May and June Garden News

 

May was not a terribly busy month gardening.

We started off visiting Logan Village Garden Club to give a presentation for their friendship day.

The drive there was quite unpleasant due to heavy traffic but once there we found the club to be very welcoming and friendly.

I gave the ‘Clever Gardening’ presentation which seemed to be enjoyed by all.

The club put on morning tea and lunch which was very nice.

Did not sell many plants.

The big job of the month beside general gardening was to remove a Macadamia tree which had died, to make matters more difficult the tree had been strangled with a massive ‘Queen of the Night’ Epiphyllum climber.

I then hired a stump grinder, well that was hard work as it was a big heavy machine that kept bogging.

This climber was very hard to remove as it was very thorny and covering the tree.

I had to buy a new chain saw as my little one could not handle the Macadamia trunk.

June turned out to be very busy as I set about trimming the fruit trees and ended up taking 20 big trailer loads to the dump, thank goodness our dump is free.

We had a small visit from Mt Gravatt Probus Club. And I gave a presentation to a small group at Carina Senior Citizens Club.

Then the big job started.

I had to replace the rotted wood beams in my Amorphophallus shade house with metal which turned out to be a bigger job than expected and when I finished that I noticed that the Orchid shed beams were rotten and the shade cloth worn, so then I started on that.

Every bit of wood was rotten and all bolts were rusted, I only wish I had a dollar for every time I went up the ladder.

I replaced all the side timber with hardwood and put metal beams through the center then replaced the shade cloth as I bought a new roll from the Shade Centre at Brendale.

After finishing that I noticed the timber on the benches was rotten so I have had to replace those.

I am exhausted after this undertaking.

Just some garden photos.

 

March April and May Garden News

 

With very little movement with bus visits and garden talks there is not a lot to tell.

I did my usual dump run one day in March and was lucky enough to find some nice moss rocks there and no Gestapo around, I managed to load around 40 nice rocks to take home.

So, out came and old tired garden and in went a new one, the result was very pleasing.

I bought some Sir Walter turf from Bunnings only to find it was full of Nut Grass which made me angry.

This time of year, all the trees need trimming.

I started on the Grumichama’s and Jaboticabas, giving them all a good haircut.

We went to Agnes Water to see family and brought our two Granddaughters back with us.

Certainly, no gardening done that week as the girls love to visit the shops.

We had a small visit from the ‘Queensland Camellia Society’ and a bus visit from ‘Labrador Senior Citizens’.

We visited ‘Logan Village Garden Club’ in May for their friendship day, it was a very friendly club and we were well received although the journey to get there was a bit of a nightmare.

We are cutting back on garden talks but still hope the bus visits continue.

I seem to do nothing but fill up the trailer and take lots of waste to the dump, I think it is due to the wet and humid summer we had which made everything grow like crazy.

Garden News January and February 2024

 

What can I say about January and February other than it has been hot and humid.

This summer has been the hottest we have experienced here at Birkdale, hardly a night below 24 c and most days have been in to 30s.

Perspiration when working in the garden is massive, I must wring my singlet out at the end of a working day.

The heat and humidity have brought out just about every insect pest known to mankind Crinums, Clivea’s, Caladiums, Alocasia, Colocasia and others all eaten and the weird thing is they have not touched the Hippeastrums YET. It has been a real battle this year and I do not think I was the winner.

The main job was to cut our Mango tree down to a reasonable size, it was a big job as I had to remove plants and shade-cloth from below the tree.

I ended up taking three massive loads to the dump.

Then I put up steel rails over the plant stands to keep the shade cloth from sagging, looks much better now.

A terrible job was to repair the Bromeliad Shade house as it was damaged in a storm.

Three posts were dislodged or broken and all the steel overhead had collapsed, so with the help of a Jackhammer I had to get these posts out and it was not easy especially in the heat, then cement new posts in and replace the roof battens and to make matters worse a horizontal post fell on my head causing massive bleeding, I was very worried and Judy took me to the Doctor where I had six stitches inserted.

Not a job I want to do again in a hurry.

The swimming pool had a good work out after a day’s work in the garden.

November / December Garden News 2023

 

Usually at this time of year it is all systems go getting ready for an ‘Open Garden’ but we did say that after 20 years of opening 2022 was going to be our last and so far, we will stick to that, but you never know.

Anyway, even if were planning to open the garden is so dry as we have not had rain for months, it is not looking good enough to open and we would have cancelled.

All seven tanks are dry so we must be very frugal with watering.

It has been a busy year with plenty of visitors coming on bus trips, we have had 14 bus visits this year.

For the first time we had some selling tables at the ‘Tropical Foliage Festival’ at Belmont.

My god it was busy but we were not in a good position as we were down by the cash registrars and were blocked off by the paying queue for quite some time and a lot of people said they had spent all their money prior to seeing our table.

We did OK but not as good as expected.

December started and the heatwave started, first time ever Judy and I stayed indoors with the aircon on, mind you it was only for a couple of days as the garden is always calling.

Caladiums are spectacular this year.

Our family from Agnes Water came down mid-December and stayed until the day after Boxing Day.

They brought two dogs, one ‘Jack Russell’ was a real character as are most of that breed. The one on the left is 'Trixie' and on the right is 'Diggity' who passed away a few years ago.

Just after Christmas we had a bad storm which damaged our Bromeliad Shade house but no trees down, unlike the Gold Coast which had serious damage.

 It is raining now and all our tanks are full, what a relief.

For the first time in over 30 years we have had a pair of King parrots visit us.

Overall, the year has seen highs and lows but I think every gardener will say that.

Anyway, Judy and I wish all readers all the very best and happy gardening for 2024.

September October 2023 Garden News

 

Two months without a drop of rain, it is so disheartening to see the garden so drought stricken.

We have managed to use tank water until a couple of weeks ago but now we must rely on town water, not looking forward to the water bill.

In fact, the whole of this year has seen little good rain, despite BOM saying summer was going to be very wet.

We have been busy with a bus trip in September from Helensvale Senior Citizens Club and of course two days a week watering trying to keep the garden alive.

In October we visited Caboolture Garden Club and gave the ‘Aroids in the Giving Garden’ presentation then after that we visited our friend at Elimbah where we bought some fertilizer (Crop King 88) for $32 a kilo bag, here it is over $44.

Caboolture Garden Club then visited our garden the following week and that same week Glebe Garden Club visited.

 

So that was 14 bus visits this year, we are going to slow down the garden presentation as I cannot stand driving through the city any more.

We now must get ready for the Tropical Foliage Festival where we will be selling plants.

A big job was to remove the old thatch roof and put a new one on.

We went to Nursery Traders and found this amongst a few plain green ones, all at $50 so we bought this one and all the staff were incredulous that they failed to see it.

I think we had a bargain.