Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Concerned about the world.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 


Today we are concerned about what is happening in the world, because in this world we have many problems that need to be solved. So, hereunder we are writing this article, where we put forward our views and concerns, in the hope that it can help. 

Welcome to our article, Concerned about us all. 

Dear readers, we are concerned about what is happening in the world, because we see problems that need to be solved. So, we want to have our say about our concerns. We can hear the politicians talk about it, telling us that they will fix them. But they are getting nowhere, here in Australia and in most other countries of the world.

Anyhow, (this article was written a few year ago) to understand what we are saying, it is enough to look at the news; there are wars going on in the world with no end in sight, there are refugees that these wars create, there are refugees that run away from their own countries, because they believe that they can be better off in another country, which they think is doing better than their own country, according to their point of view. But we believe that all what glitter is not gold. Anyhow, these refugees don’t understand, that if they are a problem where they are, they will be a problem in the country they go.

We believe that there are things that can be done, to improve the present situation, it is all a matter of planning what needs to be done in the long run. Today most things are done on a day-to-day basis since there are disaccord how to fix things, in a permanent way. While we are writing this article, there is this refugees’ crises in Europe that needs to be fixed. So, let us look at this refugee crisis, and then comment about it.


Today happenings, the refugees’ problems. 

Dear readers, today there was this sudden tragedy of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, so it has prompted me to go back to talk about them; you see, it is hard to ignore this event, because of the large number of refugee that have died, the report says that 700 to 900 people have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, from Libya to Italy, or we should say from Africa to Europe, since they come from many countries, and most of them are not Libyan citizen.

As you know, we have written a few refugees articles before, so, we are concerned about these tragic events, which have happened in the last few days; but at the same time, we are concerned about the outcome that these refugees may have in the long run, for themselves and for the countries that take them unwillingly, because they put a strain to the economy of that country.

We believe that it is a worldwide problem, so, not only Europe but the entire world must do something about this, because the large movement of these refugees, which may not refugees, but are people that are not happy, with the way of life that they are living, in their own country of origin. So, they want to move away from it, and go to live somewhere else. They want to do this, because they believe that the problem in their own country is not their fault, and they deserve a better life.

But they don’t see that they are part of the problem, and wherever they go they can create the same problems; then, they don’t know the dangers that they will encounter during their journey, and the strain that they put on the countries that are forced to takes them, because they create a problem wherever they go. Now, let us talk about what is happening, and then, what are the reasons for this large number of people to become refugees. Because the outlook does not look good.

 

The outlook is not good.  

For everybody involved the outlook today and in the future is bleak. One of the reasons is the great number of refugees, that move freely from one country to another.   

As we have said above, this group of people disembarked at the port of Catania are the lucky few saved, because over 700 people have lost their lives. But that is not all, because when we look at the Italian news, or any European news there are more refugees everywhere, the whole scenario is freighting, there are old boats full of people everywhere.

So, we must start thinking, why this is happening, and what can be done to stop this unwanted emigration. Just to have an idea of what is happening now, look at this photo here under, where people are in danger and are crying for help. Of course, there are a lot more boats and other floating devise that these refugees use to reach Europe, just because they dream of a better life there. But the question is, can they live a better life there, or is it going to be a dream that will turn into a nightmare. Therefore, we are concerned. But let us try to understand the main reasons why this is happening.

 

What are the main reasons? 

When we think about refugees, we want to know the reason why they become refugees. The first thing that we want to know is, if they are real refugees from a war, or some other catastrophic natural events. If they don’t belong to this groups, then they are not happy in their own country; this can be due to badly run governments that have not real powers. If that is the case, then, the people themselves are partly to blame, because they have a negative mentality, as they are not looking how to improve the situation for themselves, they rather try to rob each other of those things that are there, this usually makes things worse, because by robbing and killing the country itself becomes poorer.

But that is not the only thing, these robberies and killings usually escalate, to the point that large gang of thieves are formed, with the mentality of trying to grab things from other people, or to control other people, this way of living may result in internal wars, which in turn will make that country even poorer, and therefore, harder to live a normal life and earn an honest living. This vicious circle needs to be stopped, right in the country where it originated, because that is the only way to stop it affecting its people. We must point out, that this vicious circle will continue to exist, with those people wherever they go.

