Garden in December 2007

I must be an idiot, talk about ‘making a rod for your own back’, I have just ordered a truck load of rocks and will collect sleepers, pavers sand and cement on the weekend, so starts the first project for 2008.
This project will be in the front yard and will extend the front gardens quite considerably, plus another rain water tank will be placed in front of the two already in place, I am planning a trellis in front of the tank with a nice climber to hide it.
Just had a letter from ‘Burkes Backyard’ magazine who want to visit.
We have already bought lots of new plants including some nice torch gingers.
I started on digging out the area for the new tank stand and nearly suffered heat stroke, the problem is that my mind tells me I have the body and energy of a 30 year old but my body is starting to tell me I am 62, I will just have to pace myself and get things done tomorrow instead of yesterday.
Burke Backyard visited on Sunday 16th and they were very impressed by the size of the garden and the vast array of different plants we have. They took lots of photos so we will just have to wait and see what comes out in the magazine.
The garden has really suffered from heat and lack of moisture, the rain that was forecast did not arrive (same old story).
I spent Saturday mixing crusher dust and cement for the tank stand, it was very hot and I am again exhausted, anyway it’s all done and the tank arrives on 14th of next month.
I will not get a lot done over Christmas as I am only having two days off, anyway it will be nice to have all the family around and relax, oops did I say relax, did not think I knew what it meant.
To all that read this blog, a very merry Christmas and happy gardening for 2008.

November in the Garden

Well it’s all over for another year (Open Garden) and both Judy and I are ‘gardened out’.
It has been a tough year with rain on only nine occasions, gale winds, hail and the coldest winter for 50 years with about 20 Heliconias and Costus lost.
Despite all that the garden was looking great for the opening and the ‘Blood Lily' as usual were in flower just at the right time.
Saturday morning and we had a couple of very heavy showers of rain and at one stage it looked quite bad, but it fined up and visitors kept on coming.
We had a record turnout with approximately 1000 visitors in our backyard.
All enjoyed it and not one bad comment during the whole weekend.
The only bad part was when Judy noticed that her special “Hannibal Lectar’ Bromeliad was missing; someone who knew their Bromeliads stole it, ‘hope it rots on them’.
The Lions made almost $4000, which will be given to ‘Young Care’ and Norm ‘Mr Water-fork’ sold 25, which made him very happy.
I have one new project lined up and this will be an expansion of the front garden, which will help camouflage the new rainwater tank and give Judy more room to store her Bromeliads.
The back gardens need topping up with soil due to the dreaded ‘shrinkage’ and perhaps some minor changes, not a lot more that can be done in the back.
I just need to motivate this tired body again.

Open Garden Photos 2007

I have put 80 photos from our 'Open Garden 2007' on my photobucket album as below.
Please enjoy.
Ian
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Ianrobert/

Garden News October 2007

It’s far too hot far too soon; it’s only the beginning of October and its 33c. I just hope this heat will not bring out the flowering plants too early.
Bought two dozen caladium bulbs on ‘ebay’ as caladiums were among the many other plants that we lost due to last winter’s extreme cold, the bulbs arrived and were very large and just starting to shoot, at $3.50 each it may a good buy, let's see the colours first.
At this time every year I start to think that the Garden will never be ready in time for the opening, it always is.
We have had a few storms and in one of them we had gale winds, hail and 30mm of welcome rain, it was worrying but a later inspection showed little damage to the garden but a later inspection showed the bromeliads have suffered with some damage to the leaves.
I must admit my focus is now only on our opening and getting letters/flyers/articles out to the public.
We bought some standard ‘Abutilons’ from the Chandler markets, three plants intertwined through each other, they were only $20 each so we bought four, may still get a couple more. There will be a no show of heliconia’s this year as they were badly burnt by this year’s winter frost and are still recovering.
Another busy weekend in the garden with the compost heap turned over and lots of other jobs done.
All the caladiums are starting to shoot and a few gingers are starting to pop up.
Had some awful weather this week, gale winds for three days, the heliconias that were not killed by the winter’s frost have been shredded and some of the new standard abutilons damaged as well as leave/debris everywhere. Such is a gardener’s life.
So in the lead up to the ‘Open Garden’ we have had drought, frost, hail and gales, what else is there other than floods, bushfires and cyclones. I am on holiday now, it's all go for the next two weeks getting the garden ready.

September Garden News 2007

The first weekend of the month was ‘Custard Apple Pruning’ Kaspar came around to lend a hand, we really gave the five trees a good prune and all the small branches and leaves went through the shredder to make compost and the branches went to the dump.
Another metre of soil on the garden, this time Judy dug up the ‘Blood Lily’ bulbs and then I topped up the bed with almost a metre of soil.
It’s incredible but it is still raining, another two inches.
The second weekend was spent mowing, first time this has been done for months. I then went all round the garden with watering cans filled with seaweed and trace elements, a big job and I could hardly move afterwards.
Due to the drought and the recent rain the weeds have come up like no other year, I will have to spray a few times to clean up the lawns.
I (foolishly) decided to extend the pool area deck prior to ‘Open Garden’; it will extend so that it meets the garden and will have a nice curved edge.
I took the Friday off work and dug 16 holes and cemented all the posts for the deck then on the second day I put all the bearers in place, which was a big job, took almost 50 metres of 100 x 38 pine rails with no timber left and almost 250 screws. It was a very big weekend and it was good to come back to work for a rest from physical labour. Our Solar System sprung a leak on Wednesday so I had to stay at home to wait for the tradesmen to arrive, so that gave me a chance to start on the actual decking which I did and was four lengths short. I found the rectangular fish pond that I have been looking for and it arrived yesterday, its full steam ahead.
It was a very busy weekend which saw the last of the decking finished (140 lineal metres) and oiled. The edging pavers were cemented in and the path filled with crusher dust, I also built a ramp and levelled the concrete step and sealed the fish pond. Phew it’s been a hard slog and has cost about 100% more than I estimated; (about $1000) imagine how much it would of cost if I had hired someone in to do it for me. Anyway the finished product looks really good and has given us a really nice outdoor area, will be great over the Christmas break.

