The catalogues have arrived! Flowers, bulbs, shrubs, fruit trees to tempt gardeners for the summer to come. And vegies, wonderful, deeply delicious looking veg. And I am ordering a ludicrous number of them. Bryan is not as enthralled. He feels I am entirely too enthusiastic.

Firstly, he’s pointing out that I probably still won’t be able to physically plant many veg, much less tend them. (I am finally facing the possibility I’ll never be able to garden in the way I used to). But even more importantly, summer is probably going to be hot, and dry, and already our small valley has become a refuge for wildlife that don’t have food or water elsewhere. When the wildlife starves around you, it is hard to begrudge them the veg in the garden, when we can march into the supermarket and just load up our trolley.

But do I necessarily want to grow the most luscious of the tomatoes for the possums, parrots and flying foxes; purple skinned carrots for the wombats? And if the lyrebirds are going to scratch up the asparagus, does it need to be the super delicious, fat and tender purple spears?

Given I am ordering exactly those, I suppose the answer is yes. I can at least dream I am going to eat them, even if I don’t get more than a taste. Plus I will have the luxury of a cool house, a comfy sofa, and the chilled contents of the fridge, not to mention air-conditioning in the car. How can I deny the best veg for those who are going to truly suffer in the drought? Though as birds like sourer fruit than humans, they might not be glad about the extra sweet tomatoes. (Note to self: see which tomato varieties the birds go for first, because come to think of it they do seem to like the Grosse Lisse rather than the more acidic but ultra-prolific Yellow Pear tomato).

And so to the ordering: those purple carrots (they are rich red inside); Buttercrunch lettuces, just the right size for one mildly greedy person for lunch; Russian Giant and ‘Lemon’ apple cucumbers, because both survive drought well, and seem resistant to the downy mildew that comes with it, and both kinds last well on the vine without becoming bitter. Purple asparagus, because it is the most luscious I know, even better than Conover’s Colossal and the other fat white kind whose name I can’t remember.