We’ve had a wonderful autumn here in Brisbane. Warm, sunny, moist and unusually calm weather has given me excellent growing conditions.

For the first autumn since moving to Queensland in 2003, this gardener has hardly had to worry about watering: the Chinese celery is particularly fine, and my Greater Celandine is flourishing in conditions equivalent to a warm, wet English summer.

The garden is one wall to wall worm farm, the organic lawn is soft and springy underfoot, and my cocoyams are visibly growing by the day. With all the digging, mulching, pruning, sowing and feeding done, I even had enough spare time to feed and mulch all our street trees.

Things have changed – and grown – quite a bit since this picture was taken by Henk Horchner, in August 2007. In my living ‘laboratory’ I’ve had a few acclimatisation successes I’ll be sharing with our visitors this weekend, showing how gardeners can adapt crops to suit their local conditions, staying one step ahead of Global Warming.

Last minute bookings can be made through Australia’s Open Garden Scheme.

Jerry Coleby-Williams
12th May 2010