November Garden News 2012

We went into November with despair; the weather had been so unkind to us. Just two lots of 2 mills of rain since late July and the winds were the worst in our memory. Judy and I looked at each other and commented that ‘we could just walk away and leave it all'.

All our rainwater tanks (107,500 litres) were empty

On the second week of November we had 30 mills of rain and on the third weekend (this is when we usually have our open garden) we had 51 mills.

We were saved, the garden sparked up like you would not believe, and what a relief not having to water the garden.

I had a garden presentation at ‘Springdale garden club' which was well attended and two presentations for the Cordyline Society’s ‘Tropical Affair’ plant sale.

Thank goodness we opened our garden one week later than usual as the weather could not have been better with a top temperature of 27c and fine.

The ‘Open Garden’ was a success with over 600 people visiting the garden and great plant sales.

The raffle raised over $700 for disabled sport and catering did well for a local food bank.

The main thing that struck me was how nice all the visitors were.

After eleven successive openings we are going to have a break and reassess our situation in 2014.

I already have 11 garden presentations booked for next year and there’s sure to be more including bus trips.

As usual after the opening we head up to Mooloolaba to have a three day rest away from the garden.

We see all our garden friends up there and of course return with a load of new plants, this year I was able to secure some new Costus and Zingibers.

To all my blog readers I wish them all a very happy Christmas and hope that 2013 will be a great year for them in the garden and in life.