We believe that the entire world should be involved in this, because the entire world is affected by this refugee’s movement. Now we must ask ourselves what can be done to improve the present situation.

This is the greatest problem, because it is not easy to change people mentality, but it needs to be done, or all of us will suffer the consequences; it is obvious it is a vicious circle that needs to be stopped and fixed. Therefore, when we see these things happen, we are concerned. Now let us look at the emigrant problem in Italy.

 

Looking at the emigrant problems. 

As we have said in our last article, Italy modern history. Today Italy and most of the Italian people, are trying hard to cope with the illegal emigrants, they come in from Africa and the Middle East, and they are a problem now and, in the future, so, in this post, using our own imagination, let us see what these problems are.

People that emigrate are usually poor people, they happen to live in a poor country, the reason that their native towns and their countries are poor have many reasons, but above all the poverty is lack of good management of the resources that they have, but that is not the only reason; because sometimes this poverty may be due to changes that are unavoidable; if that is the case, then those people that emigrate have the right to emigrate.

Now we believe that, if a region of the world has been able to provide for a good living standard, to a certain number of people for a long time. Then the same region should be able to provide for the same amount of people indefinitely, if that region has a good government and management, and the people that live there try to do their best and use their resources wisely.

Therefore, our views are that those people that become illegal emigrant, they are not the best people that can plan for themselves, in such a way that they can support themselves, so, they are becoming poor. Because they are becoming poor, they start looking around and see that other people, that are living in other countries are better off than they are, so, they wish to be like them and move to that country.

Here I want to point out that, they do not ask themselves, why the other people have been able to have a better standard of living, they only see that they have it, and want to have that higher standard of living for themselves. In fact, that is the only thing that they see, they don’t even ask themselves why that has happened. So, they believe that the world owes them that same standard of living, just because they are living in this world. So, when people emigrate in great number, most of them will emigrate, because where they are living, it has become poor, and they are not able to look after themselves properly.

Now, we believe that the problem that these emigrants have, is going to stay with them with the rest of their lives. We must admit that some of them will be able to look after themselves and become good citizen of the country that they have emigrated.

But when they emigrate in bulk, they are going to bring their own problem with them, so, the countries that are forced to accept them, must be careful, otherwise they can end up like the emigrant themselves, therefore, one day their own people, are going to become poor and emigrate somewhere else, because they have become poor, just like the emigrant that they were supposed to help; I hope that I have explained myself clear enough.

Now let us try to understand, what their problem were in the country of origin, and why they have fallen behind the rest of the world. So, let us see, what could be the reasons?

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What could be the reasons?  

When we look at the illegal emigrant in Italy, we see that today most of them are African emigrants, this makes us think that perhaps it is the changes of temperature, which have been caused from the global warming, it has impoverished these countries to the point, that people go to live somewhere else. Therefore, has been humanity themselves that have brought about this problem, so, if that is the case than we have to be reasonable, so, we have to help those people that emigrate the best way we can, after all it was us the rest of the world, that has caused this global warming. This is one of the reasons, but at the same time, it is possible that there are several reasons why these people emigrate, so, let us imagine what else could be.

The second in line is the political scene; people belong to one party or another, they struggle for power, the struggle becomes so great, that they end up in violence and wars, so, there are refugees that run away from their own country, who is to blame here is hard to say, because both sides blame each other; but the rest of the world end up, by helping those refugees on humanitarian grounds.

Why these wars are started is hard to say; they seem to have a chain reaction, from a small argument they become enlarged, until they become real wars on a large scale, that may last for years to come; as we know these days there is this war still going on in Iraq, and worse still most of the Middle East have wars going on, the outcome of these wars is that people are displaced and become refugees.

The wars’ refugees emigrate to other countries the best way they can. The countries that receive these refugees must accept them on humanitarian ground, it is cruel if they don’t. So, the rest of the world are willing to help these refugees, and they do it willingly. But, this willingness to help them may result one day in serious problems, as we have seen, from the many violent acts that these people are capable to inflict.

