For those Down under

[Andy Hamilton]

As I was on my allotment earier I was thinking I wonder what NEv and the others in Australia and New Zealand are growing at the moment.

I know that you have better weather and not as harsh a winter in oz (is it as bad in New Zealand?) so do you grow winter veg or can you get away with growing stuff for longer that we can't?

[Wombat]

G'Day Mate,

Here in Sydney, usually my first spring vegies get planted out in September and I'll grow the cold weather stuff May to August, with some overlap! I suppose it is all about frost, we never get more than one or two degrees of frost so anything that is not too frost sensitive can be grown most times of the year, although growth slows down in our winter. Last year we got a late frost in late September which knocked my early tomatoes around a bit.

I tend to get the opposite problem and have fabricated a shade cloth cover to try and stop my lettuces from bolting! We have been getting 35 - 40Deg C almost daily for the last few weeks and with the Sydney humidity, it gets fairly wearing.

As far as east cast capitals goes, Melbourne is colder and stays cooler longer and Brisbane you can grow most things all year round. So it depends where you are, we have a big country here with a variety of climates.

Nev

[Shelle]

I have found this great site to use as a beginning guide for all my planting here on the mid north coast of AUS ...
http://www.organicdownunder.com/planting_guide.htm

I seem to have trouble also on the really hot days (which are pretty constant at the moment) when a lot of my plants fry & i have to nurse them bk from the brink

I have started growing green & red capsicum from seeds i dried out - the red ones seems to cope ok in the heat & are growing much taller & stronger than the green ones ... the green ones are all wilted by the time i get home from work - the green & red capsicum are planted together so there is not variation in conditions - going to have to figure out what to do before i loose them totally

[Boots]

Hi Andy,
Thanks for thinking of us down here.

I have never had frost here as I am pretty high, but lower areas have to watch for it sometimes. Heat is definately our biggest problem, and shadecloth is a bloody god send. It is as precious as gold...

At the mo, I have oranges and lemons coming on... Corn is holding up ok and capsicums and chillis go all year. Spuds are hardy too, and I grow them all year. Mmm... silver beet and celery is struggling... the heat just hammers it. Poor floppy looking stuff.

Lettuces wouldn't stand a chance here, right now. Tis so dry and hot...even the grass is struggling! Egg plant is hanging in there...

Rosellas are shooting too... an indigenous bract, that makes a brilliant jam. They are a red stemmed plant and just look great. I hope I can see them through the heat...

All the best to all.

[Andy Hamilton]

So heat is more of a major factor over there than frost by the sounds of things. Is there enough water to go around? I know that the most of the cities are on the coast, so do you get most of your mains water from there? - obviously treated first.

You must get hospipe bans pretty frequently. As I look out of the window now and see a grey, rainy, cold day outside it is pretty hard to imagine the sort of weather you are getting.

I am guessing that lots of herbs would do ok out there as they mostly orginate from the mediterrian countries.

[Magpie]

And it's different again, here in the South of NZ... we have good frosts, especially in the valley I live in, and a couple of days snow a year. Our Summers are mild though,(Sometimes a little too mild!) anything over 20 deg is hot here... I lived in Melbourne for about 9 years, so I know what hot is!! As a climate guide, we grow great stone and pip fruit, but I have also heard of someone here growing avocados, so a wide range of microclimates.

At the moment, I am growing lettuce, silverbeet, tomatoes (outside - all still green, but I am optimistic!) spuds, herbs, and my lemon in a pot has some baby lemons for the first time! Also one lonely runner bean plant - none of the others grew, nor did the french ones. Seems a common occurance here this year, speaking to other local gardeners.

[Wombat]

G'Day Mate,

In Sydney our water comes from dams in the surrounding area, Warragamba being the biggest. But we are in a long dry spell, although we get some rains, most is not in the catchment area and we are at about 40% capacity. Water restrictions are in force - no hosing of hard surfaces and watering the gardens only before 10 am and after 4 pm on Wednesdays and Sundays. Saving water is being pushed here a lot. We are looking at putting in a new 5000 litre water tank!

Nev

[Jessica]

Hi all down under, i was watching a program on the tv this morning called wild australia and was thinking how lucky nev is with all the wild animals that are over there,
in the program there was 500 roos living on a golf course and the hundreds of rainbow parrots that come in the park were poeple feed them honey milk and so much more i was trying to tell OH that we sell up and move down under to the land of wonder, but i think i would be going on my own.

jessie

[Wombat]

G'DAy Jess,

Yep best country in the world , but if you don't like hot and dry it can be a problem. We have lots of cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets that fly around of an afternoon making a racket, and we do ocaisonally get a kookaburra serenade. We are a bit too suburban for most of the larger wildlife, but we do get plenty of redback spiders and the odd funnelweb.

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

That's the wildlife I can do without! Do you have to wear gardening gloves all the time Nev?

[Shelle]

i don’t tend to wear gloves when i garden ... but am always cautious & on the look out ... they tend to be just as scared of me as i am of them!

in my little place we see mostly blue tongue lizards, kookaburras & fruit bats. Here are some pics i have taken recently ...

http://www.holotropik.com/Images/BlueTounge.jpg

http://www.holotropik.com/Images/Kookaburra.jpg

it is amazing to watch your little garden grow & all the wild life start to come back & enjoy it with you

[Kfish]

Douglas Adams was quoted once as saying that Australian animals could be classed as either poisonous, odd or sheep.

Really, if you don't go around sticking your hands into woodpiles and other dark, spidery looking places you'll be fine. Both redbacks and funnelwebs are more of a Sydney problem anyway.

Here in sunny Brisbane, the big problems are heat and lack of water. Stage 3 water restrictions are coming in soon, which means absolutely no sprinklers, drippers etc. Just buckets. Luckily, mine was always a survival of the fittest garden anyway.

Since it is a subtropical area, a lot of things can be grown year-round, including tomatoes! Small and delicate things do tend to fry.

[Wombat]

Well M3, I don't but probably should.

Shelle is right, they tend to be more scared of us etc. More of a problem are the wolf (sorry, not Wulf) spiders. There are plenty of them and the bite can cause creeping ulcers which are very slow to heal and possibly even systemic effects like kidney failure. but also they are shy and run the other way.

We have bloody big spiders that quite often come inside called huntsman spiders. They look ferocious but are harmless. A few weeks ago I was getting in the shower (sans glasses) and saw what I thought was a meduim size huntsman on the floor. So I completed my shower, intending to take it outside afterwards. Unfortunately on closer inspection (after the shower) it turned out to be a bloody big wolf spider! It was then captured and turfed outside.

There are still a number of Aussie spiders that are considered to be possibly nasty, but they don't know...................

Nev

[Muddypause]

There are still a number of Aussie spiders that are considered to be possibly nasty, but they don't know...................

You mean no one has lived long enough to tell anyone else?

[Shirley]

LOVE the pics Shelle....

I HATE spiders by the way - no way I'd be so into gardening etc if there were those nasties around