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…

“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…

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…

A Close Shave With Frost During Ongoing Drought: Winter 2007

“What a lot of weather we’re having,” was something my Great Aunt Florence, a one-time Land Army girl, and someone as softly spoken as Lady Bracknell (of ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’) used to say. And we have had a lot of interesting, weather-related events. In the Murray-Darling, irrigated horticulture usually provides 40% of Australia’s fresh…

Jerry’s ‘Bellis Garden’

The Gardening Australia expo, Brisbane, was a big success. Better plants, better displays and keen gardeners determined to succeed, whatever drought may bring. We were there too, mostly at ‘Jerry’s Bellis garden’ display. I’d like to say a big thank you to Expertise Events – to Gary, Dawn, Matt and Rudi – the team who…

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…

Qld’s Leadership Crisis Fuels Water Emergency

Residents in SE Qld have every right to be frightened about the likelihood that they will run out of drinking water early in 2008 if we don’t get sufficient rain. The drought is as real as Climate Change but our greatest crisis is that of leadership. Here’s one example in an edited extract from ABC…

Celebrating Three Years Of Drought

Planted in September 2004 the plants in our front garden were watered for six weeks to establish them. Apart from the hedge and two potted plants, the garden hasn’t been watered since.