Gardening in South Gippsland is a pretty easy business compared with much of this arid continent. We have reliable rains regularly throughout the year and really only have to water consistently from mid summer through to early Autumn and even then we can be lucky and have the occasional downpour that perks everything up. Like we have had in the past few days.

Nevertheless, when you are gardening on the top of a hill and you have free draining volcanic soil as your growing medium AND when you are prone to high thirty degree celsius temperatures (or worse) for days on end, supplementary watering is necessary especially for vegetables and some perennials and of course if you want the grass to stay green.

I am fortunate, in that I can pump water up from a dam and give everything a good soaking a couple of times a week (in the evening so that it has a chance to soak in). Then I top up the vegetables with hand watering from a tank, in between times. Also, I take steps to make sure that the water stays put for as long as possible. I mulch and enrich the soil with moisture absorbing humus in the form of compost and manure. I have also planted low hedges around the vegetable garden and trees out in the paddocks to help to minimise the wind.

How do you keep your garden growing over the dry spells?