August 2007 Garden news

The garden is as dry as a bone, no rain whatsoever during July and so far up to mid August, just extremely cold.
A yearly job is to prune the carambolas (five corner fruit), I usually do this at this time every year to keep them at a manageable height.
I am going right through the garden at the moment with watering cans filled with a mix of kelp and a liquid fertilizer, this should give the plants a boost when the cold weather finally finishes.
It is the official opening of this seasons Queensland ‘Open Garden’ Scheme, this is being held at Government House in Brisbane on Friday 10 August 2007.
A couple of days prior to this Kim Rabbage from the ‘Open Garden’ Scheme contacted me and asked if I would be a guest speaker, like an idiot I said yes, hopefully my speech will be reasonably interesting and not too boring. I must admit to a few nerves.
Well the speech went well and such notables as Colin Campbell congratulated me. Judy and I had a nice morning tea and met some very nice fellow gardeners.
I arrived back home to a truck load of soil and spent the rest of the weekend wheel-barrowing the soil to the back yard, then bucketing it into the needy gardens. This was an absolute cow of a job, but the gardens will spring into life soon and this will give an added boost.
I calculate that I have wheel-barrowed at least 30 metres of soil this year around the gardens, its no wonder my shoulder, hips and knees are sore.
Rain is forecast for this coming weekend, I have bought a 40 kg bag of Crop King 88 and hopefully I will get to spread it on the lawns. If it does rain it will certainly be at the right time as the garden knows that spring is almost here.
Well it has rained; we had 26mm overnight and what a difference this will make.
I had to cut the Citrus trees back a fair bit this year just to get rid of the ‘gall wasps’ I have now treated with the trees with trace elements, kelp and fertilizer, they are now showing good signs of early growth.
Another two metres of soil put on the garden this weekend plus some of my own compost mix.
Lots of new plants put in the garden, amazing how I find room for them all.
What with pots, plants, soil and fertilizers I calculate that we have spent almost $1000 on the garden this month, plenty of new and interesting plants for this years ‘Open Garden’.
Well it has certainly has rained. We have had three inches so far with more to come, but the bonus came with a price and that was very strong gale force winds. The winds were up to 100k an hour causing damage to the Brugmansias, and Heliconias (as if they haven’t suffered enough with the cold) and a Curry Tree uprooted.
The Heliconias that are left are going to be a real mess for this years opening.
This weekend will be a cleaning up weekend as there is debris everywhere and the swimming pool is full of gum leaves.
Well it hardly seems true but we have had five inches of rain this week, what a bonus, all the rainwater tanks are overflowing.
Well the rain has stopped and the sun is out, we should see a real difference in the garden in the coming weeks, it’s always exciting when the garden knows spring is here.

Water Plants

To re-pot: Separate into crowns, cut away excess roots, and then line the new pot with newspaper. Use a garden soil do NOT use a potting mix. Put some blood and bone or wrap a fertilizer tablet in a cloth or newspaper and inside the pot. The crown of the plant should be level with top of pot. Top off with sand or gravel. The water lily should be at a depth of between 45 to 50 cm and at least 25cm from top of pot to water level.

Remember, water lilies like at least 4 to 6 hours of sun daily.To maintain: Remove old spent leaves and flowers, keep water level up, re-pot prior to spring growth starting. The bigger the pot the bigger the flowers and leaves will be. Most water lilies will die down during winter

Speech for 2007 opening of 'Open Garden' Scheme at Government House

The Open Garden Scheme celebrated 20 years this week and the opening of the 2007-2008 season was held in Government House, Brisbane on 10 August 2007 and was officially opened by Her Excellency, Quentin Price, Govern er of Queensland. I was asked to make a speech from a garden owners point of view. Below is the speech I made.

