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.