Hello from S/E Australia

[Lorena]

Hello All - I live in a medium sized town, about 1 1/2 hours north of Melbourne, Australia. We have a largish garden comprising of vegetable patches and native plants & tree. It's suffering at the moment due to drought/intense heatwaves, but I've just sown the Autumn crop, and very much look forward to watching the garden turn green again. Interesting how here in this part of Oz, winter is a much more productive growing season than summer.

We're avid greenies in spirit, but have been somewhat moderate in lifestyle. We're trying to get back to a more sustainable way of life.

Looking forward to sharing ideas and inspiration here on the forums.

Lorena

[Millymollymandy]

Hello Lorena and welcome! I hope you aren't too close to where the fires were.

[john]

Hi Lorena and welcome, I'm also sorry to hear about so many people loosing their lives. and their way of life because of the drought situation.
With this in mind please visit my website as I grow all my things in waste plastic containers to help reduce them going to landfill sites.
And to help save lives in a drought or flood situation like you are having, but I need people like you to try it out to see if it works for them. Whilst I know it will work in the UK with the weather we have, I need people like you to try it out in other countries.
You did say that you already grow things in your garden, so it would be good to know what you can grow using my water recycling system. thank you.
I will look forward to your reply as others in other countries might read this post too. All the very best, may you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John.J.R.P. (recycling)

[Lorena]

Hi MillyMollyMandy - Thanks. We were close enough to be nervous, as everyone was, but were very lucky. My parents came closer - the fire coming two blocks away from their house - and they live fairly central to a very large town. It has been huge tragedy for so many people. It has certainly been a big wake up call, and there are some interesting discussions flying around about burning off (for fuel reduction), risks of living the bush 'lifestyle' etc. Australians will never look at living in the bush the same way again! We live on the edge of a tinder-dry forest, and have since revised our fire plan: it now stand at "Get OUT, at the slightest chance of fire." I always thought we'd have time to get away when we knew a fire was coming, but some of these fires were traveling at 120km per hour. How do you escape from that? You don't.

John - your growing system look fascinating. Will take a closer look after the school run. Or walk. ;-)

[MuddyWitch]

Welcome to ISH, Lorena

What exactly do you grow in the Winter? Being an ignorant Pom, I've no idea what your growing conditions are like though, so please feel free to treat me like a five year old kid with your answers!

MW

[Lorena]

Hi MuddyWitch - We grow pretty much anything that's not affected by frost. The winter temperature in our region hovers around 10 degrees C (50F) during the day, and drops to just below freezing at night. No snow, ever, and usually plenty of sunshine even in winter. If we're lucky we get just enough rain to not need to water much in winter. We're on fairly strict water restrictions, so can only use town water for a total of 2 hours a week. All other watering is done with buckets after a bath or shower. Which is why the summer garden struggles. We've only managed to successfully grow tomatoes, eggplant (aubergine), kale, zucchini and peppers this summer.

So our Winter crop is usually something along the lines of: broccoli, cauliflowers, silverbeet, root vegies (carrots, beetroot, turnips, etc), some hardier types of lettuce & spinach, a carry-over patch of broadbeans for spring.... and a few herbs of course.

Lorena