Having said that, now we want to see what most people think about it, and what is their opinion of how this problem can be solved.

A simple man opinion. 

I believe that the world leaders should meet and find a way how to improve the economy of these impoverished countries, if this is the problem that causes most refugees. But at the same time, they should make clear to the people of those countries, that they are better off if they remain in their own country.

The reason for doing this is for keeping the stability of all countries involved, because the whole world system can become economically unstable. You see, the receiving country, has got to spend so much time and effort when these refugees arrive, then has to feed them and look after them, all these things put together cost a lot of money, that this country may not have; so, it will slowly impoverish the receiving country, so, their living standard will go down and it will continue to go down, if the refuges continue to arrive in large number; in fact, it can go down to the same level of the countries that the refugees come from. So, the number of incoming refugees, must be kept to a minimum whenever possible; this is my point of view.

Anyhow, this article is becoming too long; but we will talk about refugees another time, after we write a few articles that are more personal. So, see you in our next article called, Health safety net fails

To see more click on this link, Concerned about us all  

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Thursday, February 17, 2022

Dreams of our life.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 
 Anyhow, today we will post another personal article,  Dreams of our life



Everybody dreams and have their own dreams, that will help us achieve what we want to achieve in fife. You see, people need to have their own dreams, because the dreams that we have today, can become reality tomorrow. Since we can create our tomorrow's by what we dream today.  
 



Welcome to our article, Dreams of our life

Dear readers, I believe that most of us are dreamers, and we like to dream about a better life and other different things. Anyhow, the dreams that we dream are two different types: the dreams that we dream at night, which are our real dreams, and the dreams that we dream during the day, which are those things that we wish we had, or we want to have in the future.

In this article, we are going to write about our daydreams, therefore, our desires of what we would like to do in the future. So, the dreams that we are dreaming today, they are what we can create tomorrow. You see, today I am dreaming about writing this article about dreams.

Now, I have called this article dreams of our lives, but I wanted to call it dreaming away, because this is what we do during our lives. Yes, we dream what we want to be, or what we like to do; so, our dreams are not only the dreams that we dream at night, they are also our thoughts and our wishes during the day, that we can have in real life, if we are lucky. Because we may be dreaming an impossible dream, but that is the way we are, we always dream a dream that is bigger than us.

We dream all sort of dreams, some people will say, that life can even be only a dream, a dream that we are dreaming and nothing else; so, one day we wake up and find out that what we have been dreaming does not exist.

As for myself I believe that I exist, and I am alive and well, and at this moment I am writing an article in Hub Page about dreams, in the hope of gaining attention from my readers; so, I am going to tell you some dreams that I have had in my life, and they are dreams that we dream at night.

I need to say, that I have had important dreams during my life, that I have written and published, one of those dreams that I call the most important dream of my life, has been published in Hub Pages. 

 

Dreaming our youth dreams.

When we are young, we dream of doing great things, or becoming famous one day, it is so easy to think of being famous one day. You see, because we are surrounded by many examples, for instance, when we look at programs on TV, we want to be like the hero or the heroine of that show, or the actor or actress since they are famous people; it is normal, and why not at least dream about it, everybody wants to be a hero or rich and famous, because that is what the world around us is talking about, so, there is nothing wrong for dreaming about it, when everybody else wishes to be an hero or rich and famous.

But the question here is. Is it possible to achieve those things that we dream about during our lives? Or are those dreams that we are dreaming going to remain only dreams? You see, what we want or what we wish we had, they are two different things altogether that is the problem, so, our dreams can remain just dreams and nothing else. But we can try to achieve whatever we dream about; it is part of our lives.

When we are young, we dream what our life is going to bring us. If we are born in a poor family, we hope that one day we can become rich, so, those things that were missing, can become a thing of the past.

