June 2017 Garden News

Phew, June is over.

Another very busy month but July is going to get even busier.

Winter has not yet arrived, I am still in shorts and short sleeved shirts, so 1/3 of winter over and things are flowering in the garden that should not be.

The Brugmansias are flowering well at the moment.

 Maroo Pink

Orange.

Hopefully we will get a cold spell that will kill off a few of the insects that bite us and eat our plants.

We started off the month by going to ‘Forest Lake Garden Club’ to give my ‘Clever Gardening’ presentation.

Then we had a visit from members of a local ‘Probus Club’, followed by a long drive to ‘Valley of the Lakes’ garden club at Esk.

Our friends from ‘Natrakelp visited us.

Another bus trip later in the month were ‘Kenmore/Indooroopilly Garden Club’.

Every garden club that visits I have to have the garden as perfect as it can be, so that’s a lot of work.

Wow, we had some good rain in June which filled up our tanks. It is so relieving to know that all seven tanks are full with 108,000 litres of water to take us through what is usually our dry season.

I bought this 'Jabiru' and it is stunning in it's rightful place in the garden.

I have spent a lot of hours painting the outside of our house; I have painted all the gutters, facia boards, soffeting and all bare timber. Finally finished and I am glad to see the last of the paint brush.

Just a few other plants that have flowered this month.

 Cattleya Dah;'s Rapture 'Water Colours'.

 Baralia.

 Hard Cane Dendrobium Orchid.

 Spathoglotlis kimballiana

  Tetradenic riparia

May 2017 Garden News

A busy month for Judy and I and it’s going to get even busier in the next two months with presentations and bus trips.

I seem to have spent an awful lot of time this month wielding a paint brush.

We had our roof restored and when it was finished our facia and gutters were completely out of colour synch, so the all had to be cleaned then painted and painted again, a big job that seemed to take forever.

Banksia Garden Club from Bribie Island visited, it was a group of almost 60 people and they really enjoyed the garden staying all morning.

I went to Bayside (Wynnum) Garden Club where I did my ‘Clever Gardening’ presentation; they were very pleased and said it was my best presentation.

A group from Maroochydore visited friends from ‘Natrakelp’ and stayed for a nice lunch.

I built Judy a new shade area as I needed more room for my Amorphophallus collection.

Some of our wildlife.

Some of May's plants.

Bulbophyllum 'Elizabeth Ann Buckelbury'

 Zingiber 'Red Dong'.

 Cattleya Orchids

Baleria micans

Our son Scott competed in the World Disabled Water Ski Championships held in NSW and returned home after winning Gold in the jump and setting a new world record.

Scott Wintle of Wellington Point has set a new world record in the World Disabled Water Ski Championships.

Wintle won gold in the men’s seated jump category, setting a world record of 19.1 metres.  For Wintle the win was the third in a row, having won this event in Italy in 2013, Sacramento in 2015 and now Australia.

Setting the record also fulfils a long held dream and crosses something off his bucket list at the tail end of his water skiing career.

Wintle was part of the Australian team which won the team gold medal against America for the first time.

Wintle, 44 said he would most likely compete in the next world championships in France in 2019 for the last time.  He also intends to compete in the nationals event to be held in Easter 2018.

This year’s world competition was described as a ‘thrilling and close fought battle’ on the water with Australia gaining a margin of about 600 points.  It also put Australia on the map as a worthy world team champion against 10 countries who competed in slalom, tricks and jump.

Wintle may have had an international audience but this championship was raced with his wife, children and future parents-in-law in the audience.

“It was the first time the children have seen me compete.  It was great to have them there and I was stoked to achieve a record before I retire,” he said.

Wintle was praised for defending his title in Seated Men Jump with the tournament title going to Daniele Cassioli from Italy.

In retiring from the sport, Wintle said he would spend more time with his family, particularly with his children, Sophie 8 and Luke 5.

“You get to an age where other things take priority,” he said.

Wintle is sponsored by The BGW Group, Annvid Auto Upholsterers at Capalaba and BHR Fabrication at Ormiston.

April 2017 Garden News

We purposely left April free of any presentations and bus trips as I had a new garden to build and we planned to see our son and family at Agnes Water.

Unfortunately the Agnes Water trip coincided with the World Disabled Water Ski Championships at Myuna Bay, NSW.

The garden extension was dammed hard work and I hurt my knee doing it but the end result is very pleasing.

I also put a rock edge to one of the front gardens, again a tough job.

We had five nights at Agnes Water with the family and had some treasured time with Charlotte and Celeste. It’s an almost seven hour drive up there but worth it to see the family.

The girls marched with me on the Agnes Water ANZAC day parade.

Our eldest son Scott competed in the World Championships and won GOLD for the jump setting a new World Record.

That is quite an achievement seeing who and how many he had to beat, so proud of him and his achievements.

It was my Birthday and what more can a man ask for than a Bunnings Voucher and a Silky Saw.

The garden really suffered during summer, I believe it was the hottest and driest summer I have known. If it was not for Cyclone Debbie and the six inches of rain she gave us we would be in a hell of a pickle now.

All our seven rain water tanks are full and believe me we need this water as winter is usually very dry.

We have had no follow up rain so the garden is again starting to dry out and I am doing my favourite job of watering the garden by hand, I don’t think.

In our family room/Dining area we had a large window but it was in four individual sections with fly and security screens, I had a vision of replacing it with one large sheet of glass; Judy was not so keen on the idea but has now changed her mind when she saw the end result.

This has now brought the garden inside.