Garden Blog from April to July 2025

 

I just do not seem to get enough time in the day to write a monthly blog these days, I am pretty tired after working in the garden almost every day and this year has been especially hard as we have has so much rain that everything has grown so much that I am continually cutting back to let light into the garden.

I had my 80^th Birthday in April, how did I ever get to that age?

We had a few nights in an apartment at Mooloolaba as we needed a break from the garden as there had been a very large clean up after Cyclone Albert. It was nice and we see our friends at Natrakelp and Maureen Simons at Mt Towen Tropicals were we bought quite a few new plants.

April was quite wet so not much hand watering had to be done.

In May we had a bus visit from Caloundra Garden Club, Jimboomba Garden Club and Bethania Community Garden members.

In June we welcomed the Budding Group to the garden as well as hosting the international Cordyline Society meeting, a garden presentation to Logan Garden Club and a bus visit from Aspley Garden Club.

Possum beat me to it.

In July we went to Agnes Water to see family then they followed us back to Brisbane.

While we were away a mini-Cyclone ripped through and caused some damage.

We then hosted a bus visit from Laidley Garden Club of 59 people.

Towards the end of month we went to see our friends Genya and Peter at lagoon View Nursery, it is beautiful and well worth a visit.

Garden News January through to March 2025.

 

Blog January, February and March 2025

Well today marked the end of summer and what a horrible gardening summer it has been.

Since prior to Christmas we have only had two small showers of rain yet we see plenty of rain to the South and North of us.

The daytime temperature in the shade has consistently been in the 30c plus range, the humidity has been awful.

The garden is just so dry and most of our time is spent watering trying to keep our beloved plants alive.

It is very stressful and both my knees are playing up and I am in pain all the time, but still must get all the work done.

I must be getting old as I had to enlist the help of my Grandson to move the compost from the front yard to the back, he did an excellent job and the electric wheelbarrow made it much easier for him, a good swim after and some cash made him happy.

I cut the Grumichama’s back quite severely as it has always been a difficult job, just trying to make garden maintenance easier in the future.

I thought I had lost my Lotus plants but after a while they have come up and one has flowered.

It looks like a very slow year for us as we have two bus visits booked for this year and as far as garden presentations only one booked although we do want to cut down on those especially the ones that involve City driving but we do miss the visitors.

People can visit by appointment and Judy always has a range of nice plants available.

Due to weather conditions the Caladiums and Amorphophallus are dying back early this year.

Just prior to me posting this Cyclone Albert was closing in on Brisbane, so it was time to move plants, secure everything loose, and chase up sandbags and a generator.

Panic at the sandbag station but I managed to get six bags, I had to hunt down a generator and finally found one of the last ones available, so that was lucky.

The Cyclone came over as a Category 1, then turned into a rain depression dumping 541 mm of rain in our garden.

We lost power, phone, and mobile coverage for three days, the generator kept the fridge and freezer going.

Damage, a large ‘Cherry of the Rio Grande’ was blown down as well as a Coffee tree and a whirlybird was blown off the roof causing some water to enter the kitchen.

What a terrible job it was to clean up, the ‘Cherry of the Rio Grande’ was a large tree and absolutely covered in ‘Lady Slipper Vine’, it was a tangled horrible mess to remove.

Trouble is it has left an are that was in shade now in full sun so I have started to build a cover over that areas but the plants are burnt, so lot’s more work to get it right.

Not an easy job as there are so many angles and just a few weeks before I turn 80 it’s the last thing I need, anyway at this point in time I have managed to get most of the stump out and the frame up, now have to put the shade cloth on.

We are now at the end of the month and it’s pouring rain, all tanks are overflowing, so looks good for winter which is usually our driest season.

We visited our very good friend Rod Patterson who turns 92 this year, still loves his garden.

No blog would be complete without a few garden photos.

Our Nam Doc Mi Mango crop, not my favorite.