This guest post has been written by Peter Kearney who created and runs the excellent City Food Growers web-sit from Brisbane in Australia.

Peter uses his expert horticultural knowledge and practical experience to explain how vegetable gardens can adapt to changing temperatures and unpredictable weather.

Being in tune with your local climate is one of most important success factors for gardening. Climate change has complicated the picture for vegetable gardeners, but there is a silver lining. With the right knowledge at the right time, food gardeners can actually grow more because of climate change.

Changing climate has in general brought greater extremes of temperatures with warmer and longer summers and often more extreme cold in winter, but on average, higher temperatures throughout the year. Food gardeners are finding that choosing vegetable crops with the methods they have always used is giving them results they don’t expect.

For many gardeners, figuring out when its right to plant vegetables is based on one or more of the following:

1. What they have always done - This is reliable so long as it has worked in the past, but climate change alters the picture.

2. Planting calendars - Most planting calendars use very broad zones for recommendations which do not account for local temperature variances. These zones are based on climate definitions which may be up to 100 years old. So with temperatures changing, the zones are becoming more inaccurate each year.

3. Advice from a nursery - Seedlings are often grown in temperature controlled environments and may come from thousands of kms away, so it very possible they are not in season for your local climate.

4. Emotion - Whenever you do things in the garden without some objective thought, the results will invariably tell you to go back to drawing board.

Vegetables are very sensitive to temperatures at planting and over their growing period. Frost is a killer for many vegetables. If you plant too early or too late in the season you may be hit with frost. If it is hotter earlier in the season, there are many crops you could get underway which you would not normally grow at that time and because of extended warm periods you could be staging your crops for much greater production. There may be crops that you thought would not grow at all, but are actually now very suitable for your climate.

In a changing climate, the biggest opportunities for a healthier and more productive garden include:

1. Extending your cropping time due to more heat and by becoming more aware of protecting your plants from frost and temperature extreme’s.

2. Planting new crops that were not previously suited to your climate.

3. Reducing the potential for crop loss by getting more accurate with your planting times.

Our web site planting calendar has been specifically designed to deal with these three opportunities . We have detailed local climate information and climate profiles for all the food plants in our web site. So you don’t need to know how to work through climate data, our Gardener subscriber planting calendar does it for you at the click of a mouse. It incorporates:

1. Local temperatures - Averages over the last 7-20 years (Australia, NZ and USA) . Its fascinating to see how much average temperatures have changed in Australia over the last 100 years compared to the last 10. Our web site deals with this climate change by you simply choosing your closest weather station to create your climate profile and you can easily fine tune this for your location in relation to the weather station and for micro-climates you may have created in your garden.

2. Frost data - Our site incorporates frost data for all the weather stations (Australia only at this point) so you can see your frost profile and easily manipulate the profile if you can protect your plants from frost, thereby increasing the number of plants you can select and your cropping time

3. Detailed climate profiles on more than 130 vegetables and herbs - These are all matched to your climate profile in the site calendar so when you search by day, by month or by crop and you get a list of ideal or OK crops to work with. This not only gives you the best times to plant the crops you know, but opens up the opportunity find crops you have not worked with before.

4. Climate warnings - Based on averages, the site tell you when there will be frost days, too much heat or cold during the growing period of the crops you have selected, so you can have advance warning to protect your plants.

In these times of climate change, the objective knowledge on planting and climate in our Gardener subscriber site and its ease of use, gives you the power to make timely decisions on managing your vegetable garden. It will help you achieve greater success in your food garden.

Visit:  http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/about.php

This excellent site currently provides gardeners living in Australia, New Zealand and America the opportunity to adapt to climate change by simply choosing their closest weather station to create a local climate profile. This can then be fine tuned for your location in relation to the weather station and for micro-climates you may have created in your garden.

Peter is planning to launch this useful system in the UK during 2011. If you would like to be included in the trial please e-mail at debbie@globalgardening.org.

Growing your own fruit and veg is increasing in popularity . According to Christopher Woodward, curator of Lambeth’s Garden Museum “In the uncertainty of a recession we want soil, roots and a sense of belonging”. I feel this is perhaps a very romantic view of why so many people are starting to grow their own veg. For the large majority of people that I know, it is more a way of sourcing your own food combined with economic issues that drives individuals to look around for any spot of soil where they might grow a few veggies.

Would be interested to hear your motivation for growing produce if you are currently drooling over seed packets and dreaming of rows of straight carrot tops!