Our garden is coming up for it’s November opening and of course we want to show it off to the most people possible because we are proud of the result of years of hard work and effort.
For our garden opening we enlist our family and friends to help with the gate and plant sales, there’s just no way Judy and I could cope otherwise.Having been through five previous ‘Open Gardens’ we pretty well know what to expect. Because Judy is such a good plant propagator we expect the bargain plant buyers first, and true to form they start to arrive at 9:00am.Judy prepares hundreds of beautiful Bromeliads all in flower and best of these are snapped up very quickly, Needless to say lots of people go away very satisfied owners of new plants.After the initial rush of plant buyers people then start to explore our garden, our philosophy is that on this open weekend our garden belongs to our visitors who are free to relax and spend as much time as they like in the garden and hopefully go away with a good feeling and perhaps some ideas for their own garden. Both Judy and I are more than happy to answer questions and give advice.When you think about it, a garden is much like a work of art, it is designed and created with just as much passion and creativity, it is then shown to the Public through Art Galleries, ‘Open Garden’ Scheme ect for people to enjoy. Perhaps the only difference is that a Painting/sculpture once completed is finished but a garden is never finished.
Remember that there is no other garden in Australia like yours, your garden is unique and this uniqueness is what you should promote, your garden is your own individual artistic creation.
For those here that open their garden please do not expect the ‘Open Garden’ Co-Ordinator to do everything for you, remember they are very busy and have many other gardens to look after.You know more about your garden than anyone else, so why not do most of the groundwork and promotion yourself, and you can start this several months ahead of your opening. Highlight what your garden has to offer be it a specific plant types, landscaping, sculptures, or the wildlife that visit or live in your garden ect. Look up the local Garden Clubs and offer to talk about your garden and how it started, how it has changed, what there is to see and any specific plant interest you have, you can also talk about how you came into the ‘Open Garden Scheme’ and what it has done for you.
Contact you local newspaper, they are usually very supportive especially if a charity gains from the opening.Most nurseries’, produce stores ect will put out your shop signs regardless of whether you are having a plant sale or not.
If you are into digital photography why not start an on line ‘Photo Album’ and promote it through garden sites ect, I have done this and my album now receives between 7000 to 10,000 hits every month.
It is really tough going these times of drought, gardening would have to be the most stressful hobby going. We gardeners have all had to adapt and change our gardening practices, sometimes at great personal financial cost, I know that because we have bought five rainwater tanks at a cost of nearly $10,000 just for use in the garden.
Our garden is that important to us.
It is always a worrying time in the lead up to the opening, too little/too much rain, storms, frost, hail ect can and do happen (this year our heliconias have been badly burnt from the cold). Google always gets a good work out, ‘googling’ trying to get a long range forecast for the opening weekend. Fortunately we have never been washed out, that would be terrible to see a whole years hard work washed away.
As it usually rains during September/October, the garden starts to look green and lush, especially after another year of drought conditions (has been like this since we started to open) the spring rain is most welcome as we are usually despairing by the end of Winter.
Nature is truly amazing; the difference the rain makes is incredible. We actually have a green garden for people to walk through.
To make the garden opening an experience we ask the inventor of the ‘Waterfork’ (Norm) to demonstrate his product and he is usually very pleased with the results for the weekend. We ask him to provide one of his ‘Waterforks’ as a ‘Lions Club’ raffle prize as his payment.
This year we have also asked our friend David to sell pots and fertilizers at ‘special’ open garden prices, he will also give a prize to the ‘Lions Club’. We have always asked the ‘Lions Club’ to cater for our ‘Open Garden’ openings which they do very well. Our back patio is converted to an outside eating area where visitors can partake in morning and afternoon teas with beautiful home made cakes and a sausage sizzle for lunch, they also run a Raffle (no escapes this) which has some nice prizes including a couple of nice ‘Bromeliads’ donated by Judy, a ‘waterfork’ , ten bundles of ‘sugar sane ‘mulch donated by the grower (Currants) and a couple of ‘worm farms’ and ‘compost mates’ donated by the manufacturer (Reln).
The Lions Club usually make about $2000 out of the weekend and this is donated to charities such as ‘Young Care’ prior to Christmas.On the second day we have a different type of visitor, these are the ‘lookers’ some of whom spend up to four hours in our garden, most are enthusiasts who have a million questions and photograph everything of interest.We try to make our garden opening an interesting experience with plant sales, food and drinks, expert advice on tropical fruit growing and care by our good friend Kasper Schnyder, demonstrations of composting techniques, demonstrations of garden equipment and last but not least the fact that Judy and I take the time to meet and greet as many visitors as we are able to, we also have lots of resin native animals hidden in logs and trees around the garden which are a hit with the children.We love opening as we find the open weekend to be a fantastic experience and a real pleasure to meet so many like minded people who are interested in Gardening.The comments both in the Open Garden visitor’s book and from the visitors themselves are a pleasure to read and hear, I must admit these comments do make us feel pretty good. We have never had a negative comment in the past five years from the hundreds of visitors we receive each opening, we have had nothing stolen or any damage caused to our property.
Another good thing about opening is that the Open Garden Scheme provides financial assistance for Community gardens throughout Australia, it is a great organisation that gives a great deal of pleasure to a lot of people and I would like to thank Kim and the Open Garden Committee for letting us be part of this great scheme.
After two hectic days and hundreds of visitors later we head up to the Sunshine Coast for a well-deserved break.
What do we do you may ask? Well we visit nursery's of course and usually come back with a car full of plants.
After it’s all over I am already thinking about new ideas and plans for next year and Judy is trying to dissuaded me, saying enough is enough.
Can I be cured?
The answer is of course NO.
Thank you and happy gardening and great openings.

