Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

November garden news 2022

 

We started off the month with a bust tour from ‘The Gap Garden Club’, we don’t usually accept visitors prior to an ‘Open Garden’ but decided to make an exception as we hold this club in high regard as I have given several presentations to them over the years and we were always well received.

The visit went well and they all enjoyed the garden and went home with nice plants.

Then everything in November related to our 20^th and last Open Garden.

We decided that this year would be our last full Open Garden, if only people knew how much work was involved in opening, they would be shocked.

We may have a couple of plant sale days but nothing like a big opening.

Another reason is like us our helpers are getting older and it’s not fair on them to continue.

Judy works for month’s prior preparing plants and I like the garden perfect for the opening.

The weather is always a worry, too wet, too dry, too hot.

This year we opened in a dry spell and had bad winds for several weeks prior to opening.

Organizing a coffee van, flyers. Insurance, portable toilet, gazebo, chairs, tables, letters to garden clubs, newspapers, individuals, Facebook Garden pages ect, then Judy prepares drinks and food for our helpers is all part of opening.

Pretty much exhausted even before we open.

Saturday the 19^th November 2022 arrived and up at 4 am to do last minute preparation.

Around 8 am a queue starts and gets bigger and bigger so we start to let the visitors in and of course they all head towards the plants for sale, most were pleasantly surprised that this year we had EFTPOS payment and it was used a lot, Saturday morning was frantic with plant buyers and 100s of questions.

Up again at 4 am on Sunday morning to replenish stock of plants as so many went on Saturday.

Sunday was quiet as the weather forecast was for extreme heat and storms, well the heat did not get to the expected maximum and the storm came one hour after we closed and what a welcome relief that was.

Overall, we had a tad under 700 visitors to our garden, we were happy with that even though it was below average.

The week after we had a small group visit from the ‘Mt Crosby Garden Club’.

Finally for November we went to the ‘Tropical Foliage Festival’ and of course came home with some new plants.

It’s all over now and just finished the clean up two weeks after, now to get ready for a family Christmas.

September Garden News 2022

 

I am finding it quite hard to do this month’s blog as I am just so time poor with getting ready for bus visits and of course this years ‘Open garden’ which will be our last one.

We had a bus load from ‘Carina Senior Citizens Club’ visit and one from Sandgate Garden Club.

I gave presentation’s to ‘The Potted Plant Society’ and the “Cordyline Society’.

There is very little spare time these days as there is always so much to do.

It is quite dry as we have not had a decent rainfall for a couple of months.

Some pictures from September garden.

The Giving Garden’s 20^th and last Open Garden

77-year old’s Ian and Judy Wintle are going to open their beautiful one-acre Birkdale Garden for the final time on the weekend of 19 and 20 November 2022, this will be our 20^th and last opening.

This seems a fitting number to close this chapter of our lives.

The garden is probably the only garden in Australia where the shade canopy is provided by more than 50 tropical fruit and nut trees, there are Sapotes, Lychees, Sapodillas, Mango’s, Custard Apples, Carambolas, just to name a few.

The garden has meandering pathways throughout and as you walk through you must look left, right and above to see and appreciate the vast array of plants growing.

There are shade houses full of Bromeliads, Orchids, Aroids , gingers and other rare and exotic plants, not forgetting a collection of over 60 different and rare Amorphophallus.

Ian and Judy have been collecting for 30 years so you will get to see some very rare botanicals.

Their garden has been described as ‘Birkdale’s ‘Botanical Garden’.

A must see is the mass planting of Caladiums.

There will be a large range of plants for sale and a coffee van will be serving refreshments on the front lawn.

A toilet portable will be available.

All gate takings now go to assist our paraplegic son compete in the ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’ which are held every two years, it must be noted that he is the World Champion in the trick and Jump events.

It must be said in the 20 years of opening we have never taken the gate money.

