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.