I planted my first pomegranate about 20 years ago, mostly because I liked the name. By the next winter I was hooked: bright orange spring flowers, butter yellow autumn leaves and fat red fruit that the parrots loved. I even had a go at making grenadine syrup, which is good and almost worth the effort.

Ten years ago Noel fed me pomegranate salad, crunchy half ripe seeds, sweet and sour at the same time. I put in six more trees that winter. I have since discovered pomegranate molasses, stunning instead of vinegar in salad dressing or to add piquancy to sauces.

Two decades ago ''pomegranate'' was about all you got on the label, but as our food tastes have matured so has the availability of different varieties of pomegranate, all ripening at slightly different times, some grown for juice, some for salads, some all-purpose and some strictly ornamental (i.e. they don't set fruit).

The various varieties grow to different sizes, too. My first pomegranate tree, still happily fruiting, is a semi-dwarf one that grows to about two metres high and wide. There are smaller, fully dwarf varieties too, perfect for growing in pots.

Read the label, Mabel. It will tell you not just who your pomegranate is, but what it is best used for and where it is best grown.

Pomegranate is one of the few fruits that can be grown anywhere in Australia, as long as it has fertile, well-drained soil, enough moisture, either from rain or watering, no snow, or harsh dry or cold winds, though you can (must) provide shelter from the latter. Once established they'll fruit even in severe drought, and flower and look decent too.

Don't bother about pruning, except to tidy it or cut out dead wood. Plant the trees about two metres apart for dwarf varieties to four metres apart for full-sized trees, or between one and two metres apart if you are growing them for a pomegranate hedge – thick enough once established to keep in horses and cattle.

Pick the fruit from mid-summer onwards for salads or as soon as they are plump enough. Colour is not necessarily a guide as some varieties are bright red, others mostly yellow with a red blush. As the fruit becomes more mature, the seeds will become too hard to eat unless you want to risk breaking teeth but they will become juicier too.

The best way to tell if they are ready for juicing is to wait till the birds start eating them. Some fruit will probably split too, especially if the year has alternated between very wet and very dry, which is extremely tempting to the birds.

If you don't want to use the juice, the traditional way to eat them is to suck up the seeds with the red gel around them, then spit out the seeds and swallow the juice. This is messy, inelegant and fun, especially if you compete to see who can spit the seeds furthest. N.B. Do this outside and never on white carpet.

Possibly the best thing about growing pomegranates is that you can pick them or leave them, with no guilt whatsoever. The birds will eat them if you don't, with no risk of a gluggy mess below. And birds dangling from bare winter branches are just as beautiful as the glowing orange fruit.

Grenadine Syrup

Layer equal amounts of caster sugar and pomegranate seeds with their gel in a large bowl. Leave overnight, stirring a few times before you go to bed. The sugar will extract the juice from the gel and in the morning there'll be a thick red liquid in the bowl.

Strain off the juice, throw the seeds to the chooks and boil the juice for five minutes and bottle in sterilised bottles.

Use as a cordial with water or add to Tequila Sunrises, or make pink milkshakes (very good indeed) or pour a dash over ice cream. Keep in a cool place for up to a month. Freeze for longer periods. Throw out if it grows mouldy, bubbles or looks or smells different from what it was when it was first made.