Monday, March 01, 2010





We started February with some good rain, which was great as January was completely dry and hot.
The ‘Tropical Affair’ plant sale was on at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens and I wanted to be there early to hopefully get some good plants, I was fortunate to get four Orthotrica Heliconias and some Beehive gingers that I did not have, so I came away a happy man.
We had a bus trip from the Beenleigh Garden Club It ended up being disappointing as it was a very hot day and most visitors just wanted to stay under the shade of the patio, plant sales were very poor. I sometimes wonder whether garden clubs are just a social outing for most members.
We have started to build a car port as an extension to our house, this will be a great area to sell plants during our ‘Open Garden’, all the runoff water will go into our seventh tank which will be the largest at 24,500 litres giving us a total of 107,000 storage capacity, perhaps this will finally make us drought proof. I had to take out one of our Jaboticaba trees but it was for a good cause. The tank is four metres diameter and has to sit 800mm in the ground to catch the run off so there was a lot of shifting the top soil then when I struck clay I had to get a a digger in to remove five trucks of clay. It’s amazing how much dirt can come out of a hole.
The ‘Golden Trowel’ is a treasured possession and I took it to the Wynnum ‘Bayside Garden Club’ to show off.
I gave a garden talk to a small gathering at the Stafford Garden Club and double booked a speaking engagement for March which I was fortunately able to fix, not without a bit of embarrassment.
I also attended a Smart gardening meeting and a Cordyline Society meeting; of course the golden trowel went with me.
I biodynamiced the garden which was easy, the hard part is stirring the mix for one hour, I hate that boring part.
I also put 20 litres of kelp soil conditioner in the garden, this was mixed in a 200 litre drum which made 2000 litres which was then put into watering cans and spread around the garden, it felt like I had been doing weights after I finished.
So, all in all a very busy month and dare I say it plenty of rain, in fact it is pouring as I write this.
For once I am writing this blog and not whinging about the weather.