Welcome aboard

G'day cobber and how things go down under? For most of us here it is early autum but happy early spring to you! We will love hearing about things blooming when we're digging out from snow. I know Victoria is dealing with brushfires....hope that isn't affecting your region.
I have lots of aussie mates and kiwi buddies at a card playing site I visit. Always a breath of fresh air, please pull up a chair and enjoy the party.
We'll fill up the esky and crack a tinny for ya!
~di

Welcome. We've had others here from down under and always thoroughly enjoyed their posts and talk of life there. Glad you decided to join us.

Welcome to the party! As we make our way into winter, we'll be enjoying your posts & remembering that it's just now getting to be spring in Oz.

Hi Greth, and welcome. I was just reading about a new book by Martyn Rix on plants for dry gardening and he specifically mentioned south Australia. I grow only in containers and I'm thinking that will be the way I'll head next year...less getting out there in our hot muggy weather to water. Already have big healthy pots of Rosemary, Rue and Cardoon, plus Eucalyptus which I stool each year. I love the cool silvery foliage. I'll have a few bogs and water gardens in pots, too...from one extreme to the other...heh heh.

You mentioned 100+ temps and frost. Does it ever snow there? Actually I just realized I don't know if it snows anywhere in Australia... good grief! Anyway, welcome. I"m looking forward to learning what else I don't know about Australia. josh

Welcome!

Your watering mechanisms fascinate me. I experimented with rain barrels and drip irrigation this season and had amazing results myself.

You must just be gearing up for the growing season. Please continue to share details. You and your life sound intriguing.

Um trying to answer everyone at once...
It does snow occasionally in the hills near us, that is a newsworthy event, and some people rush up to see it, I have never seen snow in SA, lived here for all of my 40+ years. last time I saw snow would have been about 1991, when I visited Tasmania.
I wish it did look like early spring here, actually its been blistering hot and dry and feels like summer today - we had to put on the evap coolers and lie in the shade.Usually we would be having frosts until the end of October, but the weather is funny this year - driest winter on record, and highest temperatures for this time.
My perennials have only just sprouted from their winter dormancy to be met with full summer weather. There is a little bit of rain forecast for next week, otherwise it looks like a bad spring for the farmers.
No bushfires near here so far, there have been plenty around the place lately, and the fireban season has been started six weeks early because winter was so dry. I'm keeping fingers crossed and praying a lot, the last fire was within sight of our front gate. I've removed most of the grass and weeds close to the house, hopefully that helps.

Wecome to the Garden Party.
I hope you enjoy it.

Love hearing about your corner of the world.

So glad you are joining us :)

Please do keep us up-to-date on your gardens and the weather. It will be a pleasure to hear about summer while we are shivering from winter. I think I may be envious of your rosemary.

I hope you get the spring rains soon. Is there a weather system or pattern you use to help forecast?

Glad to have you here.

One thing I've learnt from international gardening forums is never to take things for granted. Rosemary is one of those plants which survive around abandoned farmhouses here, it's tough as old boots. Apparently it isn't a fan of snow though.
We do have an unusual lifestyle in some ways. Although we live within an hour's drive of the city of Adelaide, somehow basic services have passed us by, so we have no mains water or power - we have solar power, rainwater and bottled gas. Our electricity supply isn't huge, but we never have outages(we can always start the generator if it runs low) Hubby is working on building a wind generator and we have just bought extra solar panels and batteries, which should bring us up to an almost normal electricity supply. And the rainwater is far better quality than anything you get from a tap in town. This place also seems to be a black hole when it comes to radio or mobile phone reception. We get fuzzy black and white TV reception on some channels, but it would be almost good if hubby fixed the antenna so it isn't blowing in the wind!
Meldy, we just go by the Bureau's long range forecast, and it isn't looking good. The fire season starts this weekend, 6 weeks earlier than usual, water quotas have been cut for irrigators, and it looks like home gardeners will be hit with a further round of water restrictions.
We have only been at this place for about 3 years, I've been pregnant or otherwise encumbered with small child for most of that time, and I had to start my garden from bare sheep paddock, but I hope to build it up to be a display garden which shows what can be done with little or no water. It's all a great experiment, and yes I do have things turn brown and crunchy often, but it is surprising how many desirable garden plants do well in this situation.

