Handyandy180

Hi all,
Just been looking over our garden and realising how much work went into it (3 years to press). Rockery, water feature, dry stone walling (amazing what you can do if you want to save money) borders and the like.
Yes i will miss them all but what i will miss most of all is the vegatable patch and greenhouse!!!! Andrea is vegetarian so it comes in quite handy (or is the tight Tyke trying to save money again)? Any how is it a pastime that occurs in Melbourne? Can vegatable seeds be bought as easily as the UK? Is there a need for greenhouses in Melbourne? Are there any garden centres? how important is a garden in Australia? Any websites about Oz gardening?
Good luck to all that are trying.
Regards Chris and Andrea

HiddenPaw

There are some beautiful private gardens in Melbourne...and tons of garden centres. Many (most?) homes with gardens have fancy automatic sprinkler systems.

The only probs we really had were with the drought and water restrictions - we weren't able to water the lawn and could only use the flower bed sprinkler system between 11pm & 6am for example. The lawn basically dried to dust and the pipes for the sprinkler system ran under the neighbour's house and they politely complained that it woke them up in the night so we couldn't use it!

I don't know the current state of the reservoirs - they were down below 40% at one point - check www.melbournewater.com.au but I think stage 2 restrictions are still in place

I don't know about greenhouses. Cant recall ever seeing any

Dolphingirl

http://www.bcl.com.au/melbourne/shop/garden.htm
http://au.dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Cul
ture/Home_and_Garden/Lawn_and_Garden/

These links may help you.

MarkMyWords

Bummer, although I tend to agree with the 11-6 restriction. It cuts down on the evaporative loss.

Mind you, what kind of lousy plumbing is it that wakes the neighbours up? Especially for such a low-volume use. Not only is the house-building worthy of the first two little piggies, so is the plumbing, I suppose. Something to look forward, eh?

Sorry, nothing to do with vegetable growing!

anya4oz

I wondered about this, too - although I'm more focused on which fruit/herbs I can grow in the local climate. I'm *hoping* I can grow lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruit, maybe avocados and of course the usual herbs (basil, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, parsley, tarragon etc)

I'd also be keen to grow blue irises, wistaria & bouganvillea (sp?) but might be getting a bit too ambitious with the latter!

We deffo saw Garden Centers on our travels in Melbourne the other week - but they didn't look as big & commercial as those in the UK (which may be good thing).

Anya.

JackTheLad

Hi Anya,

I've seen lots of lemon and orange tree in Melbourne - there were 5 or 6 lemon trees outside one of my friends' house last time I checked. So grow away in your own orchard and herbal garden!

I remember seeing wisteria/wistaria as well in some gardens in Brighton. Also heard about a friend's family growing their own avocados in SE Melbourne. Can't remember where I saw bougainvillea, probably Cairns, but I think Melbourne should be just warm enough if you plant it in a warm spot close to the house.

Before we changed our plan, we were going to move to Melbourne and I was looking forward to having a very similar garden to what we now have in Northern Ireland. But because we have decided to go to Brisbane instead, all my garden plans will have to change too - some herbs and bulbs won't grow very well in hot climate. However I'll be able to grow orchids outdoor in their place.

One of the websites I visit often is Australian "Better Homes and Gardens":
http://www.bhg.com.au/

There are some good articles and advice for keen gardeners.

Cheers,
Mrs JTL

OzTennis

An 'English country garden' is not very environmentally friendly in Melbourne given the severe water shortages, although they've had some good rainfall of late! Grow lots of native plants, think about whether you really want a green lawn all the time and choose plants that aren't too thirsty. A greenhouse is not really necessary so you won't see many, perhaps the odd one in some public gardens.

Mrs Jack (Jill?) has mentioned Better Homes and Gardens, Don Burke also has a popular gardening and lifestyle program:

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/home

OzTennis

podgypossum

I love Burkes Backyard!!

Although i live in Adelaide, i think the yearly temps are quite similar to Melbourne although i dont think it gets quite as cold here in winter as it does there.(not positive though)

I am a keen gardener and waested a whole heap of money this last summer on new and wonderful planting ideas...mainly because i totally under estimated the ferocity of the sun here. I think you need to treat it the same way we would frost in UK. Its a real plant killer if you are not very very careful. In temps over 40 degrees my neighbour told me i should be watering htem all TWICE a day!!!!...needless to say i had already reduced most of them to brittle twigs!

My advice is to totally change your whole concept of gardening. Try new, weird and wonderful plants that are better suited to the climate. I am really enjoying getting to know a whole different world of plants.

OzTennis

Give me a home among the gum trees, with lots of plum trees ...........

OzTennis

HiddenPaw

I'll try not to be insulted regarding our choice of dwelling

There were 3 houses on a piece of land, with shared front garden and individual rear courtyards. I would imagine at one time, only one residence existed. I guess the plumbing came in at one point and then split off to each of the 3 houses resulting in pipes under the house. The pipes rattled, clunked and pulsated when the sprinklers were running!

I grew coriander, basil and parsley very succesfully...never ventured beyond that tho as didn't have the space.

podgypossum

oh damn it Oz!!.. i cant remember the next two lines!

OzTennis

Me too, something about a barbeque and a pet or two? The theme tune is by The Bushwackers.

http://www.bushwackers.com.au

OzTennis

MarkMyWords

I did wonder for a moment if maybe it was your plumbing that I was insulting!

Ah, basil, now that's one thing I'm looking forward to growing properly. It does very well here on a partly sunny windowsill (suprisingly well, actually; I always though it was effectively an annual but it seems to keep going and going, and this is one of those hothoused Tesco ones, not even a proper garden centre one!)

anya4oz

Thanks Mrs JTL, the bit about orange & lemon trees is *just* what I wanted to hear! Anyone know how long it is after planting before they bear fruit, though? (I'm not exactly a spring chicken, so this matters a bit )

Only problem I suspect will be space, as many of the Oz houses we looked at had hardly any yard: in many parts of Melbourne, it seems you have a big house that fills the block, with little to spare round the edge.

However, I'm looking forward to finding out what new exotica I can grow - one of my first purchases will be a good Oz gardening encyclopedia. In the UK, I have an excellent RHS Encyclopedia of plants & flowers. Can anyone recommend an Oz equivalent?

Many thanks!
Anya (a closet Gertrude Jekyll )

OzTennis

Peaches, apricots and lemons grow extremely well as my parents Williamstown garden testifies. Be warned though, the possums are very partial to fruit. Revolving CD's and other supposed deterrents do not work. They enjoy taking one bite out of a bit of fruit and sending it to the ground. It doesn't help either when the nice old lady next door feeds them!

OzTennis