Your guide to Mother's Day delights in the garden

With so many of us sticking strictly to the social distancing rules gardens have never looked better around Australia,and Mother's Day is a chance to extend this success.

We’ve been busy filming a brand new series ofDelish,From Garden to Table in my backyard this past month,focusing on sharing knowledge on how to grow your own amazing-tasting produce at home.

The first couple of episodes have seen talented foodies Blake Proud and Caroline Taylor come over and take the produce and turn it into some incredible meals.

My garden is an eclectic mix of edible plants originating from places across the planet.

There’s a lot of mainstream staples coming through at the moment such as olives,lemons,limes both Tahitian and Kaffir,oranges including my prized blood oranges,along with some more unusual harvests.

The more exotic highlights include dragonfruit,the richly coloured red form which is simply sublime,and the weird-looking custard apple,full of antioxidants and nutrients.

I’m particularly fond of the quince which has been getting turned into some delectable deserts as well as tamarillos,sometimes known as tree tomatoes,that are savoury,not sweet,and superb when served with cheese,crackers and wine.

Each week we show off amazing flavours that come from herbs and spices I grow at home;in some cases,plants that are incredibly good for you like the natural sugar alternative stevia which is 30 times sweeter than sugar but has no calories.

It’s not a plant to put into the garden at the moment,more one you harvest. Another favour bomb favourite of mine is horseradish,the divine root of a perennial herb that's incredibly pungent.

If you love wasabi that comes with sashimi in Japanese meals,its more likely you love horseradish,which is the main ingredient in the packaged wasabi.

Of-course all of these are easy to grow at home and one great way to do it is with planter bowls which you can quite literally fill with a mix of plants and start harvesting a week later.

If you want to give mum a gift that shows you care in more ways than one grab a 30-centimetre bowl or pot and some premium potting mix.

I use Scotts Premium Naturals,a specialised mix completely natural potting mix boosted with a variety of natural nutritious ingredients that will have your plants pumping along.

For my perfect planter I grabbed a group of five plants;chilli,red mizuna – a type of Japanese mustard green – red mustard leaf,which is particularly fierym,and water or land cress,both absolute super foods with a peppery burn.

The idea behind this planter is to build your immune system up,to help relieve the symptoms of colds and flu and to warm you up from the inside out.

The average bowl or pot can hold as many as six plants and cramming them in together is actually a good thing as they compete against each other,producing huge amounts of foliage,which is what you want.

They are fiery,peppery and have a real burn factor so mixing them with other salads may cool the burn if you can handle the fire. Personally,adding them to cold meat,like roast beef in a white bread sandwich,remains my favourite and most simple way to enjoy them.

The trick is to harvest the bowls regularly and I suggest you make up two bowls which can be rotated in and out of the kitchen each week,allowing you to continuously harvest foliage resting one bowl long enough for more foliage to burst through just in time for the next week.

This isn’t just practical,it's beautiful and mum will love it,especially because it came from you with love,so give it try.

In episode one ofDelish,Blake Proud ofMy Kitchen Rules fame joined me and I showed him a stunning new blue fleshed potato that I’m growing at home.

Blake produced from the potatoes and leek in my garden an incredible version of potato and leek soup that was spicy and violet in colour. His recipe was to die for and I recommend that if you want a hearty delish meal you give it a go.