It is possible to grow vegetables, even when you have to limit your water use - even if there is plenty of rain and water, the following tips can help conserve water which reduces your water bill and prevents us running out of water again after the rains.

• Choose your vegetables to grow in 3 layers - a ground cover (pumpkin, cucumber, strawberries, etc) in around medium crops (lettuce, eggplant, carrots, etc) underneath some tall plants (tomatoes, corn, etc). When you water the garden, water falling of each layer will water the roots for all 3 plants, the ground cover reduces weeds and evaporation and the taller plants will shelter the shorter ones from the sun and wind.
• shade young and vulnerable plants - hang some shade cloth, drape some gauze material over them, have some other plants in front of the garden
• add home-made compost to your garden between your crops to ensure the soil is nutrient rich and a good composition
• use liquid fertilizers rather than solid ones as this forms an addtional source of moisture as well as being utilised by plants more quickly
• keep the garden weed free so the plants aren’t competing for what water there is
• mulch the garden- organic sugar cane is great, as is the remains of your last vegetable crop and other garden prunings

Posted: December 19th, 2007 under gardening, saving water.
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It may not be the most glamorous job, but weeding your garden is important.

Any weeds growing near your plants will compete for whatever water is available so your plants get less water. Pull out the weeds, and your plants get more water. Simple!

Once your gardenis weeded, add more mulch and possibly plant a groundcover to reduce teh numner of weeds coming back.

Posted: December 18th, 2007 under gardening, saving water.
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Using commercial pesticides in your garden may be useful for getting rid of pests - although they don’t always work properly and most need to be reapplied regularly.

But commercial pesticides can have various disadvantages to them:

• they are often toxic so need to be stored and used away from children and pets
• they can contaminate the soil
• they can be washed into our water systems - killing organisms in those systems and resulting in polluted creeks rivers and oceans
• it took a lot of energy and resources to make and package and transport the pesticide to your garden

So what are the alternatives?

• leave the bugs alone - not all of them are harmful to the plants anyway
• try companion planting - various plants and herbs are natural repellents
• use organic pesticides - we’ll add some recipes to this blog in coming weeks
• manually remove the bugs - time consuming but leaves no residue and gets you out in the garden for some fresh air!

Posted: December 16th, 2007 under gardening, nature's gift.
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Watering plants sounds pretty easy and obvious, so why would we blog about it?

Because we have seen so many people water inefficiently, we think there is a need for people to learn how to best water their gardens.

For one thing, aim any water at the soil and roots of the plants. This way the water reaches the area where it is needed and less is lost to evaporation and wind. Water under the entire plant, not just around the central stem as roots generally spread out as far (or further) than the branches.

With water restrictions limiting how often people without tanks can water, deep watering is often the practice now. But as a reminder, we’ll just say that most plants will do better with few, deep waters than frequent shallow watering. Plants in pots and vegetables may well need more frequent waters though.

Posted: December 11th, 2007 under gardening.
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Like for any burn, the first thing to do with sunburn is put it under running cold water to pull out the heat of the burn.

I hate to admit that our daughter got sunburnt last week - she was sunscreened but her top rode up as she rode her bike and foudn the spot we had missed. Instead ofputting her in a cold shower, we stood her in the middle of a garden bed and hosed her back It helped her sunburn and watered some plants - so although we technically watered the garden out of restriction times, it was better than putting her in the shower.

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under gardening, general, saving water.
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When preparing a new garden bed, make it easier for water to reach plant roots every time they are watered or rained upon.

As you turn over the soil and mix in compst, lay out a length of slotted pipe under the soil. Slotted pipe is a sturdy but flexible pipe with small slots or holes along its length.

One end of the pipe needs to angle up and sit about 10 cm above the soil surface when the bed is finished. Each time it rains or you water the garden, water will go into the pipe.

By burying the pipe under the soil, any water in the pipe will seep into the soil around the roots of your plants. This encoruages roots to grow down which makes for stronger plants.

It also means that water is not on the hot surface which means less will eveaporate and be lost.

Of course, you can also do this in old garden beds when you are working on them but it is easiest to add the pipe when there are no plants to manoever around.

Posted: December 3rd, 2007 under collecting water, gardening.
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There is a variety of materials you can use to mulch your garden. To some extent, which material you use is a matter of personal preference - which do you think looks best in your garden?

However, there are reasons for and against certain mulch materials that are worth considering.

One form of mulch is the use of rocks or pebbles - commonly white stones are spread on a garden bed, but other colours and styles are increasingly in availability and popularity.