Every one of us has got his own daydreams, and we dream about the need that we have, so, our dreams are different to someone else dreams. Anyhow, we daydream, and then try to improve ourselves, if we can. So, if we are poor the most likely dream that we have is to become rich one day. When we are sick our dream is to get well again; if we are weak, we want to become strong, or even stronger than normal people. These are the daydreams; we call these daydreams because they are our things that are missing in our life, so, dreaming about them can even be helpful, because it gives us a purpose to achieve during our lives.

At this point of time, I believe that you want to ask; but what about the real dreams that we dream at night? Are they as important, as the daydreams? Or what can be said about those dreams?

There are reasons to believe, that the dream that we dream at night, are affected by our own personality and needs. See; Menfranco Dreamland Modified, Dreamland dreams and beliefs, these are two links that talk about the dreams that we have. There are more dreams, but they are religious dreams, these are the other links, Cosmic Spiritual Dreams, Dreamed about God, Now I believe that I have said enough about explaining dreaming away, so, let me say something about, my yesterday youth dreams.

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My yesterday youth dreams. 

Now I am going to talk about some of the hopes and dreams that I had, when I was young including other fellows that happened to be in a similar situation, as I was, in my small family farm in Southern Italy, because that is where I was living then, in those times life was hard.

So, we are writing about some views of a young boy, to see how the boys that were living in the farms like himself, were coping with this farm life. What were our dreams? What were our hopes. Now, we expect to rip rewards from whatever we are doing in life, in farming is the same, but the rewards are in the hands of Mother Nature, we could only hope, that everything would work out all right, our dreams were that we wanted plenty of produce at harvest time that would last a whole year. Most times we didn’t, and so, we would start dreaming for a better harvest next year. So, even then dreaming away, would help a bit.

Now let us go back to tell you about, our farm life experience when I was young. In the farm we were busy with our farm tasks, but it was still boring in every other way, because our life was at stand still, especially the farms of Southern Italy, in the early fifties when I was young, so, any change of life style would have been welcome. But we could only dream about it.

You see, in southern Italy most small farm are separated from the town, not only that, but only menfolk and boys stay in the farms all the time, while the women and the rest of the community stays in town most of the time, so, if life was boring, this is also one of the reasons.

But in springtime things change for the better in the farms, as there are more contact with the town people, especially for young boys springtime is almost exciting, because spring makes them dream of better things to come. 

One of the things that we would dream about, was that on Easter Monday when most town people come to visit the farms for a picknick; we would prepare a swing that would be made of a rope tied to a tree branch. We the boys wanted to show-off, so, we would go up the tree while the girls were there and tie this rope up for the girls, and then if we were lucky the girls would ask us to push them. Wow! That was the best dream. But dreams sometimes can happen, and if you were the lucky one, you would push the girl on the swing. Anyhow, let us just dream about it; I Hope you see what I mean; even simple things like this would make us dream away.

 

Dreaming is part of our life. 

During our lives we continue to dream, when one is young, we dream for a better life in the future, hoping that it is possible to achieve. In this case the dreams that we dream are planning for a better life, so, even dreaming can be helpful, if we dream the right dreams and they can make an improvement to our lives.

I have dreamed many daydreams when I was young, about how I could improve myself using what we had in our small farm, but then I realized that no matter what I could do, it was not going to solve the problem that we had, which was poverty, since our farm was not big enough; you see, those were changing times that we were going through then, and small family farms were on the way out, it was better for us, if we could work somewhere else, but there were no jobs available anywhere, because the entire economy of these towns was farming; so, it was a hard life that we lived then, a lot harder than these present days.

One of the great differences about farming, is shown in my article in hub page, Farming today compared to the old way, in this article, we have described the great difference in the cost of farming, because in those times farming was done manually, there were a lot of man hours involved in producing wheat and other farming products, so, the farm worker had to be paid low wages to make ends meet; anyhow, we can compare yesterday farming to today’s farming, in this article.

