One of the first factors that you need to think about in establishing a garden of any sort is your geographic location. My garden is on the Western Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia, and we are caught between a monsoonal wet summer/dry winter and the dry summer/wet winters of further south.
In summer, temperatures can reach 40 degrees, while overnight in winter can be minus 3.
So we get frosts, sometimes even black frost.
We get heat, sometimes dry, sometimes humid and we usually have a dry and windy spring, just when our water supplies are so low that we have very firm water restrictions.
My current property is on sandy red soil, that has been farmed for melons and grapes for a long time. Not too much goodness left in it, and I’m not sure there ever was a lot of moisture holding capacity.
It is an interesting place to create a peaceful, lazy gardener’s garden.
Garden Path Food 