Garden News March 2013

We started off the month with a presentation to the’ Bayside Garden Club’ based in Wynnum then I travelled across the sea all the way to ‘Coochie Mudlo’ Island to give another presentation.

The final presentation for the month was for the ‘Beenleigh Garden Club’.

In between all that we had our charity ‘Open Garden’.

The Lions Club needed to raise $2580 for the ‘Flux posterior walker’, we ended up raising $3344 which gave the Lions Club enough left over to help someone else in need.

 Pictures from our 'Open Garden'

We were disappointed with the numbers as only 330 people attended. We found it was very difficult to get the message across as we were virtually ignored by the major papers and the local paper for Wynnum only has a stamp size article, as usual our local paper ‘Bayside Bulletin’ was very good.

The visitors who came willingly paid the $5 entry, bought a raffle ticket and sat down for refreshments, some even made an extra donation, but most of all everyone left happy.

Special mention to Clair Levander from Radio 4BC’s gardening show, she was a great help and certainly is a worthy successor to the late and great Colin Campbell.

As most gardeners will realise it took a great deal of work to get the garden ready for showing and when we opened the garden looked great, some of the comments from people were fantastic and quite a few visitors had been to the well known Sunnybank Garden a couple of weeks ago and said they enjoyed ours more.

I have pebbled another pathway and started to build another archway across one of the garden tracks.

 Canna edulis

 Euphorbia geroldii

 Caladium

 Caladium

 Justicica

 Toad Lily

 Carphalia

 Costus amazonius

 Aeschynanthus 'Hot Flash'

 Euphorbia trigonia

 Stapelia hirsuta 'Starfish Flower'

 Piper 'Kava'

 Tacca 'White Bat Plant'

Brugmansia

 The evolution of our garden never stops.

I have just finished a third garden presentation called ‘Bizarre and Beautiful Botanicals’, I am very pleased with this and the Garden Clubs should love it. It consists of 220 power point slides of some of the very rare plants we have and some of the most beautiful.

This blog get's over 200 visitors every day with over 72,000 visits, this gives me a real thrill to think so many people from so many different countries have seen our garden.

Don't forget to see my review site found at http://www.gardenproductreviews.com/ I have just done a scathing review of a Hills product and their bad service.

Garden News February 2013

Since the late January rain it really has not stopped.
Showers, drizzle and the occasional very heavy downpour.

The result is a very waterlogged garden and all seven rainwater tanks overflowing, not that I am complaining as all the moisture has finally gone into the sub soil and that augers well for the coming winter.

I gave a ‘Passion for Plants’ presentation for the ‘Rose Lovers Society’ and on short notice we hosted a meeting for The International Cordyline Society’.

Now for the really big news.

After 11 consecutive open gardens through ‘Australia’s Open Gardens’ we thought 2013 would be a good time to take a break.

We went through a horrendous six months, with virtually no rain from mid July 2012 to late January 2013, then in January 2013 a massive storm did a moderate amount of damage to the garden.

Gardening had become very difficult and we needed a break.

Mid February we received a plea from the ‘Moreton Bay Lions Club’ asking us if we would open our garden in order to raise funds for an 8 year old boy who suffered from Cerebral Palsy and was in dire need of a ‘Flux Walker’.

The walker would give him independence and lessen the burden on his family.

Having gone through a similar situation ourselves (our son is a paraplegic as a result of a motorbike accident) how could we say no.

So, we have decided to open our garden on the 16^th and 17^th of March between the hours of 9am to 4 pm.

The entry fee will be $5 and there will be refreshments all day. The Lions ladies will be cooking homemade delicacies and there will be Devonshire teas and a sausage sizzle.

A local hardware store has donated some great raffle prizes.

All proceeds will go to the Lions Club to be distributed to the boy.

We felt it was the least we could do.

We usually open our garden in November, so this will be our first opening at this time of year.

After all the rain the garden is looking great and in particular the ‘Beehive Gingers’ will be putting on a show.

We have lost a large ‘Pommelo’ tree which is a real shame as a tree that size is irreplaceable. I have started to replant the area where it was.

 Pink Brugmansia.

Beehive Ginger 'Singapore Gold'.

 Torch Ginger 'Sweet Pink'

 Curcuma 'Anita'.

 Dragon Fruit.

 Carambola.

Water Lily.

As our plant shelter was blown away during the storm I have now built a more permanent one and I have also made a nice pebbled garden walk where grass would never grow.

All in all February has been a very busy gardening month and now with an ‘Open Garden’ coming up March looks like being just as crazy, I am just so busy in my retirement and wonder how did I manage when I worked five days a week.