Now because of all those negative things that were happening in farming, as I have said, I stopped dreaming about farming, and decided to immigrate to Australia. In Australia I have had a different life, because instead of farming I have been working in the building industry, here I became a bricklayer and worked most of my life as a bricklayer; for that reason, I have dreamed different dreams, most of which were how I could improve myself in my building position and other things. You see, I see that dreaming is part of life and I see planning what to do next is part of life. Now, what we have dreamed to achieve or have planned to achieve, sometimes it does not work out; when it does not work out we need to assume that we have done our best, and we should think that, sometime we win and sometimes we lose.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. Anyhow, whatever happens we can always try to dream a better dream. Anyhow, I better stop writing now. See you next time, where I am going to write, Concerned about us all

To see more click on this link, Dreams of our life

See you soon.

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Thursday, February 10, 2022

Gardening in Brisbane.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 
 Anyhow, today we will post another personal article, Gardening in Brisbane


Here we want to talk about gardening in Brisbane, because I live in Brisbane and I enjoy visiting the gardens, but it is not easy to show you what I find in the gardens, so, I have taken this photo from the Internet, to show you how beautiful this display of roses in flower are, this is a more compact display than we have in New Farm Park. Anyhow, because this blog is too long, we are not pasting all the photos that we have in our original article in Hub Pages, but you can visit that by clicking on this link, 
.Gardening in Brisbane

Welcome to our article, Gardening in Brisbane

Dear readers, I find that gardening is a relaxing thing to do.  You see, when we talk about gardens, we visualize in our minds, these places with plants in flower, that we enjoy looking at their beauty. Most people find great pleasure when they visit a well-kept garden, because it is relaxing, and a pleasure to walk among those healthy plants and flowers.

Now, we have called this article, gardening in Brisbane, so, let us look at Brisbane gardens, even if the photos that I am using here will come mostly from the Internet, since these days I cannot visit these places much, but I can tell you that gardens are relaxing places, therefore, it is good for any of us to visit them; you see, when you come back from the gardens, you feel refreshed and a better person. Anyhow, there are three main Gardens in Brisbane city that are worth visiting:

(1) Brisbane city Botanic Garden, (this is the first garden in Brisbane, they used to grow food there when the first settlers came to Brisbane)

(2) Mount Coot-tha Botanic Garden (this is a new garden, created after Brisbane city botanic garden was made smaller, from a new university building and a bridge that spans the Brisbane River)

(3) New Farm Park Garden, also called the rose garden, because of the many roses that grow there.

Then, we want to write about our own gardening, while we look at these gardens.

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Brisbane city botanic garden and Mount Coo-tha botanic garden

Now, in the original article, we have shown you a few photos of Brisbane gardens, New Farm Park garden, let us also visit Brisbane city botanic garden and other important gardens in Brisbane. To start with here-under is a link that I have taken from the internet in you-tube that talks about Brisbane botanic garden, (Just hover on the line below and follow the instructions).

BRISBANE, the beautiful Botanic Gardens (Queensland, Australia)

It is nice to find on the Internet these links; they make it easier to explain things that are hard to explain.

Explain the above and other natural things. 

Now that we have shown you some garden photos above, and Mount Coo-tha look out. Let us talk about some gardening, which Mother Nature does by itself and sometimes they may even seem strange. Now beside this text there are a couple of photos that are just a natural happening, these things do not require much gardening skill, since they happen in the wild, and it is Mother Nature way that helps these plants grow, so, let us look at them. One photo I believe has been taken in New Farm Park, since I know that trees like that are growing there, this photo shows these strange trees that have roots coming down from their branches, these roots hit the ground and grow, they grow so big that you cannot tell anymore, whether they are the first tree that was planted there, since they all seem like a tree trunk, I believe that Mother Nature is strange, but it is interesting to note those things.

Another photo shows some wild flowers; this photo was taken from somebody that travelled to Northern Italy, it shows some wild flowers that grow up in the mountain there; this goes to show that Mother Nature can do things on its own and does not need us to make a display.

Now that we have explained Mother Nature ways, which does not need our help to happen, we are going to talk about some simple gardening that we want to do ourselves.

 

Thinking about doing some gardening. 

Now, we have talked about, some public gardens that you can visit in Brisbane; but what about if we want to make a garden ourselves, or a kitchen garden for ourselves, that we can have in our own back yard; since in Brisbane all stand-alone houses have a back yard.

