Gardening Glitch

Brisbane is struggling, like much of Australia, with drought. The city is on level four water restrictions. It’s illegal to water your garden. Short showers are the order of the day. Residents are limited in their personal water usage and will be fined if they exceed it. There is no washing of cars or hosing of anything. Grey water has become a valuable commodity. My sister failed to save the water from her washing machine one day and lost it crying at the wastage.

The price of fruit and vegetable is set to increase across Australia. Gardens are dying. Every day my mother prays for rain, sending me email reports about the continuing lack of precipitation.

She recently conducted an inspection of our rental property. I was mostly interested in the condition of the garden. I am concerned that with water restrictions and tenants who may not be interested in gardening that our garden may also be struggling.

To the contrary, my mother reports that the lemon tree is flourishing. The first flowers appeared just as we were leaving last year and now it is fully loaded with fruit. It would make any southern Italian proud.

The flame tree, a Christmas gift from Gigi, is tall and leafy. I only wish I could see it in flower in the summer, the red spindly blooms dancing and dripping with the breeze.

My garden in Naples consists of three pot plants, one of which has dropped all of its foliage over the last three days as the local courtyard pigeons have taken to using it as a nesting place. That sad little, now possibly dead, plant just can’t match the herb garden, the rainforest patch and the colours of the lilac Geisha Girl.

It’s ironic that in a place where water is a rare commodity I have a garden. However, here on the other side of the world, where water is wasted and freely available I don’t.

I miss the garden. I don’t miss the drought.