May Garden 2008

Sorry to keep on harping on the same old subject but it’s so bloody dry, it’s been over eight weeks since we last had rain and everything has turned brown again, so much for ‘La Nina’ which was supposed to bring good autumn and winter rain.
Had a nice little break at Caloundra and of course brought back a car load of plants.
I went back to the Redland Bay nursery and bought enough plants to fill some holes in the garden, not many left now.
The big job this month has been to cut out old mother Bromeliads and mulch the garden, cannot get the small bales this time of year, so had some of the massive bales (equivalent to 10 normal bales) delivered.
It finally rained on 17th but was only a few mills, anything is better than nothing, and then the next day we had gale force winds which dried up what little moisture left.
Big jobs this month have been to take the chainsaw to the Mulberry Tree and give it a severe haircut, take out shred and compost the old mother Bromeliad plants and to plant a number of Tree Aloes in the front garden.
Then I decided to re-shade the neo house, we had previously made a big mistake putting 70% shade when I built it, now we realise the neo’s do not have the colour they should have, so I bought a 50 metre roll of premium shade cloth and cut the whole roll into four lengths and stapled together with chicken wire staples, then old cloth off and new on, mind you I had to enlist the help of our Subaru forester and a length of rope as it was too heavy for me either to take down or put up.
The end of the month and finally some decent rain, thank goodness.
I am really happy with the garden at the moment it’s going to look great for 2008 ‘Open Garden’.

Sorry to keep on harping on the same old subject but it’s so bloody dry, it’s been over eight weeks since we last had rain and everything has turned brown again, so much for ‘La Nina’ which was supposed to bring good autumn and winter rain.
Had a nice little break at Caloundra and of course brought back a car load of plants.
I went back to the Redland Bay nursery and bought enough plants to fill some holes in the garden, not many left now.
The big job this month has been to cut out old mother Bromeliads and mulch the garden, cannot get the small bales this time of year, so had some of the massive bales (equivalent to 10 normal bales) delivered.
It finally rained on 17th but was only a few mills, anything is better than nothing, and then the next day we had gale force winds which dried up what little moisture left.
Big jobs this month have been to take the chainsaw to the Mulberry Tree and give it a severe haircut, take out shred and compost the old mother Bromeliad plants and to plant a number of Tree Aloes in the front garden.
Then I decided to re-shade the neo house, we had previously made a big mistake putting 70% shade when I built it, now we realise the neo’s do not have the colour they should have, so I bought a 50 metre roll of premium shade cloth and cut the whole roll into four lengths and stapled together with chicken wire staples, then old cloth off and new on, mind you I had to enlist the help of our Subaru forester and a length of rope as it was too heavy for me either to take down or put up.
The end of the month and finally some decent rain, thank goodness.
I am really happy with the garden at the moment it’s going to look great for 2008 ‘Open Garden’.

April Garden

Still slaving away every weekend shovelling soil, the refurbishment of the long side garden which is about 50 metres long has taken much more soil than I thought, altogether I will have carted in 13 metres all at one metre trailer loads. I will be really happy to have a weekend where I am not shovelling something.
I have booked a four-day holiday up at Caloundra. My body needs a rest as I have gone pretty hard every weekend since last years open garden.
I must admit the garden is looking very nice at the moment and that’s with all the caladiums and most of gingers dormant.
I am again going to try for ‘Gardening Australia’s’, ‘Gardener of the Year’. Why not! I certainly put the hard work and effort into our garden and it’s all a love job, not a business and I do not get any assistance other that what Judy can do with her bad Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Our new neighbours have started on their new home and have removed a massive silky oak tree, which was only a metre from our back fence; it was a very dirty tree (leaf drop) and roots everywhere, so I am not sad to see it go.
A local nursery was having a plant sale and we bought two carloads of very nice sub tropical plants.
The side garden is now completed after a very hard long weekend of trimming trees, going to the dump and trailer loads of soil, pine bark and mushroom compost.
The mushroom compost is what I mix with the leaf, lawn and shredded material to make my garden compost.
This month has been one of those months that has made a ‘difference’ to our garden.
No rain during the month of April.