|
Organic Gardener Magazine, November/December 2009
PENNY WOODWARD explains how to protect your plants from extreme heat and drying conditions, and how to start transforming your garden to cope with climate change.
Forecasters say Australia is heading for another longer, deeper El Nino period - and gardeners need to prepare themselves for its drying effects. Combine this with the already reduced rainfall and increased evaporation rates from climate change, and it's obvious there is a major challenge ahead.
Although many Australians have adapted to living in a variable climate and are used to coping with drought, what we are experiencing is a shift to even warmer and drier conditions. We have seen a prolonged period of reduced rainfall - 15 to 20 per cent in some regions - especially in autumn, but also, in the last three years, in spring.
According to CSIRO research (www.cawcr.gov.au/publications/researchletters.php), the last 12 years and 8 months is the driest period in the 110 years of record keeping. These are long-term trends superimposed over normal variability, and apply to most of Victoria and parts of SA, Tasmania, southern NSW and southern WA. Regions further north, such as south-east Queensland, are not immune.
Read this full and comprehensive article here
|
