November 2009 Garden News

Again I have to start with the amazing run of dry weather, after installing six rainwater tanks storing 82,500 litres I knew we would have enough water to get us through any known drought, but, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would go almost SIX months without rain. The garden is turning into a dust bowl and all the trees and plants are looking stressed. We are now using town water, just enough to keep the plants alive (we hope).

The Open Garden lead up was the hardest and most stressful we have ever had, mainly due to the heat wave and dry conditions, but to make it worse the Lions Club pulled out of the catering and this was done by family.

The Open Garden was not a success with just over 400 visitors, this was down by 50%, catering lost about $300 and plant sales were down by 60%, I put it down to the heatwave as temperatures in the sun were in the 40s.

We will do it again next year and hope that the weather is kinder to us.

I know that garden visitor numbers are down throughout Queensland with some really good gardens getting only 200 visitors; we will not open again if our numbers were ever that low.

We are still buying plants, not planting them out until the weather changes for the better.

Now for some really exciting news, Judy and I are finalists in Gardening Australia’s ‘Gardener of the Year’ competition. This is the most prestigious award a home gardener can receive, so of course we are really excited about this.

The other good news is that our eldest son won the 'Sporting Wheelie of the Year award', very well deserved for this World Champion Disabled water Skier.