Green fingers or global warming? – Story: Marie Pietersz, Melbourne: Photo credits: Dirckze

No, you are not seeing things. It is actually a papaw tree laden with fruit, thriving in the Melbourne cold, where normally it would call sunny northern Australia home.

Springvale residents Aubrey and Patsy Dirckze are avid gardeners of all things tropical. Reminds them of growing up in Sri Lanka and being able to enjoy some Sri Lankan cuisine in Melbourne, they tell me, smiling.

“I always loved gardening, but I didn’t have the right conditions to do so in Sri Lanka, due to full-time work and smaller garden space,” says Aubrey, “but coming to Melbourne I was able to make those dreams come true, with my own home and a nice sized garden.”

Aubrey reflects on his papaw tree story: “One day I was eating a ripe papaw I purchased from the Springvale market and spat out some seeds under my front pergola which has a clear polycarbonate roof. Very soon a lot of plants sprouted and a couple of them ‘took off’. The first and biggest one was a male plant, I found out, and so I cut it down. The next plant to ‘take off’ was a female, which kept growing taller till it reached the height of the pergola, bearing a good crop of papaws.”

Aubrey researched online and found out about air-layering (wrapping moist soil around a branch to promote root growth) to make sure that he is able to propagate this unusual specimen. “The tree is three years old and stays dormant in the winter and the fruit ripen in the summer,” Aubrey says.

Aubrey attributes his success at growing papaws in Melbourne to his horticultural skills as well as a little help from Mother Nature and the position of the plant – an enclosed space, which keeps out the wind and frost.

Aubrey’s garden is home to other exotic vegetables: bitter melon, snake beans, tomatoes, Sri Lankan cucumbers and okra, and a three-fruit bearing citrus which produces limes, mandarins and oranges on the one tree, to name a few. He is also an experienced bonsai grower.

This generous gardener is offering vegetable seeds to other gardeners who want them at no cost. He is also offering tree grafting services to those who are looking for some help in this area, also at no cost.

“I get pleasure in giving it away,” Aubrey says, and lots of lucky friends can attest to being gifted with lots of vegetables from Aubrey’s garden. “And I help him,” chirps Patsy, to which Aubrey responds, “and promotes my garden on social media, and says ‘thank you’ to all the passers-by who are very impressed and comment on what they see,” they tease each other.

Genuine enquirers only can write to pat.aubrey@hotmail.com.