If you want top indulge your fantasies even further then do get hold of a great book called “Creating your Garden Farm - it is a re-issue of the 1945 Dig On for Victory http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Your-Garden-Farm-Green/dp/1907030107

Another inspirational read is “The new Complete Book of Self Sufficiency” by John Seymour which gives tips on foraging for free in hedgerows as well as how to grow espalier pears and soya beans.http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Complete-Book-Self-sufficiency/dp/1405345101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263721240&sr=8-1

Now I am working in London, I am keen to find out more about how Londoners with just a balcony, rooftop or small front garden achive such wonderful results with growing their own produce.Eco architect Justin Bere has a wildflower meadow and beehive on his Islington roofhttp://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/roofs.php

Deborah Nagan, a landscape designer, has turned her front garden on the Brixton Road over to beans, brocoli, artichokes and asparagus. This is much to the delights of passers by and recent suggestions that urban pollution has no effect on the delicious taste of home grown whatever - any views on this topic?

http://www.landscapejuice.com/2009/07/nagan-johnson-to-open-their-garden-for-the-ngs-yellow-book.html

All of this is good new for climate change gardening .It demonstrates that individuals are thinking about how they manage their outdoor space and source their food as well as making conscious decisions about their lifestyles. If you are currently contemplating these issues, then explore the variety of global options below and dream of growing- your-own-anything in 2010:

ORIENTAL VEG

Excellent growing tips on pak choi, lemon grass, mizuna and many more unusual crops?http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oriental-Vegetables-Joy-Larkcom/dp/0711226121

MEDITERRANEAN INSPIRATION

Specialist seeds from Italy that deliver excellent results http://www.seedsofitaly.com

NEW BERRIES

Lingonberry from Sweden /honeyberry from Siberia sold as plants at?http://www.dobies.co.uk/

OVERSEAS VISITORS

If you live in Australia, New Zealand or America, take a look at this excellent website which provides home gardeners with easy access to localised knowledge on growing healthy food that tastes great, using organic and biodynamic methods.It contains a wealth of information about growing hundreds of different veg and herb crops http://cityfoodgrowers.com.au/

My enthusiasm to get gardening is not just down to the sunshine today. I have been inspired by a beautiful leaflet I just received from an innovative company called rocket gardens. Their motto is “we sow your grow” which is a rather attractive idea whilst I am working full time in London. There just never seems enough time at the weekend to do everything. I am way behind on my seed planting. Apart from the cute window sill vegetables in a pot I talked about a few weeks ago, my seed planting is non-existent at the moment. Really need to get started on this so that I can be ready for the planting out season from May onwards.

Rocket Gardens looks the perfect option if things don’t go according to plan. They have a tempting Mediterranean garden box of all the vegetables that I plan to grow in 2010 like aubergine, artichoke, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, rocket, courgettes, Borlotti beans and a selection of herbs such as Italian parsley, basil, oregano and rosemary. The box includes 48 different plants for 36.99 including free delivery from mid May. Great way to save air miles too - no more nipping to the super-market and buying produce flown over from the Mediterranean itself.

http://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/showdetails.asp?id=105

My big problem is I still don’t know how much space I will have - no news on whether I have an allotment .My other plan of buying a house with a small garden is on hold for a few weeks until I see what is happening to the yo-yo that is the property market.

Think I will do a mix of both - sew a few seeds this week but think about saving my pennies to invest in ready made “Spring in a box” from Rocket Gardens.

All these decisions you have to make as a gardener - great fun!

This is part of an excellent on-line campaign to encourage Grow Your Own in 2010.The aim is to build a UK map showing where people are growing their own produce and to find out what crops are most popular.

15,ooo individuals have already pledged to grow crops this summer which is pretty impressive .They are also encouraging companies to get involved which I think is a particularly interesting idea. Many organisations have outside spaces and roof areas where employees could be allowed to grow a few veggies and engage in healthy gardening actvities in their lunch hours. This has to be an improvement on grabbing a sandwichwhilst working at a desk top computer which I often do now I am working in London.

I have just pledged to grow tomatos, beans, courgettes, salad and strawberries in 2010 - better get out there and do some seed planting rather than just looking at the pretty packets !

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Pledge-form.aspx

http://www.dobies.co.uk/Shop/Vegetable+Plants/Tomato+Grafted+Belriccio+Plants+400651.htm

The best way to grow veg is in raised beds - the new must-have accessory for gardeners in 2010. Source them from

http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/category/Raised_Bed_Gardening_Timber_Raised_Beds/

One of the best things about growing your own veg is planning exactly what to grow and where to locate the various crops. There is such a huge choice of different crops now that is obviously quite a challenge to find room for everything. I have just found this on-line system ?if you are at the crucial planning stage: http://www.growveg.com/freetrial.aspx

On the subject of growing your own, I made an interesting discovery today. Despite the terrible cold weather, the beetroot seeds that I planted in a pot during the BBC Dig it campaign in May 2009 have miraculously survived .The leaves are looking very healthy even though they have been buried in snow or covered with rain and frost for the past 2 months. Not sure the beetroot will be big enough to eat but planning to put the leaves in a salad very soon . Would love to know if beetroot are always that hardy - or, maybe that is why the BBC chose that variety?