We would like to do that to stay outside and try our skills, and at the same time enjoy the relaxing atmosphere that gardens and gardening produce within us. So, if we want to do some gardening ourselves, what is the first thing that we need to know about gardening?

If we want to do some gardening, there are a few things that we need to know, before we even start gardening. Of course, we need some local knowledge, so, it is helpful, if you know someone that has some local gardening knowledge, because local knowledge helps a lot. You see, when we talk about gardening, if we know anything about gardening, the first thing that comes to our mind is the weather, and the second thing is the sun shine, then the seasons of the year, when to grow certain plants, then, the average temperature of the place, where this gardening is going to take place; because these things will influence what plants we can grow there, and the time when is most likely that they will grow well. If we don’t know that, then we should learn as we go on planting our plants. Of course, today when we by any seeds there are instructions that say when the best time is to plant them, and this is very helpful. Anyhow, let us talk about our gardening.

 

Let us talk about our gardening. 

Now, I am writing this article about gardening from Brisbane Australia. The city of Brisbane is situated in the subtropical region of the Southern hemisphere, I have mentioned the Southern hemisphere, so that my readers are not going to be surprised, when I am going to tell them that while I am writing this article, I am getting ready to plant some winter plants. Now, this is the month of May and the Month of May is spring in the northern hemisphere, so, it is shocking for any reader in the Northern hemisphere to hear that I am planting winter plants, I know this because I have come from the Northern hemisphere. But as you know the seasons in Australia are the opposite of the Northern hemisphere, but even knowing this is not enough, because there are a lot of other factor to consider, which it is hard to explain in a few words.

In Brisbane, the climate is a bit on the hot side; with this warm climate, we should be able to grow all sorts of plants and vegetables all year around, at least in theory we should be able to do that, but here I am telling you that it is not that simple, because any place on earth you go to, it is a different and has its own ways how to grow plants and vegetables. So, we need to learn those things before we can grow plants, or vegetables the easy way. But let us not despair because we can always copy the gardening people around us. Of course, gardening and gardens can be enjoyed in other ways, as we have shown in the photos that we have pasted in this article.

Anyhow, I wish I can grow flowers in my home garden, beside my vegetables, because I like flowers, but I may have to let it go, because it takes time and effort to grow them. But because I am an old man, I have to let it go and be happy to grow a few flowers, and a kitchen garden with tomatoes and vegetables, and other things that are already growing there, so, let us talk about what we have in the back yard.

 

What I am growing in my backyard. 

Now, most of us who own a standalone house on a large piece of land, like what we have in Brisbane Australia, have land that can be used to grow vegetables, or other plants. You see here in Brisbane, most of the cheaper affordable house are built on a piece of land, which is about 400 square meters; most houses are 100 to 150 square meters, so, the rest of the land is vacant land, we call this land our yard and it can be used in different ways. Now, some of us have a beautiful green lawn in the yard, and we are satisfied to have this green grass, and you know it is very enjoyable on hot days, because that green lawn makes you feel cooler; but we have to mow the lawn to keep it at its best, but that is easy done with a lawnmower.

But, some of us beside keeping a perfect lawn, want to have a flower garden and grow many types of flowers, here and there and decorative shrubs; this type of decorative gardening is done usually in the front yard of the house, as most of the houses in Brisbane suburbs, are set well back from the road: in the new suburbs of Brisbane this is usually 6 meters, in the old suburb this distance could be different. Anyhow, even if we use the land in the front yard for flowers and decorative shrubs, we still have the back yard, where we can grow anything we want, if the land is fertile enough, and we like gardening.

Now, I and my partner may not be the best gardeners around, but we like to try to grow a few things in our back yard, when we can. So, when we have spare time I go in the back yard and try to improvise, by starting our own garden patch, we think that we should grow our own vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, and other plants.

I believe that anyone of us has his own gardening story, why we are growing our own stuff in our yard, some of us have had experience from a farming background, so, we have some knowledge of how a few things can grow, for this reason we are willing to have a go at gardening.

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In our kitchen gardens. 

