October Garden News 2016

Just so busy at the moment, October has just flown and it’s only three weeks away from our ‘Open Garden’.

There are just not enough hours in the day.

Here we are in our 70s supposedly retired and working harder than ever, would I swop? Probably not.

We had ‘Ormeo Garden Club’ through in October and the 38 members enjoyed the garden and as a special treat our Jade Vine was in full flower.

We had on gardening presentation and that was for ‘Glebe Garden Club’ in Ipswich, a nice club and we are always happy to go there.

It has been a very dry October (what’s new) and our place is starting to dry up, just hope we can get some decent rain prior to our opening.

Judy has been very busy preparing lots of beautiful plants which we sell that weekend at very reasonable prices, in fact that is the reason why a lot of people keep on coming to our opening.

We have lost a couple of trees and that has necessitated building some shade structures, this is what I have done this month.

Some of the beautiful plants in flower this month.

Some of our visitors.

Below is our garden story.

Ian and Judy Wintle’s ‘Giving Garden’

You could be forgiven for believing you’re lost in a tropical paradise walking through our garden.

Our one acre labour of love is fondly called ‘The Giving Garden’ providing many years of satisfaction and solace to our family, friends, and visitors, not forgetting the wildlife.

After finishing Uni our eldest son Scott went backpacking in Europe for a year. Only a couple of weeks before he was due to return home we received news from Switzerland that he had broken his back in a motorbike accident and would never walk again.

The months that followed drew on our mental, financial, and physical strength. It was not for a further six months that he could finally return to his home. By that time not only he needed rehabilitation Mum and Dad also did.

Our garden gave us the ability to heal, it was our rehabilitation and two decades on; it has blossomed into a lush sub-tropical oasis, featuring some of the world’s most exotic and unusual plants and fruit trees.

The garden was part of ‘Australia’s Open Gardens’ from 2002 to 2013 and many thousands of visitors came to visit our garden.

For the last three years we have continued to open our garden and support a local Lions Club, we stipulated that all money raised assist disabled children. We have assisted the Lion’s Club by raising $12,523 in the last three openings.

Overall we have raised around $50,000 for charities through our 14 ‘Open Gardens’.

After 48 years of marriage Judy and I know that the time and love we have invested in our garden will continue to give us and our visitor’s joy for many years to come.

We plan to continue opening our garden for as long as we are able to as we enjoy the weekend and meeting so many fellow gardeners.

There is always something new to see in this garden and 2016 is no exception with big changes to the garden.

As usual there will be some great plants for sale, refreshments from the Lions Club and a raffle. Some visitors stay for up to four hours and they are welcome to bring their camera.

We have welcomed many bus tours through our garden and have given over 135 power point presentations to gardening and service clubs throughout South East Queensland.

Ian has his own website ‘garden product reviews.com’ and a garden blog at ‘ianjudy.blogspot.com’ over 250,000 people from over 100 countries around the world have seen our garden this way. The blog has been archived by the Queensland State Library as being of significant importance to the state of Queensland.

Ian also has a Facebook page called ‘The Giving Garden’ which has over 1650 followers and another Facebook page ‘Open Gardens and Events Queensland’ where people who intend to open their garden can post information. This was badly needed as the ‘Australia’s Open Gardens’ Scheme closed down in June 2015.

So, please come and enjoy our beautiful garden, we are sure you will not be disappointed.