The effects of climate change on UK gardens are nothing when you see what has been happening in Australia over the past decade.The changing climatic conditions and drought that have affected areas of this vast country have caused many people to radically rethink their gardens.
Water restrictions are so much a part of everyday life that the reality of what will grow and what will not has hit home very fast. As a result, gardeners have been forced to make radical changes to the way they plant and maintain their gardens.
Everyone in the UK could learn important lessons from how Australia is dealing with having less water in the garden and the home. Adapting to this concept in everday life is a steep learning curve and predictions are that the UK must do the same.
Australian children are a major part of changing attitudes to water since it is they who will deal with the future of a world where water is in short supply .They are encouraged to use timers to take two minute showers, and collect the water in buckets so it can be re-used in the garden.
They also have “scarecrow monitors” at school whose job it is to oversee the filling of more buckets from under the drinking taps to water the school vegetable patch.
According to environmental campaigner and Australian Man of the Year Tim Flannery, the country’s rivers have been suffering a double whammy. He explains “What’s happened as Australia has warmed over the past three or four decades is that not only are we getting less rainfall, but the soils have warmed up, which means any rain that does fall is more likely to evaporate.”The drought has sharply focused minds on water use and supply.” Read more about how everyone is water-wise in Australia at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7361210.stm
There are a number of interesting references about Australian gardens and climate change at http://www.anbg.gov.au/climate-change/botanic-gardens-resources.html
One example of adapting to climate change in an Australian garden is the Katandra Gardens in Wandin, Victoria. Having bulldozed a declining 8 acre orchard, Bob and Dot O’Neill have created an 8 acre wonderland featuring a vast number of Australian native plants
http://www.yarravalleygardens.com/gardenlovers/climatechange.html
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