Waterwise Garden Competition

Would we still be avid gardeners if we had known the drought would be so bad? I think we would of, but perhaps not gone as far as we have done.
I know now that gardening is a highly stressful hobby, all this checking the weather and looking into the sky praying for rain gives us a sore neck and a headache.
Judy and I feel we should enter the ‘Green Thumbs’ garden competition as we struggle to maintain a beautiful one acre sub tropical garden against all odds and have put a real effort both financial and physical (not understated) into the garden to make it as ‘waterwise’ as possible. We have spent several thousand dollars on an unsuccessful bore and again several thousand more on water tanks.
There is not much else we can do to make our garden any more ‘waterwise’ other than to destroy the garden and plant natives.
We will not do that as we believe native plants also need water, and we would destroy the present ‘micro climate’, which has taken years to achieve.
We believe we have risen to the drought challenge and work very hard to maintain our beautiful garden without wasting a drop of water.
Admittedly we are not in as bad a position as residents of Brisbane as we in the ‘Redlands’ (level 2) are allowed some hose watering and we do of course take advantage of that.
Admittedly not all our plants are ‘waterwise’ but they do survive on minimal watering, our philosophy is to give each plant only enough water for it to survive, we hand water only, sprinklers, water systems ect were all mothballed several years ago.
I am a mad composter and have large ‘Greenfield’ petrol driven shredder, which is used to put all green waste through which then, is composted along with all the lawn clippings. I mix into the compost ‘blood and bone’, ‘hydrated lime’, ‘dolomite’ ‘urea’ and animal manure this accelerates my compost.
Bales of coarse Sugar Cane mulch are laid throughout the garden twice a year or wherever necessary. We would use at least 150 bales every year; this in turn decomposes and improves the soil and water retention. Compost is also added to the garden as well as trailer loads of animal manure. Mulch plays a very important part in our garden and on our open day weekend I make sure that my shredder and finished compost is on display during our ‘Open Garden’ for visitors to see, we also make sure we are available to answer any questions relating to ‘waterwise’ gardening.
We have reduced our lawn area but it’s still a big area, I can assure you that the lawn survives totally from rain from the sky; it is never watered, either from the tap or tank.
Bromeliads are a passion, we have 1000s of these and they are of course a ‘waterwise’ plant.
We now have three 15,000-litre water tanks and one 5000-litre tank, totalling 50,000 litres of rainwater. For watering we use a small portable electric pump attached onto a hand trolley, which we move between tanks.
The swimming pool is always topped up from a rainwater tank.
Due to the heavy mulching our gardens are weed free and also with the heavy use of seaweed liquid ‘natrakelp’ the plants are healthy and disease free, this of course strengthens the plant and helps it survive on minimal water.
As a footnote I have researched the ‘Redland Shire’ (presently on level 2 restrictions) web site and have found that in 2006 our home average daily water use was less than 800 litres a day, whereas the Shire average was 617 litres per day. We believe this is pretty good as we are on one acre block with one of the best sub tropical gardens in the country. Basically we only use a few more buckets a day more than the average Shire home situated on blocks 400 to 800 square metres. With all the rainwater tanks now installed our water use should reduce considerably.
We have ordered another 15000 litre tank. This will take 22 weeks to be delivered.
We were a finalist in the competition but did not win. I knew that, as we have a garden that needs water and in the Redlands we do not have as severe water restrictions as Brisbane. I believe the garden that won was at Mout Mee and has no town water just 90,000 litres in two rain water tanks. Sounds like it has also been professionaly landscaped.

July 2007 Garden News

Once again we went to the Nambour Garden Expo, enjoyed it as usual but certainly not the range of plants that has been in the past. We had hoped to get some more nice vandas but they were not there nor were James and Kevin selling their heliconias and tropical plants.
For once we went home with virtually an empty car.
As usual there were a lot of stalls selling what I call rubbish, super vegetable peelers, shoe cleaners, chamois ect.
Brisbane has had one of the coldest winters since 1941 and some of the more tropical plants; Heliconias especially are not looking too healthy, plenty of cold burn on the leaves.
I have just finished a four-day weekend and spent it all in the Garden and even then I was unable to finish all the jobs that needed doing. One thing I do I know is that I will be very busy when I finally retire, at the moment looks like 3 January 2009.
I placed four new big pots into the garden, these things help put the finishing touches to the garden.
Going through the process of watering liquid seaweed onto all the gardens, big job and uses a lot of kelp but is worth it as it strengthens the roots and improves the soil. I am a big fan of both ground and foliar kelping.
I have rejoined the ‘International Tropical Foliage and Garden Society’ as their magazine by itself is well worth the membership.
Started the once a year job of pruning back the Carambolas, then when that’s done I will start on the Custard Apple trees.

June Garden News 2007

Started off the month with a very welcome 27mm of rain and its forecast for good rain next week. How crazy is it that Caloundra, which is only a one-hour drive away can get 10 inches of rain in a week and we get so little.
We really enjoyed our trip to Townsville it was magnificent to see such skill combined with strength and courage. These young people put a lot of our high profile sports people to shame.
The garden is starting to look like winter is here as all the gingers; costus are now dormant and need cutting back.
Our good friends Ian and Helen Wicks have left the Nursery Industry, that is a big loss as Ian was a very wise plant man and had the foresight to stock water wise plants prior to them becoming fashionable. The Chandler Markets are not the same without them.
Ian had a big sell out sale and we bought two trailer/car loads of plants off him.
We plant to turn the front garden into a water wise area with a range of agaves, ect. That is this coming long weekend’s job, will take about five metres of soil, fertilizer and seaweed, might as well do it properly.
We look like finally having some good rain ‘at last’, we had 45mm overnight and more coming, good soaking rain, something we have not seen for a long time.
The big job for this month has been completed, the refurbishment of the front garden has been completed, we must admit this garden has been neglected and left to on it’s own these past few years.
All that has now changed, all the old much has been pulled out, fertilizers applied and then a good soaking with liquid seaweed, and then finally a good top-dress with a top quality premium garden mix, which has 80% soil content. We will re-mulch, plant the new plants then keep watering from the rainwater tanks. Should look good for this years ‘Open Garden’.
Due to Public Service re-structure I am on a two week training course at the moment and the only thing keeping me going is the thought of retirement, probably in the next nine months.
The big news, bigger than anything in the garden is that we have our first new car in 24 years, we have bought a Subaru Forester, two tone silver with all the extras, nice car.

