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.