The only people I know (including ourselves) who grow veggies are those who have the space to do so, or are enlightened enough to do so.

I see some of those other pastimes not as a time warp but as making something and being creative. Some of our friends are top-notch designers who design and make cars but they also design other things too and teach their children to be creative. In my opinion, it's the people stuck in front of plasmas and in huge wasteful houses are weird!

But what you say is not true of all Australians.

I agree with all that - where we are people do it all - they have shedding, boats, plasmas, animals, stock, veggie gardens, lawns, flower gardens and pools.

Permaculture and the like is optional and still in a minority in a place where people have acres and acres and could choose to do what they like with all that space but people do!

Clothing - I would still buy these as long as they are available and buy few clothes of good quality that last.

The Ozzie (educated and well travelled) wife says that sadly Australia is well behind the times, going to europe is like watching the BBC programme "Click", LIVE !

you could get some hippies to paint flowers on them?

Em x

I don't think growing your own veg and knitting your own jumpers is ' backward'...I'd call it being self sufficient which is actually great feeling.
Having siad that, nobody should feel pressured to join a lifestyle which is not ' them', personally though I can't wait to grow my own salad ingredients and finally watch the tomatoes ripen before they drown in the Irish rain.
Society has a warped view of what is ' backward'. Old fashioned it may be , but definately ' forward' in my view.

Mrs Ozbaz

- that is so wrong

Ems. You've got me thinking...I've got a large back yard (abt 1200 sq yards). Think its a quarter acre. Ive got a couple of banana trees, an orange tree and a passion fruit tree. Ive been trying to pretty it up but I think I could maybe manage a veggy plot. Dont know if I'd be successful but worth a try.

This place is still "country" in many ways SC. Good and bad but good outweighs bad.

You know what? I come from a very long line of success gardeners... and of course i am the worlds worst! haha! However, my Dad and my Nan (plus great Nan) have given me the confidence to just bung in the seeds into a tray and hope.. then re-plant them into a "patch" and hope... then wait until the plant goes to seed, collect the seeds and then start again! I'll be honest.. they usually just die on me !

It goes wrong for me a lot... green fingers? nah! lol! but I do know that if you carry on and on, of course as with anything in life, you learn and you get better... the best advice I was ever told over here in Queensland is to grow European veggies in Winter here and Asian veggies in Summer..

I also live right next to the beach so have found that raised beds are the way forward..

Give it a go F... if it all goes tits up, then so be it, however I have managed to grow cauliflowers, various herbs, lettuces (rather successfully ? they must like the climatic.. tis certainly not the gardeners expertise! haha), tomatoes, brown onions, beetroot and some shallots and strawberries... its all been bloody pot luck.. can't call it anything else!

Em x

From what I understand from the peak oil situation.. growing veggies and not relying on stuff that has travelled from afar, it is, indeed, the future... history always tends to repeat on us doesnt it?

Em x

You're not farmer Giles yet

Onward and upwards, forward you must go

100,000 people on waiting lists for allotments in the UK

http://www.tsnn.co.uk/news/the_edibl...0_the_ultimate

How about raised beds (buy in the soil make own compost to enrich it)and grow stuff in tubs/containers?Crap soil is no excuse!

Just find people like you. I have never been one of those who discussed children, knitting, sewing, cooking etc and I have surrounded myself with friends who are the same as me. There are plenty of women in Australia who are like me and my friends. I do have children but of the opinion that although they were interesting to me they may not be to other people.

I have brought my daughter up like me and she is anti all that stuff too.

No girls in the kitchen and boys at the barbie for me and I have lived here over 30 years now.

That was one reason I moved to Oz, to be able to get somewhere with some space so I can be as self reliant as possible.

So far I am in a rental so just have a few fruit trees, a worm farm and a couple of chickens. But it is a start

I have found there are less people here into that type of thing than I expected.