March 2015 Garden News

The month started off dry, humid and very hot. I must admit I am really looking forward to some cooler weather.

The extreme heat meant that my time was taken up watering the garden, it’s such a painful job standing watering for hours. I must admit I am very much relieved when it eventually rains and I can do other things around the garden or house.

Towards the end of the month we had some decent rain, about 75 mills in total. That’s a lot less than Brisbane received but we are thankful for what we got as we were getting quite dry.

It never ceases to amaze me why Brisbane can get so much more rain than us, see picture of Brisbane from the Birkdale dump, so not far away as the crow flies.

We had a visit from a Facebook group ‘Tropical Backyards’, not a lot of people, about 15 or so but Judy put on morning tea, I gave a power point presentation and then took our visitors for a tour of the garden. Then they were able to see the plants Judy had for sale.

They all said how much they enjoyed the garden and how good it was to take the time to see everything without pressure or rushing.

It was an enjoyable visit for them and us.

The Pecan nuts are picking and it's a race to see who can get the most between us and the Cockatoo's.

It's also going to be a big fight between us and the possums who get's to eat the Custard Apples.

Three garden presentations this month, one to Indooroopilly Garden Club another to Chermside/Rode Garden Club and one to Eagleby Garden Club.

Eagleby is a particularly friendly club and this was our third visit there.

Our Australian Native Bee's (which are stingless) are thriving, must be plenty of food in our yard for them.

The moment my wife dreads arrived when I say I am going to build a new garden or change an existing one.

I decided that the garden curving around the Neem tree was not good enough so I ripped it all out with the help of my Aldi Jackhammer and proceeded to expand it by about another 20 square metres.

It was hard work in the heat and humidity but I finished it and am very happy with the result.

It’s a really nice place to sit and relax, ha ,ha.

Some nice Orchid's out this month.

My back is not what it used to be and I am in a fair bit of pain until I warm up, I suppose that’s to be expected as I am 70 on April 15^th, not like I feel it.

Some other plants that flowered this month.

 Swamp Hibiscus

 Aphelandra tetragona

 Blue Ginger

 Odontonema

 Euphorbia

 Anthurium

 Rondaletia odorata 'Panama Rose'

 Ixora

 Lime Zinger and Carphalia

Streptocarpus

Our youngest son and his family are still touring Australia and have just completed three months in Tasmania which they really enjoyed.

You can follow ‘This is our Australia’ either through their website or on Facebook.

They have taken some really stunning pictures of this great country.

My Facebook page ‘The Giving Garden’ is doing well now having over 600 likes.

Please note: you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

Some big news about this garden blog.

This garden blog has been selected by the State Library of Queensland to be archived and published.

I must admit I am rather proud of this achievement.

Here is the criteria.

Queensland content
A significant proportion of a work should:
• be about Queensland; or
• be on a subject of social, political, cultural, artistic, religious, scientific or economic significance and relevance to Queensland
Queensland authorship or editorship alone is insufficient grounds for preservation.
Authority and research value
High priority is given to authoritative publications with long term research value. Selected publications of lasting significance and generally not available in any other format will be selected for preservation
Online publications that are not considered to be authoritative or do not have reasonable research value will not be selected comprehensively. However, representative examples of online publications covering a wide range of subjects documenting Queensland society as represented on the Internet will be archived.
Factors contributing to the selection of new online publications or websites for archiving include:
• intellectual content
• historic value
• rareness or uniqueness
• cultural or associational value for Queensland
• importance for the understanding of Queensland and Queenslanders
• wide-ranging coverage of Queensland
• useful and accurate content
• information on Queensland subjects or groups that are otherwise poorly documented
• potential for enduring value in digital form
• demonstrate new and innovative uses of the internet

Personal websites
Personal websites will usually only be selected if:
• they provide information of significant research value about Queensland which is not available elsewhere
• they are original and are of exceptional quality or of particular interest
• they reflect Queensland regional, cultural and/or social diversity.