September 2015 Garden News

It has been very much of an uneventful month in the garden.

Still very dry with only one small shower during the month, it did try and rain bt it as usual went to the north and south of us.

Lucky this year we still have rainwater in our tanks, so are able to keep our plants alive.

 Aechmea 'Red October'

 Amorphophallus coaetaneus

 Pinellia 'Green Dragon'

 Mulberry time.

 Medinilla dolichopylla

 Hippeastrum 'Jovial Joe'

 Heliconia 'Costa Flores'.

 Clivea var

 Phaius bernaysii

Tillandsia neglecta

Only one garden presentation this month and that was to the Cleveland Probus Club.

I was the only male out of about 60 club members, they enjoyed the presentation and it also gave me the opportunity to promote Novembers ‘Open Garden’.

Probably the biggest job this month was to replace the pool gazebo roof.

The thatch is very expensive, just the two ends cost over $600. I managed to save quite a bit by using extra thick brush fencing on the main part of the roof as Bunning’s had reduced a roll from $169 to $69, so all in all the roof cost me a little over $700 and it looks good.

I also oiled and refurbished the deck.

Did some work on the pool area garden as I scored a couple of really nice clay pots from the Bunning’s throw out table.

There was a Cordyline Society meeting at the end of the month which I went to, seems I was the only person who was not told about a change in venue.

School Holidays so I took Sophie and Luke fishing to a creek that runs alongside our estate.

I am really happy with the way the garden is looking at the moment, with a little bit of rain the garden will look the best ever for our opening.

I have started to do all the mail outs to garden clubs ect and am getting flyers out to nurseries ect.

People do not seem to realise just how much it costs to put on a well organised ‘Open Garden’, I estimate our costs at about $1000, this includes printing, mailing, signs, toilet hire, gas, ect.

Here is some information about our opening.

After raising $8292 for disabled children through a local Lions Club in the last two open gardens, Judy and I have decided to open our garden again on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd November to again support the ‘Lions Club’ to raise money for a worthwhile cause.

Entry will be only $7.00 and the Lions Club will be providing food and drinks.
A portable toilet will be available situated on the front lawn.

As usual Judy will be selling some amazing bromeliads and other garden plants including some rare plants that you will not get elsewhere.

We also have Genny Catlan bringing a selection of beautiful caladiums to sell.
It's on the same weekend as the 'Tropical Foliage Festival' which is held in Cleveland, so you can have a great gardening day out if you visit us both.
Stacks of great plants (including Tropical Fruit Trees) will be for sale as well as fresh 'off the tree' ‘black sapote’ (chocolate pudding fruit).

Please come and see a great garden and most importantly support a very worthwhile cause.

It’s not a walk in walk out garden; it’s one you can spend several hours in.

If you have been before please come again because there’s always something new in this garden and this year has seen a lot of new work done.

Ian has his own website www.gardenproductreviews.com and a garden blog at www.ianjudy.blogspot.com  almost 200,000 people from over 100 countries around the world have seen our garden this way.  The blog has been archived by the state library as being of significant importance to the state of Queensland. Ian also has a Facebook page devoted to the ‘giving garden’ found at https://www.facebook.com/birkdalegarden?ref=hl which has over 900 followers.