Finger Limes and Good Times

Within my first few days with Peta in the NSCF Nursery, I made a wonderful discovery. Finger limes, a native Australian bush plant, produce a small fruit who's inside looks like caviar, but tastes like a sweet lime! I immediately fell in love with the plant and it's delicious fruit but soon learned that they were a dangerous plant to have around. Peta and I set out to plant clippings of the plant in order to sell them in the nursery. This is usually a fairly easy, if not boring, task that involves cutting a few branches off and cutting them down to allow them to sprout roots and grow a new plant. Finger limes, however, have an extremely sharp defence mechanism. Covered in small thorns, the plant does not make it easy to do up cuttings or to enjoy it's delicious fruit.

Saturday at the farm was much less wet than the previous day. I was able to get a handle on the register and help Peta prepare some plants for an herb show that was happening in Brisbane the following day. Planting finger limes was by far the highlight of my day but I was beginning to notice that my knowledge of plants was starting to grow. I could answer customer questions about how to keep possums out of the garden (Plant dogsbane around the edges as it is a natural deterrent.), how to best grow seed potatoes (Build up a bed and when you see the green shoots begin to spring up, cover them again until the the mound is about a meter tall. They are ready to harvest when the tops begin to brown off and it should produce about 20 kg of potatoes from 1 kg of seeds.), and how to break down hard soil and lower the pH (Gypsum, but it works slowly.). I was surprised about how much I had learned from Peta just from simple observation. A wonderful source of knowledge, I am excited to continue my work with her in the coming weeks.

A red finger lime is hiding in the middle of all these leaves and thorns. So hard to reach without a few cuts!