A distinct advantage of using rocks is that water will trickles around the sides of the rock and move onto the soil below, whereas some organic mulches absorb some of the rain and prevent it reaching the soil straight away. Water will also condense on the rock surfaces and again trickle down to the soil.

Rocks do not break down like organic mulches (they do break down, but it will take a lot, lot longer!) so you will not have to replenish your mulch anywhere near as often as for other mulches.

A major disadvantage to rock mulches is that the rocks can get in the way when you are gardening. To add a new plant, for instance, you would need to push aside the rocks far enough to dig the hole and pile the dirt; leave too many rocks near the hole and you will loose mulch into the hole. Of course, other mulch can also get in the hole but as it can improve the soil this isn’t such a nuisance.

The rocks will also end up across your lawn to be thrown up by a lawn mower, or just generally played with and thrown by your children.

When new, a rock mulch looks very neat and even pretty. After a while, the rocks can become dirty and less well distributed (especially if you have children and/or pets!) so consider the long term look as well before deciding.

If you like the look and don’t want to mulch or garden often, a rock mulch may be a good choice for you.

Posted: November 29th, 2007 under gardening.
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To give your plants a slow but steady source of water, you can make your own drip watering systems. These can sustain your garden if you are going away for a few days or for plants that need watering more often that your restrictions or time will allow.

Simply collect some plastic drink bottles (bottles from milk, soft drink, sauces, cordials, etc) and make a few small holes in the bottom (these form air holes later).

 Dig a small hole next to or between your plants.

Fill the container with water and tip it upside down into the hole.

This way, water will also reach the root area and encourage deeper growth.

For longer trips away, do the same thing but cut off the bottom of the container altogether. Keep a lid on the container but put nail holes in it to slow down the water flow from the bottle. Each time it rains or the garden is watered, the containers are refilled.

The same concept can be achieved with tin cans, old buckets, pieces of pipe and so on - use whatever is handy. You may even be able to find somethign that looks quirky and attractive in your garden as well as practical!

Posted: November 28th, 2007 under gardening, green products.
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For one reason or another, we often want to add new plants to our gardens. During the drought however, many of us are reluctant to put in plants that will die for lack of water.

Obviously, your choice of plants is different if you expect little rain and water compared to someone living in a wet area, so choose plants that are likely to survive dry climates. That doesn’t mean you can’t grow vegetables, fruits or flowers, however, not does everything have to be native to Australia.

So here are some quick tips for helping your new plants survive and thrive…

• prepare the soil beforehand - mix in compost, aerate the soil and add some water absorbing crystals 
• only plant when it is likely to rain, and you can expect a reasonable amount of rain for the next few months (so now may not be a good time unless you have a huge water storage available)
• group plants together so they can hep protect each other from water loss - this includes avoiding straight lines with rows of soil in between
• plan your garden so that plants needing more water (such as vegetables) are together and closest to the house so if you need to carry out cooking or drinking water, you won’t have as far to carry it
• water deeply after planting (and for the following waters) to encourage the plants to grow and establish good roots
• feed them well for the first few months, too, to encourage growth
• mulch them well as soon as they are planted, and maintain the mulch over the months

Encouraging good growth straight away will develop a strong and healthy plant, a plant better able to withstand tough conditions later on.

Posted: November 26th, 2007 under gardening.
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With the drought on everyone’s mind, many people are reluctant to plant fruit trees in case they won’t be able to water them enough.

Obviously, growing fruit at home has multiple advantages - its cheaper, the fruit has a smaller footprint (i.e. there is no transportation or production cost to the environment), you know the fruit is chemical free and you have a beautiful tree to look at and for shade.

So can we still plant and grow fruit trees in the drought?

Yes, we can. I once heard Jackie French talk about her orchard of hundreds of trees which she hasn’t watered in years yet still produces huge amounts of fruit - and temperatures reach the high 40s where she lives.

So how can you grow fruit with minimal water? Start with preparing your soil - lots of compost and aeration will hold more moisture than compacted old soil. Adding water saving crystals is also a good idea (although I don’t think Jackie does that.) Then mulch the area to maintain more moisture.

Most importantly, plant the trees in groups to create a grove of trees. By having trees in groups rather than in rows, the trees will help each other. The canopy of touching branches will reduce evaporation out of the grove and will collect all rain that falls onto the leaves.

Other than when planting and establishing the trees, you shouldn’t need to water them very often if at all. Then you will not only have beautiful fruit to eat but will be reducing your environmental footprint, too.

Posted: November 20th, 2007 under gardening.
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