Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi
It might seem strange joining this website in U.K when I am in Australia . I couldn't find a good one based here and as I follow a lot of U.K garden books etc. for even though our seasons are at opposite ends of the earth just about, we still plant and grow the same vegetables, herbs etc.
So here I am.
DahlisMarie

Welcome - you'll soon realise that we're slightly barmy, but useful and friendly!

Hi there!
Where are the Southern Highlands?
I lived in Melbourne for a long time.
It'll be great to have an Antipodean perspective on growing.

Hi Tigger and Jenny
Thanks for the welcome.
Tigger - I put my hand up to the balmy and friendly and can only hope to qualify somewhere down the track as useful.

Jenny - Southern Highlands are about midway between Sydney and Canberra. Country area and before this current drought, very green and British-looking. Also a lot higher than Sydney, thus we qualify for a yearly snowfall as well as hot summers.

Dahlis

Hi glad to have you on the forum.

You know what us pommes are like. Stark, raving bonkers. Some, like Old Herbaceous, are certifiable. That's ok cos we love him anyway!!!!

It'll be great to have your perspective on things, a new way to look at them.

Welcome again and don't be afraid to ask anything. With the people on here, there must be, collectively, hundreds of years of growing expertise to draw on. So, ask away

Hi DahlisMarie and welcome to our forum, as you will find out we are a friendly bunch and will freely share any advice that we may have, hopefuly we can learn from each other, regards Steve.

http://www.myallotments.blogspot.com

Thanks for enlightening me Dahlis. Sounds unusually inland for Oz - and snow too! Hope you don't have to garden on an incline.

Hello
I generally have no words of wisdom , but i like a chat!
hope to catch up with you soon
Jo

Thank you all for the wonderfully friendly and warm welcome
Yes, Jenny I do live on the side of a hill 'cause if I lived on the top of it I'd get blown off. Rather stiff breezes here at times
I am slowly trawling my way through the forums and am finding them so interesting and many entertaining as well
So glad I joined you lot

Alright, I'm intrigued Dahlis... how would you describe the climate? What do sort of things grow around there?

I guess we'll all be having to think 6 months ahead / behind for growing tips for you. Glad to see the good word of Kitchen Garden is reaching down under.

isn't the interweb brilliant?!!!!!

Oh, and a very hearty welcome to you DahlisMarie!

[quote="Mr Potato Head"]Alright, I'm intrigued Dahlis... how would you describe the climate? What do sort of things grow around there?

It does seem odd calling someone "Mr. Potato Head", it's like a throwback to the school playground insults

Where I am now in the Southern Highlands, the climate is quite different to that when I was in Sydney. I don't know whether this zoning is international, but the Highlands is classed as:
Heat Zone 4 and Cold Zone 9a/9b according to where I get my mail order seeds from.
Usually our winters go to about -5c with heavy frosts and usually at least one snowfall to summers which have been getting hotter with some days around the 38 - 40c. We can have late frosts right to the end of October and cool changes in the middle of heatwaves. Summers are not as humid as in Sydney, which is a blessing.
I can grow so much more here than I could in Sydney - the flowering bulbs grow superbly, lilacs, daphne, all the plants that thrive in Britain and never did well at all or were impossible to grow in Sydney. As well of course most of the native Australian plants and tree ferns.

The vegtables - the brassicas grow well here because of the frosts.
However, being the mad person that I am, I have planted a mango tree and 2 banana trees (carefully umbrella'd over winter to protect from frosts and they have survived. I also have avacado trees sprouted and some kiwi fruit vines, as well as passionfruit.

I have been receiving my mail order seeds the last few days to begin to get ready for spring planting.
Just about all the usual vegetables also rock melons and of course pumpkins. We also have many fruit trees and all the herbs and of course the greatest excitement now I am in this climate is that I can grow berries!!! Yay! My first raspberries last year and this year I will have crops of blackcurrants, redcurrants, white currants, and blue berries.

So despite being upside down here, we are not too dissimilar in kitchen gardening perhaps:?:

And thank you for your welcome too, Retropants

Talking about coming from other countries,I live in Central Brittany and have a large veg garden and two greenhouses.....I subscribe to the mag and scramble for the letterbox when its about due...its great to read something english!!!
If anyone wants to know more about life here, please ask....

Hi Mags - we're those people who keep om thinking about making the move to France, or at least buying somewhere there that we could move to, but then we don't.

We live in Shropshire and are very keen growers. About to plant a vineyard here in the hope of realising enough wine for our retirement. All advice readily received.