Garden News May 2007

Starting off this month with the driest garden I have seen in the 19 years we have lived here.
It will soon be three months since any moisture fell from the sky; I am beginning to wonder if it will ever rain again.
I have entered the ‘Green Thumbs’ water wise Garden competition and the ABC ‘Gardener of the Year’, I know I will not win as we do not have enough/any native plants but I do believe our gardening efforts have at least qualified us to be an entrant.
If we win I will certainly purchase another rain water tank, I reckon another 15,000 tank will give us at least three months supply.
Brisbane Extra filmed in the Garden, it was a water-wise related segment showing the tanks, mulching ect. It did not go for long but looked good.
Well we had 3mm of rain on 8/5; of course it was not enough to do any good but was better than the last three months. Hopefully it will rain soon and I mean real rain not just a piddle. Another 14mm fell last weekend, not enough for a soaking but these days ‘anything is better than nothing’.
We are finalists in the ‘Green-thumbs’ competition and will be inspected on Tuesday 15/5. Colin Campbell is one of the Judges; it will be great to have him finally seeing our garden, must admit I have a lot of respect for him.
The inspection team were supposed to be here early Tuesday morning; they finally arrived at 4:15 pm, better late than not at all. Colin Campbell seemed to be impressed with the garden but no one else said much and one was on a mobile phone the whole visit, they did not take any notes so I have no idea whatsoever of what they thought of our ‘water-wise’ efforts.
We are off to Townsville tomorrow to see our son Scott compete in the ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’, it will be good to see Scott compete and just as good to have a break away from the garden as it’s been such a stressful year with the prolonged drought.
We returned from Townsville completely in awe of the athletes, 17 countries competed in the event and the competition was intense between individuals and teams.
Scott had a bad fall on the Thursday suffering slight concussion, unfortunately this affected his performance during the prelims and he failed to complete the slalom course.
He won the wakeboard/trick event and was awarded the GOLD medal for ‘best in the world’.
The jump event took place and each competitor had three tries at the jump. Scott fractured his board on the first jump causing it to flex and wobble on the remaining two jumps; never the less he won the SILVER medal.
Australia did the best ever as a team coming second winning a SILVER medal.
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Returned to cool nights and warm days and of course no rain.

World Disabled Water Ski Championships

The ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’ were held on the Ross River, Townsville during May 2007.
Water Skiers from 17 Countries wowed spectators taking in the thrills and spills from the River way. A team of 11 Australians took on skiers from countries such as USA, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Switzerland, France ect.
There were three events in the competition ‘Jump’, ‘Slalom’ and ‘Wakeboard/Tricks’ with skiers in different categories ranging from blind to paraplegic.
The competition was intense with athletes competing for themselves and country.
The powerful V8 Ski boats had to be specially imported from America to meet the specific championship criteria and the judges were from different countries within the ‘International Water Ski federation’.
This was no small event, make no mistake this was a WORLD CLASS competition.
Congratulations must go to the Townsville Water Ski Club for making this event an unparalleled success; with all saying it was the best world Championship they had been to.
Townsville rallied to the Championship providing the sponsorship to make it happen.
The Australian team had its best ever championship results finishing second (behind Great Britain and ahead of United States).

Several Australians won GOLD medals including Brisbane paraplegic skier Scott Wintle who won a GOLD medal in the MP2 Wakeboard/Trick event and a SILVER medal in the Jump.
Darryl Hoyle also of Brisbane won GOLD in the MP3 Jump and set a new world jump record.
Those that watched were in awe of the courage, spirit and determination shown by these athletes.

