Canberra

Canberra is Australia’s capital city and the seat of government. It is located between Sydney and Melbourne, on the country of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

geography

Canberra is inland, at around 600 metres above sea level, and nestled in valleys. It is just south of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and sheltered from the West by the Brindabellas mountain range. To reach the coast, you have to cross the Great Dividing Range to the East. South of Canberra are the Snowy Mountains.

climate

Under the Köppen-Geiger classification, Canberra has subtropical highland climate with uniform rainfall (Cfb). From Wikipedia:

Subtropical highland climates with uniform rainfall (Cfb) are a type of oceanic climate mainly found in the highlands of Australia, such as in or around the Great Dividing Range in the north of the state of New South Wales, and also sparsely in other continents, such as in South America, among others. Unlike a typical Cwb climate, they tend to have rainfall spread evenly throughout the year. They have characteristics of both the Cfb and Cfa climates, but unlike these climates, they have a high diurnal temperature variation and low humidity, owing to their inland location and relatively high elevation.

While this gives a sense of the claims, there appears to be some debate about the accuracy of this and other climate classification systems.

Helpfully, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) maintains empirical climate statistics for Canberra and the surrounding region, including our local weather station at Canberra Airport.

The temperature range across four, distinct seasons is quite large: hot, baking Summers with little rainfall and frosty and windy Winters.

Drought over the Summers is not uncommon, with restrictions on water use, as is the risk of bushfires. Summer Ttmperatures regularly reach into the high 30 degrees Celsius, and get into the 40s four months of the year (November, December, January and February).

At the other end of the scale, Winters get as low as -7 or -8 degrees Celsius anytime from May to September, with up to 16 days of frost in a month. Snow is uncommon, in part because of winds off the snow-capped Brindabellas, which also provide a significant rain shadow.

Spring and Autumn are less extreme seasons, with plenty of sunshine and a bit more rain.

Canberra has generally excellent air quality. In the Summer and Winter, it is affected most commonly by smoke from bushfires and old wood fireplaces, respectively, being trapped in the valleys.

for gardening

Suffice it to say, Canberra’s geography and climate makes it a pretty difficult place to garden.

Added to which, Canberra has clay soils which aren’t an ideal growing medium.

When wet, clay soil is sticky, forms lumps and then takes a long time to dry out. On the other hand, dry clay soil is almost rock hard and impossible to dig, often with large cracks opening up.

The solution is dig large amounts of organic matter into the soil to improving drainage while retaining moisture during dry spells - and to pick plants which are happy in clay soils. https://plantselector.com.au