Garden News January and February 2024

 

What can I say about January and February other than it has been hot and humid.

This summer has been the hottest we have experienced here at Birkdale, hardly a night below 24 c and most days have been in to 30s.

Perspiration when working in the garden is massive, I must wring my singlet out at the end of a working day.

The heat and humidity have brought out just about every insect pest known to mankind Crinums, Clivea’s, Caladiums, Alocasia, Colocasia and others all eaten and the weird thing is they have not touched the Hippeastrums YET. It has been a real battle this year and I do not think I was the winner.

The main job was to cut our Mango tree down to a reasonable size, it was a big job as I had to remove plants and shade-cloth from below the tree.

I ended up taking three massive loads to the dump.

Then I put up steel rails over the plant stands to keep the shade cloth from sagging, looks much better now.

A terrible job was to repair the Bromeliad Shade house as it was damaged in a storm.

Three posts were dislodged or broken and all the steel overhead had collapsed, so with the help of a Jackhammer I had to get these posts out and it was not easy especially in the heat, then cement new posts in and replace the roof battens and to make matters worse a horizontal post fell on my head causing massive bleeding, I was very worried and Judy took me to the Doctor where I had six stitches inserted.

Not a job I want to do again in a hurry.

The swimming pool had a good work out after a day’s work in the garden.

November / December Garden News 2023

 

Usually at this time of year it is all systems go getting ready for an ‘Open Garden’ but we did say that after 20 years of opening 2022 was going to be our last and so far, we will stick to that, but you never know.

Anyway, even if were planning to open the garden is so dry as we have not had rain for months, it is not looking good enough to open and we would have cancelled.

All seven tanks are dry so we must be very frugal with watering.

It has been a busy year with plenty of visitors coming on bus trips, we have had 14 bus visits this year.

For the first time we had some selling tables at the ‘Tropical Foliage Festival’ at Belmont.

My god it was busy but we were not in a good position as we were down by the cash registrars and were blocked off by the paying queue for quite some time and a lot of people said they had spent all their money prior to seeing our table.

We did OK but not as good as expected.

December started and the heatwave started, first time ever Judy and I stayed indoors with the aircon on, mind you it was only for a couple of days as the garden is always calling.

Caladiums are spectacular this year.

Our family from Agnes Water came down mid-December and stayed until the day after Boxing Day.

They brought two dogs, one ‘Jack Russell’ was a real character as are most of that breed. The one on the left is 'Trixie' and on the right is 'Diggity' who passed away a few years ago.

Just after Christmas we had a bad storm which damaged our Bromeliad Shade house but no trees down, unlike the Gold Coast which had serious damage.

 It is raining now and all our tanks are full, what a relief.

For the first time in over 30 years we have had a pair of King parrots visit us.

Overall, the year has seen highs and lows but I think every gardener will say that.

Anyway, Judy and I wish all readers all the very best and happy gardening for 2024.