July August and September Garden news

 

I am afraid I have been a bit slack in keeping this garden blog up to date, anyway as they say better late than never.

In July we did our usual trip to the Nambour Garden Expo, always interesting but only a few plants bought as we have so many already.

Then we drop in to see our friends at Natra-kelp whose factory is based at Maroochydore, really great product that we use all the time in our garden.

Still trimming back all the fruit trees, on my 24^th trip to the dump this month of July, all the summer rain has caused everything to grow so much.

No bus visits or garden talks this month, big change from last year where we were very busy hosting trips.

I got fed up with the Bombax Tree never flowering and dropping off dead limbs, so I took off as many limbs as I could then paid someone to take down the trunk, such a messy tree, one that I will not miss.

Went to get my long Fiskars pruner out and found the chain had come loose and disappeared inside the mechanism, not a problem as Fiskars have a 25 year warranty so it was off to Bunnings to do a quick exchange, great as a new one costs $239.

I love my Ryobi One tools as they are cordless and if you register online you get six year warranty, how good is that.

Judy was out of 15mm pine back which she used for her Bromeliad mix, nowhere seems to sell it so it was a trip to Bassett Bark at Glasshouse Mountain to fill up the trailer, great and very helpful people there.

 

In August and September we seemed to spend most of our time watering as it was very dry except for one day.

We hosted a bus trip from the ‘Cleveland Over 50s’ and that was good, they really enjoyed the Winter Garden and plan to come back late November to see the mass plantings of Caladiums and other summer flowering plants.

After cutting back very heavy, the Mango is showing it's appreciation.

it was also time to get my Amorphophallus tubers/corms out of hibernation and start to repot, the drill auger comes in very handy for mixing the potting media.

In September we hosted a bus trip from ‘Stafford Garden Club’, again in was a successful visit with all our visitors enjoying the garden.

Again, very dry and I really hate having to spend two days watering when there are other jobs that need doing.

Still trimming, pruning, and cutting back shrubs and trees and took trailer load 30 to the dump, thank goodness our dump is free otherwise I would have to get a bank loan.

I top dressed the back lawn with sand and thankful that I had the electric wheelbarrow as my knees are both not the best these days.

My Facebook page is doing well with 4000 plus likes and 4000 plus followers and ‘Open Gardens and Events Queensland’ has over 7000 likes, thanks Marie Jones for helping me out by becoming the second Admin.

 

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.