My twelve year old granddaughter has been to Australia twice.Her father's father moved there many years ago and married an Australian woman.I can't remember where they live.I have a beautiful picture of my granddaughter with the Sidney Opera House in the background.Welcome to the forum!

A computer run by solar power ...how neat. But do you have trouble dialing in for access to the net? Or do you have satellite access?

We were among the last (according to my son) to pop for color tv. Other than nature shows, I think I'd get by just fine with B/W still. Watching old B/W movies I don't even notice the lack of color. But I guess it's nice to have the choice.

Are there small towns nearby or do you have to drive an hour for basics like milk and bread? Or real necessities like new plants...LOL josh

God powered puter, how neat!! But we have to pay for ISDN access, no broadband is available here. Satellite is actually slow and expensive, so my husband says. If dear beloved husband could get the ladder and realign the antenna, we would have full colour TV on all channels, but he is lazy, so our best documentary channels are black and white.
The nearest shopping mall is 20 mins drive away, not too bad, and if I want to go to the big city it is an hour each way. There are little country shops within 10 mins drive, but they are way more expensive than the supermarkets.
As for new plants, well I've made a deal with the local organic veggie seedling + herb salesman, and I get what I want very cheaply. My whole herb business is designed to be self sufficient, so I never pay more than wholesale price, and I frequently get lotsa cuttings for free..
Without boasting, I could say I'm a smart lady

Just one more question (for now(...LOL..can you tell I don't get to talk with Aussies very often? I wondered what y'all thought of Bill Bryson's book. I thoroughly enjoyed it but remember being curious if Aussies felt the same.

I did exchange gardenbooks for strange seedpods from the native trees/shrubs with an Australian nurseryman several years ago...some I still haven't id'd but enjoyed the research. I told him I felt like Darwin when I opened the big carton! LOL josh

I learned from my granddaughter today that the town where here paternal grandfather lives is Broken Hill. Are you anywhere near?

Welcome! I have an internet friend who lives in Keith, are you close to there?

Broken Hill is up in the North East corner of our state. It is a rugged mining town - it gets used for filming for science fiction movies because of it's bleak terrain! The 'other' grandfather of my niece and nephews owns a big sheep station up that way. Never been there myself, its a full day's drive from here.
Keith is to the east of here, about 300-400 km away. It is a really really oldfashioned country town in sheep and wheat country, on the road from Adelaide to Melbourne.

Hi greth, nice to meet you. I would love to visit your area some day but probably will never make it. You make what is clearly a busy and not-always-easy life sound like a lot of fun.
One of my daughters-in-law is an inspector for organic farms. Most of the farms she inspects do a great job, though sometimes folks want to label their farms "organic" without really following through. How does that work where you are or is it all organic for operations like yours?

Organic certification is actually fairly hard to get. There must be no proscribed chemicals used for at least 5 years on the property, there must be no spray drift from neighbouring properties, and it is all subject to inspections.
My place will not ever get organic certification. I do use herbicides, it is the only way to keep the worst of the weeds down near the house. And our neighbour owns land on three sides of us, when he has aerial drops of superphosphate it's too hard to tell the pilot where to stop and start, so he simply phosphates our place for free.

I went through your area of Australia some 36 years ago. Nice country. Saw citrus growing not so far from your area. Does anyone grow sugarcane near you (as a garden crop, perhaps) ?

Welcome, Greth. Do you have a compost pile for your gardens? Just wondered. That would help with the poor soil.

Welcome Greth! I've got an old GP pal who lives in OZ, in Queensland. I'd love to go to OZ one of these days. I'm looking forward to your posts.