Garden Opening 2007

It’s worth the trip; it’s worth the time to enjoy Ian and Judy Wintle’s ‘Giving Garden’ situated on Brisbane’s Bay side suburb of Birkdale.
After 20 years of Service in the RAAF and nearly as many addresses Judy, our two sons and I were looking forward to putting roots down in one place. We acquired our one-acre block here in Birkdale in 1988 and proceeded to build a house that would actually be our permanent home.
It was a bare block so we started well and truly from scratch. We decided from the outset that we would have a reasonably nice Garden, one that would return something back to us. It must be pointed out that we have done ALL the work ourselves, no Landscape Gardeners in our yard. It is basically a gardener’s garden built by sheer hard work and effort, the only help being shovel and wheelbarrow.
We started off the Garden by planting a variety of Tropical Fruit Trees and basically lots of lawn. It was not until after three or four years after our eldest son became a paraplegic through a Motor Bike accident in 1996 that we really started to put our heart and soul into the garden, which then became an integral part of our own rehabilitation, ‘the harder you work the less time you have to think’. It hasn’t been easy, very hard work ‘poor soil’ and ‘no underground water’. We rely on rainfall and the Garden hose; sometimes I wonder with the changing dryer weather pattern if we should have taken up a less stressful hobby. In 2005 we put in a 15000-litre rainwater tank and two more in 2006 (no rebate in Redlands). We now have four tanks with combined storage of 50,000 litres of rainwater for use in the garden.
The soil is solid clay down to about 70 feet (we know this because we drilled for fresh water and found salt water at 80 feet), so over the years we have had to trailer in many metres of different mulch’s. We bring in quite a lot of Stable and Mushroom Manure and compost everything that is able to be put through the Greenfield Shredder and use all the Lawn Clippings. Our main mulch is sugar cane of which we use about 160 bales each year.
We now have 77 Tropical Fruit and Nut trees, with approximately 40 different edible varieties, we have Sapotes, Star Apples, Longans, Custard Apples, Sapodillas, Hog Plum’s Wax Jambu, Lychees and of course several types of Mango’s just to name a few. We also have a productive vegetable garden, which reflects the time we spent living in Malaysia, it is full of Asian vegetables. No matter what time of year it is we can always go outside and find something to eat, be it fruit or vegetable. Our Garden is a ‘Giving Garden’ and if we cannot eat it the Bats and Cockatoos will.
The garden changes every year and is still evolving, it will never be a great Sub-Tropical Garden due to lack of water and poor soil. I endeavour to do at least one major landscaping project and a few minor ones each year until I feel the garden is complete (almost there). This year will be our sixth year in the ‘Open Garden Scheme’.
Even if you have visited our Garden on a previous occasion please rest assured that you will see enough new additions that you will not be disappointed on your return visit.
The main addition during 2005 was the 100 sq metre Bromeliad shade area, which you walk through on your way to the first rainforest walk. There was also a new Garden that complements and joins two existing tracks and Gardens. There were a number of new Projects completed in 2006 including a large front and rear expansion/refurbishment of the pool area garden which now includes an African thatched roofed oval Gazebo with timber deck, two more 15000 litre rainwater tanks and refurbishment of several garden areas including another water feature.
In 2007 the main addition has been an extension to an existing garden featuring a ‘water lily’ pond. This is a stunning and colourful addition to the garden and just about completes the landscaping.
In 2006 the garden featured on the ABCs ‘Gardening Australia’ and Channel 9s ‘Garden Gurus’ and has previously featured in articles in both the ‘Sunday Mail’ and the ‘Courier Mail’. It has also been judged to be one of the best 50 Gardens in Australia by ‘Better Homes and Garden’ magazine.
You will be able to walk through the many rainforest tracks, which are covered by a canopy of exotic, and different Tropical fruit trees. The under plantings are full of many spectacular mass splantings of rare Bromeliads, Heliconias, Gingers, Orchids, Costus, Caladiums, Cordylines , Calatheas as well as many other varieties of unusual plants we collect throughout the year.
There are many water features spread around the Garden. These range from a Goldfish pond with a large running waterfall, Balinese water pots and small in ground ponds all filled with plants and fish. Heliconia’s are a relatively new interest, we now have about 50 different varieties, and we also have 30 different Costus, 50 Gingers and a selection of Calatheas. You will be able to admire the refurbished swimming pool area with its expanded gardens, new Gazebo and Bromeliad/exotic garden. You are also welcome to walk through the Bromeliad and Orchid shade houses that are crammed full of hundreds of colourful plants.
As usual our good friend Kaspar Schnyder (Fruit and Nut Tree Expert) will be on hand to answer all your questions on Fruit and Nut growing in the sub-tropics and Norm Robinson will again be demonstrating the ‘Waterfork’. Our friends Doug and Kaye from NatraKelp will have a display stand selling their kelp products and our friend David will have a promotional stand for his agency selling pots and fertilizers at a special ‘Open Garden’ price.
Our Garden gives immense pleasure, relaxation and tranquillity just by being in it’s within its beautiful grounds It is interesting experience and one that is able to relieve the stresses of a working day, it is a garden that gives us something back in return, and we are very proud to share it with you during our ‘Open Garden’. Judy and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Please feel free to talk to us during your visit, we would love to meet you and will try and answer all your questions to the best of our ability. The ‘Lions Club’ will be at our Garden all weekend and will provide refreshing morning and afternoon Teas, also a sausage sizzle lunch. The ‘Lions’ Ladies will lovingly home cook all the cakes and biscuits and all proceeds from the food will go to a ‘Lions’ Club charity just in time for Christmas. Lions will also run a raffle with nice prizes such as ‘Waterfork’, Compost maker, worm farm, bales of sugar cane mulch and a bromeliad.
‘It’s worth a visit’
This is a garden that you can easily spend an hour or two in and leave relaxed and satisfied and hopefully with new ideas for your garden.
You will also have the opportunity to purchase a large selection of beautiful named Bromeliads and other quality plants all reasonably priced and propagated by Judy.
In November our Garden will be open as part of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme.
Our ‘Open Garden’ will be held on Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th November 2007 between the hours of 9:30am to 4:30pm at 5 Carlton Court, Birkdale (UBD Brisbane 184:A1)
An admission fee of $5 is charged by the ‘Open Garden scheme’ this helps develop Community Gardens throughout Australia. Children under 18 admitted free.
Please enjoy our Garden. Ian & Judy Wintle.
Internet Photo site: http://smg.photobucket.com./albums/v160/Ianrobert

