Imagine stepping into your backyard to pick lemony leaves for tonight’s fish, a handful of tangy berries for dessert, and glossy green leaves with a flavour halfway between spinach and salt. Now imagine every one of those plants is a tough, beautiful Australian native that has been feeding people on this continent for tens of thousands of years. That is the promise of a bush tucker garden, and choosing the best bush tucker plants to grow is easier than you might think. It is edible landscaping with a distinctly Australian accent, and it might be the most rewarding garden bed you ever plant.
Before we dig in, a respectful note: bush foods carry deep cultural significance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who hold knowledge of these plants stretching back millennia. Growing them at home is a lovely way to appreciate that heritage; buying plants and products from Indigenous-owned nurseries and suppliers where you can is an even better one.
The Best Bush Tucker Plants to Grow at Home
These species are widely available at native nurseries (and increasingly at mainstream garden centres), forgiving to grow, and genuinely useful in the kitchen. Expect to pay $8 to $25 per plant depending on size. And you do not need a big backyard: lemon myrtle, finger lime, river mint and midyim berry all grow happily in large pots on a sunny balcony or courtyard, so renters and unit dwellers can build a respectable bush food collection too.
Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)
If you grow only one bush food, make it this one. The leaves carry an intense, clean lemon flavour that outshines lemongrass, perfect for teas, shortbread, fish and stir-fries. It grows as a dense shrub or small tree from Sydney to Cairns, and in cooler areas it thrives in a large pot moved to a sheltered sunny spot in winter. Pick leaves year round and dry the surplus.
Finger Lime (Citrus australasica)
The famous citrus caviar of restaurant menus, growing wild in the rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. The elongated fruit is filled with pearls that pop with tart flavour. It is a thorny, slow-growing shrub that does beautifully in a pot, needs the same care as any citrus (regular water, seasonal feeding), and tolerates light frost once established. Grafted plants around $30 to $45 are worth the extra cost for earlier fruit.
Warrigal Greens (Tetragonia tetragonioides)
Australia’s answer to spinach, sprawling happily over sandy soil where lettuce would sulk. Blanch the leaves briefly before eating to reduce their natural oxalates, then use exactly as you would spinach. It self-seeds generously, handles coastal salt spray, and one $6 punnet will keep a family in greens for most of the year.
Midyim Berry (Austromyrtus dulcis)
A knee-high, soft-foliaged groundcover from the Queensland and New South Wales coast that produces speckled white berries with a sweet, gingery blueberry flavour. Children strip these bushes bare, which tells you everything. It grows in sun or part shade, tolerates dry spells, and makes a gorgeous edible border plant.
Native River Mint (Mentha australis)
A softer, spearmint-like herb found along waterways across eastern Australia. Like all mints it wanders, so give it a pot or a contained damp corner. Wonderful in teas, with lamb, or muddled into summer drinks.
Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia)
Old man saltbush is the workhorse of arid gardens: silver foliage, extreme drought tolerance, and leaves that fry into moreish salty chips or wrap around fish on the barbecue. It doubles as an excellent informal hedge in Adelaide, Perth and inland towns where thirstier hedging fails.
Davidson’s Plum (Davidsonia species)
For subtropical gardens, this slender rainforest tree produces striking deep purple, intensely sour plums that make the best jam and sauce you will ever taste. It suits a shaded, sheltered spot and even grows well indoors while young.
Matching Bush Foods to Your Climate
Bush tucker spans every Australian climate, so shop by region rather than grabbing whatever the label promises. In temperate zones from Sydney to Adelaide, lemon myrtle, finger lime, warrigal greens, midyim berry and native mint all perform well. Cool-climate gardeners in Melbourne, Hobart and the highlands should look at mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), whose leaves and berries pack genuine heat, along with river mint and warrigal greens; keep frost-tender species potted and mobile. In the subtropics and tropics, finger limes, Davidson’s plum, native ginger (Alpinia caerulea) and lemon myrtle romp away. And in dry inland or Mediterranean climates, saltbush, quandong and native thyme are the naturals.
Designing an Edible Native Bed
A bush tucker garden follows the same design logic as any productive planting: tall anchors at the back, mid-storey shrubs in the middle, groundcovers and herbs at the front where you can pick without trampling. A lemon myrtle or Davidson’s plum makes the anchor, finger lime and saltbush fill the middle, and midyim berry, warrigal greens and river mint carpet the edges. The result looks like a lush native garden to the casual eye and a pantry to yours, which is exactly the trick we explored in our post on edible landscaping and growing food beautifully.
Care is refreshingly simple. Most bush foods prefer well-drained soil improved with a little compost, a 5 centimetre mulch layer, and a low-phosphorus native fertiliser once or twice a year (rainforest species like finger lime and Davidson’s plum are the exception and enjoy richer feeding). Water new plants deeply through their first summer, then ease back. As a bonus, the flowers of lemon myrtle, midyim and saltbush hum with native bees and beneficial insects, making the whole bed a pollinator magnet that fits neatly into the sustainable approach from our eco-friendly gardening practices guide.
Three Easy Ways to Cook Your First Harvest
The fastest way to fall in love with a bush tucker garden is to eat from it in the first month. Start with lemon myrtle tea: three or four fresh leaves, scrunched and steeped in boiling water for five minutes, with a little honey. It is fragrant enough to convert the most sceptical household member. Next, try saltbush chips, frying whole leaves in a centimetre of hot oil for ten seconds until they crisp, then draining and scattering them over grilled meat or roast potatoes.
For something more substantial, wilt a big handful of blanched warrigal greens into a garlic butter pasta or a weekend quiche, exactly as you would spinach. Once those three are in your rotation, the more adventurous recipes follow naturally: finger lime pearls over oysters or gin and tonic, Davidson’s plum jam on sourdough, and mountain pepper rubbed into a Sunday roast. None of it requires cheffy skill, just a garden ten steps from the kitchen.
Harvesting and Using Your Bush Tucker
- Start small in the kitchen: Bush food flavours are concentrated. One or two lemon myrtle leaves flavour a whole pot of tea; a single finger lime dresses four oysters.
- Dry and store: Lemon myrtle, saltbush and mountain pepper all dry beautifully. A $2 op-shop jar of home-dried lemon myrtle makes a brilliant gift.
- Only eat what you know: Grow named, labelled plants from reputable nurseries and never forage unknown species. Correct identification matters with any wild food.
- Share the story: These plants come with history. Learning the local Indigenous names and uses for what you grow adds a whole extra layer to the harvest.
Australian restaurants have spent the past decade rediscovering these ingredients, and now home gardeners are catching up fast, with native food plants among the strongest sellers at many nurseries. A bush tucker garden gives you flavours no supermarket stocks, plants that shrug off drought, and a daily connection to the oldest food culture on Earth, all from a corner of an ordinary Australian backyard. Start with a lemon myrtle and a punnet of warrigal greens this weekend, and let the garden grow from there. Your barbecues will never be the same again.
