Plant any tomato, capsicum, eggplant, beans, zucchini, more on the link below......Cheers...MM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Autumn Plantings in the Sub Tropics..

Good link, as we are considering moving up that way :-)

good link and it seems that I can plant whatever I want!

I occasionally get jealous of those living in sub-tropical areas considering what they can grow when. But then I visit my son and his family just north of Brisbane during summer. I don't think I'd ever get used to the humidity!

don't get jelous, the soil is bad, the possums, bats, bugs and turkeys are busy and the plants starve in the heat of the summer.

I could add a few more to that, I cannot grow anything from November to February...
Then there is the fruit fly, every disease known to man, plus all those disgusting caterpillars.
And we dont get much rain....MM.

LOL! Mantis, still thinking of moving up there :)

Well. Everything gets burnt to a cinder down here. It hasn,t rained properly in 8 years. If it doesn't rain really well this winter we wont have ANY water.
Yes, we are still thinking about it for sure.

ARe there graphs showing the changemeent of rainfall patterns? Everyone tells me different story about it. Despite the rain today the wet season didn't seem to me very wet.

We were up in the Gold Coast two weeks ago, and the locals were telling me that you had a week of rain and that the resovoirs are full. Ours are sitting at 7% and 4% of that is mud. I am sure they are not telling us the worst of things, but, I will not be suprised if by next summer we have a ban on all watering of gardens. Scary

Yes the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast seem to get a lot more water in their Dams than Brisbane does, here in Brissie our three dams average about 32% and that is scary for a Capital City..We got 31.5 mm in our back yard rain gauge yesterday and probably wont know till tonight's ( Saturday ) news just how much went in those three catchment areas and if we don't get a decent amount of rain soon its bucket watering for us also.... Cheers...MM.

The Gold Coast dams may be full,but it was only a few years ago that they were nearly dry,the gold coast dam is very small compared with the Brisbane ones and could easily run dry again,the extra population in that area will be taking its toll.
Unfortunately the rain we had yesterday will have had little effect on the Brisbane catchment area i think.I think Buckets will be a common sight soon.
The drought is a national problem,i wouldnt be moving from Vic to the Gold Coast for this reason OZmantis,the Gold Coast is going to be in huge trouble from over population in the next few years-have you ever tried to get around at peak time?
Good Luck

Well I guess we should just hope for a wet winter. Its not just that most of our dams are bone dry but water holes that usually have water in them in the driest times are dry as well. Bad signs. Green lake is about 10 kms from Horsham, and when I was growing up we frequented it, as it was a great recreational lake for sailing, watersports, and swimming. It dried up about 7 years ago and hasn't had any water in it since. My 11 year old daughter has never seen it with water in it. So for 40 years of my life it always was full. For a lot of those years it overflowed into Dock lake across the road which had wonderful Redfin and Trout fishing. All the swamps and small lakes that were great for yabbying and fishing are dry. The farmers dams are mostly dry. I used to spend a lot of the summer fishing and yabbying, but the rods and nets have not come out of the shed this year. Its all very depressing. I need to be around water. God, I am starting to sound like Marvin the robot in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Mantis * off to get another frothy*

I have been a very disheartened gardener since moving to Brisbane 2 years ago form New Zealand. The pests are enough to make you tear your hair out and every thing is so extreme. I don't get a little tomato blight, but complete wipe out in three days. I don't get a few caterpillars I can pick by hand, but a plague of biblical proportions. And if any thing is left the birds finish it off!! Although I love the winters here the summer can be a bit of a trial, especially like it was this year with high temperatures and humidity for weeks on end. The water situation is a real worry and there doesn't seem to be any political will to change things. We get the odd polli ranting about new dams, or pipelines or other grandiose schemes but it strikes me that an easier solution would be to think small, and legislate that every new house must be built with rainwater tanks to at least service the garden and bathroom use. The houses going up here are huge and have enourmous cachment possibilities from the roof, even with light rain. owners of existing houses could be given grants to add water tanks. There is a grant in some areas but its not consistent across Brisbane and only funds a small tank.
As for a serious gardener, you could do no better than the north of NZ - plenty of rain, mild winters, warm summers, and daylight saving.
(Shame about the hard clay soil, the possums, rabbits and hares, the kikuyu.......)
Whoops, bit of a rant there. I maust lie down and think about the mangoes.
Anakei

I love the climate up here except in winter. We got down to 9C here (according to the bureau we had 11C)the other night which is the coldest I wish it would get. I've had to dig out the jumpers which get used for about 2 hours than discarded as the sun comes up and warms us.

Usually gets around the 0 to 5 at nights where we are though at least being on the side of a hill we don't actually get frosts unless it is really cold. Days are okay in winter about 20 but I prefer 25 to 30C. I find I have trouble getting out in the garden in cold weather when all I want to do is curl up in bed with a good book. I don't particularly like the really hot spells we get for a couple of weeks each year (around 35 to 40) but that is only for a short while. If the temps stayed around 28 during the day and 18 at night it would be perfect. Plants would grow all year which keeps the garden interesting. I get a bit discouraged when nothing is growing, dies back or loses it leaves over winter. I love everything lush and green, and in full growth, sitting in the shade of the poinciana with a cold drink watching the kids playing, birds flying around, lots of vegies ripening in the garden, etc. My idea of heaven.

Hedwig,
The Bureau of Meteorology website has lots of info available. You could try there for past rainfall figures.
If it were me looking to move because of increasing scarcity of water, I'd be looking at southern NSW/northern Vic coasts, or Tassie coasts. The areas north and south, particularly south, of Brisbane are getting way too congested, for me at any rate.

now it is raining in Brisbane, and we're renting though we have no tank. It is really frustrating to see that tanks are so rare! Why only small tanks are funded? Tey're always talking about populatin growth but the city council thinks they can get on like this - more or less doing nothing!

Since when has a city council had a clue about anything down to earth and common sensical. Most of them are too busy going to dinners and arty farty shows. We thought we had a winner here a couple of years ago when a local crane company operater stood and got voted in, (by us). But alas he is just one vote amongst many, and the rest of them haven't a clue.
Thats got a bit off the liver
Mantis

The Drought and Rain patterns in Australia go in 9.5 year cycles according to the cosmic rhythms. We are about to enter a new 9.5 phase where we shift from dry to wetter. So take heart. Even in Tas we have experienced drought. From March this year, there will be a gradual shift in weather patterns mostly happening more dramatically along the East coast where many of you live. Some of you have experienced the cyclone as a precursor to the change - first East Coast one in how long?
I am working on my long range forecast but not getting much time to do it, but Ken Ring in New Zealand works by very similar methods as me, using astronomy. - here is a link to his webpage, you can order a monthly forecast by email and I recommend you read the article "The Case for the Moon"

Here is a link that might be useful: Ken Ring and Weather Prediction

Thanks CG Thats very interesting that website we managed to get 19.5mm yesterday evening during a fierce thunderstorm which took the electricity off for four hours from just before 4pm till after 8pm the humidity was very opressive and it was a very hot day 9 degs above average and with no fans and eating by the heat of the candles. Ended up with sausages cooked on the barbie wrapped up in a slice of bread and very nice too I might add.

I reckon all those seeds I planted last week are gone, but I sure will be loooking forward to that 400mm of rain we are going to get during the last two weeks of April, that will certainly be more than April Showers....Cheers..MM.