Creatively Use and Respond to Change: “Vision is not seeing things as they are, but as they will be”. Embrace change as an opportunity for innovation and adaptation.
One thing that has changed with our vegetable growing occurred a few years back and was a direct reaction to increasing temperatures in summer due to climate change. We found that in high summer the high temperatures and strong sunlight would burn young vegetables and reduce or stop growth of maturing vegetables. As a response to this we put frames up over the majority of our patches using star pickets and irrigation pipe and covered them with 50% shade cloth. Installation and removal dates of the shade cloth vary from year to year depending on the conditions, but generally the shade cloth is put on in mid spring and taken off and stored in mid autumn.
The reality is, however, that many of the changes we have made to our property and our lifestyle have not only been done to reduce out impact on the environment but also to increase our resilience in the face of future challenges as well as to demonstrate to others what is possible in the suburban landscape. These challenges include: rising temperatures including hotter summers, energy descent, environmental degradation, reduction in local biodiversity, threats to food supplies from a number of areas, pandemics and economic hardships.
To help us meet these challenges we have implemented the actions governed by many of the previously note principles, actions that include: producing our own fruit vegetables herbs and eggs, storing rainwater for us and the garden, being more energy efficient to reduce out energy needs and producing a proportion of our own energy, encourage local community (with varying degrees of success) and managing our own waste, reusing waste streams where we can and supporting local biodiversity.
We have been doing these things for many years, improving what we do as more information becomes available, and we learn more. What we are on is a journey with no end point.