Ian and Judy were Redland City’s ‘Local Hero’s’ in 2017 having raised over $60,000 for the Lion’s Club.

In 1996 our son has a motor bike accident and became a paraplegic, as well as him needing rehabilitation Mum and Dad also needed rehabilitation and gardening fitted the bill, we needed to keep active and not to dwell on what happened to our son.

Gardening has now become a passion and we have given over 200 presentations to garden clubs in SEQ  and hosted many bus tours in the garden, not to mention the friends we have made on our journey.

We both work hard every day in the garden and our doctor’s say “keep on doing that” forget about the aches and pains.

Judy does all the potting and propagation and Ian the garden and maintenance, we jokingly say we have a happy marriage (54 years) as of a morning we each go our own way in the garden and see each other during the day for morning tea and lunch.

Ian has a garden Blog which has had over 350,000 visits and has been archived by the state library also a web page ‘Garden Product Reviews’, a Facebook page ‘The Giving Garden’ with 3600 likes and another Facebook page ‘Open Gardens and Events Queensland’ with over 4000 likes.

While gardening keeps my body healthy and fit, I also need to keep my mind active and doing the blog and Facebook pages does that.

 

August 2022 garden News

 

Not much to say about August as we had no garden presentations and one bus trip.

The Sub Tropical Garden Club came here from the Sunshine Coast and they were all plant lovers who really enjoyed the garden. This club is all that is left of ‘The Tropical Foliage and Garden Society’ which used to be quite active a few years ago until petering out some years ago. It was a shame as they produced some really good and informative information.

It was a bit of a worry as I had mislaid the information about their visit so we only found out a couple of days prior to them coming.

What a rush to get ready but we did it and the garden was looking great for our visitors.

I suppose the biggest job of the month was to take my Amorphophallus out of the shed where they have been stored dry over winter and to repot them.

Judy has started to repot the Caladiums and we are using so much potting mix that we have been twice to Centenary Landscapes to purchase one metre of their platinum mix each time.

We have been down to Jacobs Well a few times to see our gardening friend who is not well and always bring her some home cooked food and a bundle of books to read.

Otherwise it’s all been about maintaining the garden.

June and July 2022 Garden News

 

I have not posted for a month due to Judy being hospitalized for two weeks with a serious foot infection, driving every day to the hospital meant little gardening has been done.

The good news is that she is recovering, it will be a slow process but she is back to potting.

As for me, I have Covid and am presently isolating, not feeling the best but hopefully will get through it without any side effects.

I am on anti-virus tablets at $1000 a bottle, thank goodness for the PSB scheme where I only have to pay around the $6 MARK.

So, in-between driving to Greenslopes Hospital every day I have been pruning all the fruit trees, so much extra growth this year with all the rain we had. I have cut them back hard this year as it is getting too hard to climb up with a saw.

The gingers are all dying back with the cold, in my opinion this is the coldest winter we have had for many a year, the garden is looking quite cold affected.

A lot of Coastal Python activity this year.

For the first time we will have Beehive gingers available at our Open Garden.

A lot of pathway gravel was washed away during the rain so I had to replace that.

We are still planning on opening in November, it will be our 20^th ‘Open Garden’, I thing that is quite a feat, we are still feeling it will be our last.

While Judy was in hospital, I kept my word to the Bribie Island Garden Club and drove up there to give a presentation, very friendly and provided lunch at the local bowls club.

The turf I put down last year needed a top dress, so I went to my local landscape yard and they recommended a Botando top dressing, I would have preferred the Candy one but they no longer stock that brand.

Well, was that a disaster the top dressing went as hard as a rock and killed all the grass, I did complain and the owner came around with some flowers for Judy and some sample soil for me which turned out to be quite bad.

Anyway I spotted turf at Bunnings going out for $2 a roll so bought 50 rolls, then tilled the area and levelled before laying the new turf. End result very good.

Amorphophallus Konjak appeared in the garden.