April 2007 garden news

Well we have gone right through March with no rain whatsoever and everything is just so dry, if fact the last rain we had fell on the 13 February 2007.
The fruit trees Black Sapote, Carambola and Pomelo have all shed their fruit as a result of stress. It is heartbreaking to see all the trees limp and stressed and knowing we do not have enough water to look after them.
There will not be much news as I have to take it easy as I have tendonitis in my right shoulder.
I am just working away refurbishing, topping up and mulching existing gardens.
In the past I have used a lot of organic soil and over the years this has shrunk, now a lot of the gardens need topping up with a good premium soil mix. So far eight one metre trailer loads and more to come.
Just spent five days over the Easter break in the garden and what a relief to get back to work, just shows that I am not ready to retire yet. I am 62 this week and except for my shoulder and arthritis I am in fairly good health, just too busy.
One of my jobs over the break was to start re-potting my Cattleya Orchids, they have been neglected in the past few years as I always seem to have just too much else to do, hopefully once re-potted and fertilized they will come on and give us some nice blooms.
Bought a new Husqvarna chain saw this week as my old one was just too hard to start especially with my shoulder problem, I also bought a new Honda self propelled mower, time to take things just a bit easier, this should be the last mower I will ever buy. The way things are going with the lack of rain and my lawns nearly dead I may never get to use it
Just took delivery of another load of sugar cane mulch, this makes 65 bales so far this year, it’s still not going to be enough to even finish the back yard. Well the sugar cane has disappeared very quickly and I now have to order another truckload. I have not even finished the back garden yet.
It is now the 23 April and there have been quite a few storms around but all have missed us, it’s frustrating when the Bay Islands (only a few kilometres as the crow flies) can get 30mm of rain nearly every week and we get none.
Had to order another 20 bales of sugar cane mulch, as the previous load just disappeared into the garden, putting it on much thicker this year due to the drought and the need to preserve what little moisture there is.
I was invited to the 'Eagleby Garden Club' as guest speaker, it seemed to go down well.
Well Saturday was forecast for rain all day and night; guess what, that’s right not a bloody drop fell, as is the case these days.
Let’s hope that rain will fall in May.

March 2007 Garden News

Started off the month by renewing the back garden under the’ Nam Doc Mi’ Mango, virtually no soil left only a lot of fibrous roots. A metre of good soil did the trick and has cleaned up a part of our garden that looked a bit neglected.
Another two metres of soil carted in by trailer which we used to top up other gardens where the original soil has shrunk.
Autumn and it is just so hot and dry. It’s like midsummer with temps in the high 30s with absolutely no rain forecast.
It is now the end of March and the heat has just not let up. Absolutely no rain whatsoever, the plants are just keeping alive, the trees are stressed, fruit trees have shed their fruit in order to cope with the dry and the lawns are brown and dying. What a picture. I have finished planting the new garden and it should look good for next November’s opening. I have entered the ‘water wise’ garden competition run by our Brisbane paper ‘The Courier Mail’. Do not think we can win, but believe we have done enough to warrant an entry.
Still have a lot of shoulder pain and Doctor Say’s it’s ‘tendonitis’ of the shoulder and that I should take it easy. The best I can do is no more new gardens.

Being Waterwise during a drought

Would we still be avid gardeners if we had known the drought would be so bad? I think we would of, but perhaps not gone as far as we have done.
I know now that gardening is a highly stressful hobby, all this checking the weather and looking into the sky praying for rain gives us a sore neck and a headache.
Judy and I feel we should enter the ‘Green Thumbs’ garden competition as we struggle to maintain a beautiful one acre sub tropical garden against all odds and have put a real effort both financial and physical into the garden to make it as ‘waterwise’ as possible.
There is not much else we can do to make our garden any more ‘waterwise’ other than to destroy the garden and plant natives.
We will not do that as we believe native plants also need water, and we would destroy the present ‘micro climate’, which has taken years to achieve.
We believe we have risen to the drought challenge and work very hard to maintain our beautiful garden without wasting a drop of water.
Admittedly we are not in as bad a position as residents of Brisbane as we in the ‘Redlands’ are allowed some hose watering and we do of course take advantage of that.
Admittedly not all our plants are ‘waterwise’ but they do survive on minimal watering, our philosophy is to give each plant only enough water for it to survive, we hand water only, sprinklers, water systems ect were all mothballed several years ago.
I am a mad composter and have large ‘Greenfield’ petrol driven shredder, which is used to put all green waste through which then, is composted along with all the lawn clippings. I mix into the compost ‘blood and bone’, ‘hydrated lime’, ‘dolomite’ ‘urea’ and animal manure this accelerates my compost.
Bales of coarse Sugar Cane mulch are laid throughout the garden twice a year or wherever necessary. We would use well over 150 bales every year; this in turn decomposes and improves the soil and water retention. Compost is also added to the garden as well as trailer loads of animal manure. Mulch plays a very important part in our garden and on our open days I make sure that my shredder and finished compost is on display during our ‘Open Garden’ for visitors to see, we also make sure we are available to answer any questions relating to ‘waterwise’ gardening.

We have reduced our lawn area but it’s still a big area, I can assure you that the lawn survives totally from rain from the sky, it is never watered either from the tap or tank.
Bromeliads are a passion, we have 1000s of these and they are of course a ‘waterwise’ plant.
We now have three 15,000-litre water tanks and one 5000-litre tank, totalling 50,000 litres of rainwater. We have a small portable pump on a hand trolley, which we move between tanks.
The swimming pool is always topped up from a rainwater tank.
Due to the heavy mulching our gardens are weed free and also with the heavy use of seaweed liquid ‘natrakelp’ the plants are healthy and disease free, this of course strengthens the plant and helps it survive on minimal water.

