The first koel of summer has called, the first mosquito has bitten and the first dust storm has sprinkled Brisbane red ochre. While I’m out there watering, counting every drop as it falls onto the crisped ground, thunderstorm clouds are full of promise yet lacking in rain. It’s the first day of crematoria, south east Queensland’s flexible new season, that bridges that rigid, neat European concept of spring and summer.
Category: Water
Using Every Drop More Than Once
The last thing we want is for any water to go down the drain. By mid-morning today, heavy showers filled our 21,000 litre rainwater tank. It’s starting to overflow into our network of drainage pipes, which soak the soil deeply from 70 cm down and below. When this network has done its job the subsoil…
Autumn Harvest And Wild Weather
We’ve just enjoyed a good picking of autumn crops from the garden On Friday I planted out the mangelwurzel seedlings in their final positions. We ate the tender, leafy thinnings which taste like silverbeet in a stir fry. Damo provided sugar syrup for the honeybees, which aren’t foraging in this wild weather. The native honeybee…
“Queensland Gardeners Too Dumb To Grow” – Minister
In a recent guide, ‘Waterwise Queensland: Gardening with greywater’*, published on 26th April 2008, Queensland minister for Natural Resources and Water, the Honourable Craig Wallace hopes to popularise grey water in home gardens. During the ongoing drought in SE Qld, home gardeners have grabbed their buckets and answered government calls to reduce their mains water…
Climate Change Flora For Brisbane
This stocktake was completed two days ago and it helps me answer some of your FAQ’s:
Queensland Minister ‘Greys’ Grey Water
Here’s an open letter I wrote to the Hon. Craig Wallace, Qld Minister for Water: Dear Minister, Re: Media Release: ‘Greywater guide gives green tips for Queensland Gardeners’, 26.4.08. A copy of your media release was forwarded to me from the office of Queensland Conservation. I urge you to withdraw this publication before you mislead…
Bellis On The BBC’s Radio 4
An interview will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week discussing the water saving aspects of ‘Bellis’. Jeff is particularly pleased as Radio 4 is the home of such favourite cultural icons as the Shipping Forecast and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…Yes, he can be quite strange at times. The Sunparched Country website…
Water – Decisions And Dilemmas
Jerry talks about the hard decisions he’ll have to make in the productive garden if the summer rains fail again…
Level 6 Watering Restrictions
The Queensland government, and the Water Commission in particular, continue as the state’s arch water wasters… People who grow food at home are not exempt from watering restrictions. Some of us do this to save money so we can repay our mortgages.
Gardening In ‘New Summer’
October 2007 is the month that Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year, advised that in 2005 the concentration of CO2 equivalent in the atmosphere passed 450 ppm. Also this month a German study revealed that we passed Peak Oil in 2006. I can think of few more momentous happenings for human civilisation. Certainly for human…
Investing In Water Security
Level Five watering restrictions came into force in Brisbane this week. On average, each person in Brisbane uses about 198 litres of water per day. Brisbane City Council wants to reduce this to approximately 140 litres of water per day. This target will be hard to achieve as we are entering our long, dry season…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 