Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Gardening with the weather., 1 by 77sunset

77sunset wrote:
Hello all. I am rather new at talking to a screen but never mind, my kids say I never stop anyway. I am interested to hear about how you all garden with the weather.
Having spent over 20 yrs in WA, out from Geraldton and then coming back to Vic. up at Bright, it was a totoally different style of plants.
I am now in west Vic and the area is very dry and windy with little or no rain. I have about 2 acres and have it all now under drip irrigation. I grow anything I can get hold of. I am plant mad, but having lived for so long in areas where you have to watch water usage, I am used to doing it, and use plants accordingly. . My favorites are roses , iris, dahlias and cacti. I have natives and perennials. I water for 2 hours about once a fortnight, except for pots and shade houses which get a little more. I find that people over estimate what water a plant needs., and there are so many plants that people think need copious water that really will do well on a lot less. Admittedly, all plants will be bigger and greener with lots of water, but I find that mine do very well on what they get . I usually always have some color somewhere . There are parts that resemble the Sahara but in winter they grow again. I have lots of trees that I have grown from self sown babies and 2 chestnuts I grew from nuts.
This forum is a great place and I hope to get to know some of you better as we chat. I have put a picture up of part of my garden that was in Gardening Australia magazine 3 yrs ago. The willow in the pic was a 10" cutting planted in 2000 to cover the leach drain. Worked beautifully.