Creating a new Garden

I usually have a picture in my mind of how it’s going to look.
The first job is to get out the garden hose a lay it on the ground approximately the shape and size of your new garden.
You can then give it a nudge here and there with your foot until you think the garden is the right shape and most importantly has the right ‘curves’.
Then go around the edge of the hose with a can of marking paint (Bunning’s sell for about $6.00), now you can see your future garden.
Next is to run a spade around the outer perimeter of the garden, take about 100mm depth of grass /soil out and enough width for the pavers and rocks.
I usually lay the pavers first, I use a 50mm paver, and my preference is the ‘Black and Tan’ paver. I lay these pavers on a 50mm bed of wet cement; it does not have to be deep as they all bond together. For tools I use a rubber mallet and a small line level, this makes sure all the pavers are level. It is a fairly easy task to lay the pavers once you get going. The beauty of the pavers is that they make a great mowing strip.
Next comes the rocks, these sit about 50mm back from the pavers, again these sit on a small layer of wet cement, don’t worry about gaps between the rocks as later you will fill these with a strong mix of black coloured cement.
Now fill the gap between the pavers and rocks, just run a trowel along the wet cement and smooth over. Any run off can be cleaned off with a bucket of water and a wet rag.
I then point in-between the rocks using black coloured cement and a ‘pointing tool’, this is important as it gives the garden a great finish.
Now, inside your new garden you have either poisoned the grassed area with Roundup or removed the grass. The first new layer is usually compost or manure, then the soil; it does not have to be great soil because with a bit of work ‘YOU CAN MAKE IT GREAT SOIL’ then another layer of compost/manure on the top followed by mulch. You will be surprised how quickly the soil improves, don’t forget the seaweed liquid it’s a great soil conditioner. Do not use a soil or organic mix which has less than 70% soil. A pure organic or low soil mix will shrink and eventually reduce to virtually nothing over time.
All that’s left is to dig your plants in, and again don’t forget to liquid seaweed them in after planting as the seaweed prevents transplant shock.
Hope this is of some help.

February 2007 garden news

February Garden news

What a great way to start the month Rain for two days, not a lot. It means we do not have to water for a few days, and it’s nice to see the plants looking so well, no matter how much we water, the plants never look as good as when it has rained.
The neighbours are sub dividing and when I arrived home there was a truck taking all the soil away, so like an idiot I asked for about six metres to be dumped over the fence. It was not as good as I thought it was, full of clay, rock and roots. It was a very tough job getting the soil into the new garden. There’s about a metre or so left and I just cannot face it, so I have called in Chad with the Dingo to clear it away. We have partly planted the new garden. Finally went out early Saturday morning in our local creek cast netting for prawns, caught about 6 kilos, it was a welcome break away from the garden. Once everything was cleaned I went to the landscaping yard and bought some brickies loam and some very nice flat moss covered rocks. I then cemented and pointed the rocks and laid a few loose ones to create a natural look. I then filled the pond with a mix of tank and town water, treated with ‘Phoslok’ and a pond conditioner. On Sunday went to see Franquois at Capalaba and bought 10 water lilies. I let him choose some ones that will flower for the ‘Open Garden’ in November. The pond looks great and I am very happy with the end product. All that is left is some planting and the addition of fish into the pond. At last some good solid rain over a few days, hopefully this will finally reach the subsoil, just cannot remember when the subsoil was last damp. Unfortunately the rain quickly disappeared (may of been an illusion) and we will have to start watering soon. It is now the last week of the month and all my new Water Lilies look like they are dying, had the Ph checked and that was all OK, so I have no idea what is wrong, next step is to change the water. Fish are doing well so perhaps it’s not the water.

January Garden news 2007

I have a very sore shoulder at the moment; some small movements cause a stabbing pain down my arm. It’s funny because I can still do most jobs, dig holes, shovel soil ect but when I try and do little things like lift a pot or wash my back in the shower the pain starts. Hopefully with some cortisone and massage I can get back on track.
I have started on the lily pond, I was going to make the new garden an island with two branching pathways, my son had a look and persuaded me that it would look better as an addition to the existing garden, so that’s the way I am going to go. I was very proud of him coming up with this idea.The ‘Dingo’ is coming this week the dig the hole for me, and then I start on the pavers, rocks and soil, then of course the choice of suitable plants. I think I will have the large yellow ‘Blanchetiana’ Bromeliads with Red Sensation, Red Fountain Cordylines, colour is really important in our garden. So far we are three weeks into January with high temperatures and absolutely no sign of rain. It’s so bloody frustrating. Basically we are only just keeping our plants alive; nothing is what you could call thriving. What a great garden we could have if we only had good soil and unlimited water. Having a garden like ours is a real test of character. The mini excavator arrived on Australia Day and Chad had the grass out and the hole dug in a little over an hour. The ground was as dry as a bone; I could never have dug this hole. As it was the temp was 35c with about 80% humidity and I was silly enough to cement the paving strip and place rocks and point. At the end of the weekend I am exhausted.

December 2006 Garden news

The Christmas Party for ITGFS was very quiet and only about 30 people attended, the weather was hot and muggy and by the time the party finished every plant in the garden looked stressed.
Seems that this plant Society is like every other one, infighting, if this falls apart I will be staying away from clubs, societies, ect. I just do not need this sort of crap in my life.
Fortunately we had a storm on Sunday night and received about 30mm of badly needed rain.
I will not be adding much this month as I am just about ‘gardened out’, sick to death of this dry weather and when it does rain we seem to get gale winds following which have done a lot of damage this year
It’s been a long hard year and my Arthritis is not getting better, the bones are not what they used to be.
Have a couple of small jobs to do over the Christmas break. I think I will leave the lily pond for a few months, no hurry with this as the Water Lily’s are dormant in winter anyway.
Well we have had a nice Christmas and I actually had a five day break from the garden, which is pretty amazing.
I cleaned and serviced my boat, outboard and fishing gear. I intend to get out on the bay during 2007.
After Christmas I couldn’t help myself, refurbished the garden behind the house, took out some Heliconias which have never flowered and replaced them with Gingers, Cordylines and Costus.