I've just had a reply from Brisbane City Council and the MtCootha Botanic Gardens

firstly - Brisbane City Council advise:
"Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you with the information requested but suggest you contact the Department of Primary Industries" which is more than helpful :-)

and Mt Cootha say: "Thank you for your email concerning this level of water restrictions.
Amazingly, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens are on the same water restrictions as home gardeners in Brisbane and we have not watered the majority of plants in the Botanic Gardens now for nearly 6 months. Intermittent rain seems sufficient.
However, should we need to do so we have been advising people that 30 second with a hand held hose for the plants that you list each week is probably sufficient or 1 bucket full of water each week.
With cooler weather just around the corner hopefully our gardens will not need so much water and hopefully we will continue to have the occasional shower. You can certainly tell when a plant is stressed and needs water.
You may also like to contact the Brisbane City Council Call Center, phone 3403 8888 for other links.
Regards.

CURATOR
BRISBANE BOTANIC GARDENS"

Mt Cootha seems like good advice - but as far as Brisbane City Council goes they need strung up - how dare they impose neanderthalic water restrictions and not have any advice for gardeners as to how to save their gardens?

Letter to the courier mail coming up here - unless someone else beets (pun) me to it

a disgrace from the council

for me i can't understand why we should expect the authority to solve our gardening problems. water is getting to be a scarce if not a very expensive commodity and from what i see and read behind the picture portrayed by the administration on tv it is going to get a whole lot worse and there is no qick fix, may never be a fix at all?

the way i see it if we want gardens then we have to do gardens that need little or no water (basically survive on rain water alone), to get the best result then you will need to have some understanding of your micro climate as that will play a major part in what you can successfully grow in a near waterless garden. eg.,. if you have a western aspect then your micro climate will be far more extreme than someone with a northern aspect.

some steps to get real serious about are:

1.. install at least 1, 3,000 gallon tank 5,000 gallons is even better and 2 will be even more so. you don't have to pay to have pumps or gutter pipes fitted that is DIY stuff so very easy, just have the tanks delivered and sited where you want it/them.

2.. i've said this before and i guess i'll keep saying it because it works! your gardens will have to be very heavily mulched with spoilt hay type mulches and as the mulch breaks down redo it, on vege gardens keep it around 10"s thick around trees and shrubs around 20"s

3.. in hind site you may find your cottage type annual gardens are going to be very resource wasteful (just like lawns) or high in use at least so minimise them and keep those plants in one spot of your landscape. we all love ferns and stag's and tropicals of any sort but they are becomming impracticle as they often consume large amounts of water.

4.. get real about capturing and using all your waste water, the system doesn't need to be expensive, yes it may take some effort on the gardeners behalf but it is going to get valuable water to your plants, mostly for your vegetables as it is very difficult to make vege gardens that waterless as most veges need good moisture levels to produce.

guess a lot of bad habits from affluent times are going to have to be changed, but good habits can become part and parcel just as much as bad habits are.

there are businesse around that will supply recycled water and water your gardens for you so if you realy want to continue with your gardening style maybe that is a way for you, that way you alone pay for the excesses not others in the community.

from all media i have seen from the administrators they are clearly saying grow indemic native plants in your landscape, they are not promoting anything else.

all i have written above i have already done so i know it works and i will continue to do so even back here in the burb's, water restrictions aren't concerning me in the least.

maybe it's bit the bullet time?? maybe go from pretty to practical??

if you need some help or advice or some analising of your situation or some lateral thinking ideas i live in the northern brissy region suburbs and will gladly try to assist where i can. don't say i know everything and i'm always learning.

len

talking macho here i mean inches believe me when done properly and maintained it works, ok a big cost initially to get the project up and finished but there after all it needs is adding too. we lived in what is by most standards a dry area with medium low annual rain fall last year around 880mm and our trees and shrubs once established needed no water from us and produced juicy plentiful fruit from those food trees. even if you are going to use chipped tree mulch around your trees and shrubs it needs to be 6 to 8"s deep and for the main that will need topping up at leat once every 12 months.

and in the cold states like vic', sa and tas' the heavier mulch layer will keep the roots not only cool in those heat wave periods you have but it will do the reverse in winter and keep the root zones warm.

yes when planting leave a well around the plant even if you need to plant the root ball higher up due to bad soil drainage ie.,. heavy clay's. for those heavy clay's apply liberal amounts of gypsum under the much that will keep the ground pliable or less water shy.

consider if you do the mulching as you build your gardens or do the plantings then it doesn't all need to be done at once, and maybe causing a drain on the household budget, but yes if you buy your mulch in loads other than individual bales it generally comes cheaper.

i'm not suggesting something that hasn't already worked well for me in all locales.

len