Homely CapersSummer Australian Garden
It’s that time of year again.
Living in a semi-arid / sub tropical / tropical area there comes a time when the nice warm ‘spring days’ of plentiful growth turn into hot dry leaf scorching blast furnace days of 40+ degree celcius (104+F), all of this is prior to the “big wet” consisting of humidity and large storms that dump inches of rain every week.
It is somewhat disappointing and heart breaking to see your pride and joy wilting in the yard, especially when the local council sends out a letter saying that we should all be conserving water as there was no “big wet” last year.
I’m still smiling, as I’ve put in place a number of things to help drought proof my garden beds (Good old lawn… Lest we forget).
- In my yard mulch is king. At present the horse manure spread on top of hay and or shredded paper is working at the moment…
- I’ve found that shredded paper is a free, plentiful source of weed suppressing mulch for the garden (My fiance’s office makes the stuff by the ute load) . Simply spreading a layer of shredded paper ~10 to 30cm thick over the garden bed and covering the top with manure will help stop the moisture from the soil evaporating.
- Installing a drip irrigation system won’t even cost you $100 for a fairly large garden bed, you can place the drippers underneath the mulch right near the plants roots. You wont need to use as much water, and the plants get the water right where they need it.
- My yard is fenced by an 8ft galvinised iron (silver) fence. It’s great for privacy but the reflection of sunlight around the yard in summer buns the plants double time. I’ve gone and bought some shade cloth from Bunnings to hang on the fence until my bigger fence line plants get established. It looks kinda daggy at the moment, but it’s saving my plants from a beating. Those brush fence rolls do the same job and look great but are expensive.
What do you do in your garden to save your plants over the warmer months?
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3 Responses to “Summer Australian Garden”
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About Me
My name is Ben, and I'm a self confessed gardenoholic. My other interests include growing plants, looking at plants, drinking coffee and taking the odd photo. My wife thinks I'm mad, but is getting into the whole garden thing, possibly going mad as well. In my spare time I'm a geologist (must be something about dirt and rocks...)- Get me on Twitter
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Great post with doable tips. I am in South Africa. We have had a good winter with lots of rain for a change. The dams are all at 100%. That is good news. However, we still need to be careful with water, so your tips will come in handy. Sounds like you have a good system going. I will try it.
I’m in Oz too – on water restrictions – not the best time to be landscaping and planting new gardens; but exactly what we are doing! We are drought proofing by planting a native garden (all water-wise plants) for a start, using soil-wetter when planting and mulch-mulch-mulching! Our local dump sells a trailer load of mulch (which they create from the green waste brought there) for a pittance and it is breaking down beautifully as well as keeping the moisture in. All of a sudden there are even worms in there! Bonus was a freak tomato plant which grew out of the mulch and is giving us the most amazing crop of cherry tomatos, with us giving it absolutely no care whatsoever!
Some really great tips, I am always going backwards and forwards to Oz and England, very different climates! Great tips