To tell you the truth I have always done some gardening in Brisbane, sometimes I have had a good crop too, but it has been a struggle, because of the hot climate and because my soil is not good for gardening, I have used fertilizer but it does not help much, so, I have done gardening sparingly.

But, today in my old age, I am going to do more gardening in my back yard. You see, I want to grow my own vegetables, tomatoes, herbs and a few other things in my kitchen garden. I know that my soil is not that good, so, I wonder what I could do to improve it without spending too much money. In fact, I don’t like to spend money, if that is possible.

So, I am wondering what other people do, and what could cost. You see, if it costs too much, there is no point of spending money, when you are better off financially, if you go to the greengrocer and buy what you need. If that is going to be the case, then I am continuing to do my gardening in a small way as I have done before.

Therefore, I wonder how I can improve the soil, and which the best way to do it; I know a few things about this, because when I was young I have worked in my family farm in Southern Italy, but can those same principles apply in Brisbane Australia, where the climate is a lot hotter, here plants need more water to keep them growing; I know that there are lots of diseases in this hot and humid climate, so, I need good soil where plants grow fast and healthy, so that we can pick our produce before the disease sets in, for any vegetables, and also for tomatoes, capsicum, egg plants etc.

The last few years, I have tried to grow my own vegetable and tomatoes etc. But so far, I have been able to be successful only in springtime, and as soon as summer comes everything starts dying out.

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In my kitchen garden today.  

What I am growing now in my garden patch, are some purple king beans, that we are going to pick them up green, also some broad beans, as you can see from this photo beside here, I had winter vegetables that we have used, but now summer is coming, and I wonder what I can plant. The problem in Brisbane is watering, not only plants in summer need a lot of water, but there is water restriction. The water restriction applies when there is not enough water in the dams, because the climate and the raining season are unpredictable these days, so, the local government want people to save water, for that reason the price of water goes up, and people lament this increasing cost of water, so, we must be careful how we use water.

For this reason, I have worked out that I need to divert the water from the bathroom, straight into the kitchen garden patch to save water, I believe that the water from the bathtub and the vanity basin does not constitute a health hazard, when it is used to water the ground and keep it moist, I have no problem to divert this water myself, as I am a good handyman and know how to do these things; once I have done that, every time we use the bathroom to have a shower etc. a small part of the kitchen garden in being watered.

There are other things that I can do. I know that once the broad beans have been picked up, I am going to bury the stalks under to ground, because they are good for the soil, I am also going to collect all the grass clipping from the yard, and any other vegetable matter that can improve the soil, I can use fertilizer and other things, these are the things that I believe can be done, if I want to have a kitchen garden.

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 Trying to improve the soil. 

What I have done lately is this, I have compost that I have made from lawn mowing, that I placed in a large container and leaves that I have collected from my lawn and other vegetable matter, now, I have put this compost in large buckets to be used in my kitchen garden thus, I pick up one of the buckets full of compost, the compost in the bucket is not very compact, so, I fill it up with water, the water in the bucket absorbs the compost nutrients and becomes like strong tea, with this water, I water the plants in the garden and it seems to work well, it is like when you water your plants with a soluble plant fertilizer. 

Having tried this for a short while, I can add here, that my idea of using the waste water to water the garden is working well, but because we had heavy rain that lasted for three days in a row, it did not make a lot of difference, but it is a good way to water the garden in times of draught.

Here I need to add another observation, it is March 2016, this summer it has been hotter than usual, the temperature has been averaging 32-33 centigrade for several weeks, I believe that it is hotter than in the past, I have not been able to grow much in my kitchen garden, the only thing that we can grow are snake beans, so, I am waiting now for the temperature to go down, so, I can plant for the cooler season, which in Brisbane is a short season and not cold at all, so, I need to plant my plants, as soon as is becomes cool, and hope they grow well, before it becomes hot again.

So far from my observations, I believe that it is hard to grow vegetables in Brisbane, except in wintertime, but winter here is short. Anyhow, I believe that this article is becoming too long, so, I better stop.

See you soon in another article, that I am going to call, Dreams of our life

To see the original article with several photos click on this link, .Gardening in Brisbane

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