she sold thousands of plants. There were 29 varieties raised from seeds from Eden Seeds, Green Patch and Phoenix. She starts them off at the beginning of August in trays of 100 cells with one seed in each, and they go from a heat bed in a small glasshouse to a plastic tunnel. She lost a lot to very cold weather this year.

Native plants are her main line but once a year, she offers the tomatoes at the field day. There is a mailing list for regulars to place orders in early October by email to: iris@idpnursery.com.au and she arranges a meeting point in Canberra for their collection. Watermin Drillers, which installs country bores, buys one of everything.

People ask Iris what her favourite tomatoes are. She says it depends what you are looking for – in-ground, cold-tolerant types so you can have tomatoes by Christmas; cherry tomatoes, which are popular for a graze; bush-type tigerella; gold dust, a strong orange with good taste; fleshy French St Pierre; deep-red daydream with low acidity; or beefsteak ponderosa red.

Poppies ready to dance

During May there was a spectacular planting of "big red" geraniums/pelargoniums with blood-red poppies in front of Rodneys Nursery as a flow-on from Anzac Day. A horticulturist on the staff said the trick was using Debco Provita effervescent tablets. Mark Ellis, of Debco-Scotts Australia, says the tablets were launched two years ago. There are Flower & Blossom and Vegetable & Herb combos with 20 tablets in each $5 tube. Let them help your poppies dance for Remembrance Day.

Spud rose

On June 10, I suggested you could raise a rose from a cutting by dipping its end in ground cinnamon and placing it in a hole drilled in half a potato buried in potting mix. I tried the experiment then went overseas. Upon return, the end of the rose had blackened and not struck but I must have failed to remove the eyes of the potato which is now shooting with vigour.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.