March 2007 Garden News

Started off the month by renewing the back garden under the’ Nam Doc Mi’ Mango, virtually no soil left only a lot of fibrous roots. A metre of good soil did the trick and has cleaned up a part of our garden that looked a bit neglected.
Another two metres of soil carted in by trailer which we used to top up other gardens where the original soil has shrunk.
Autumn and it is just so hot and dry. It’s like midsummer with temps in the high 30s with absolutely no rain forecast.
It is now the end of March and the heat has just not let up. Absolutely no rain whatsoever, the plants are just keeping alive, the trees are stressed, fruit trees have shed their fruit in order to cope with the dry and the lawns are brown and dying. What a picture. I have finished planting the new garden and it should look good for next November’s opening. I have entered the ‘water wise’ garden competition run by our Brisbane paper ‘The Courier Mail’. Do not think we can win, but believe we have done enough to warrant an entry.
Still have a lot of shoulder pain and Doctor Say’s it’s ‘tendonitis’ of the shoulder and that I should take it easy. The best I can do is no more new gardens.

Being Waterwise during a drought

Would we still be avid gardeners if we had known the drought would be so bad? I think we would of, but perhaps not gone as far as we have done.
I know now that gardening is a highly stressful hobby, all this checking the weather and looking into the sky praying for rain gives us a sore neck and a headache.
Judy and I feel we should enter the ‘Green Thumbs’ garden competition as we struggle to maintain a beautiful one acre sub tropical garden against all odds and have put a real effort both financial and physical into the garden to make it as ‘waterwise’ as possible.
There is not much else we can do to make our garden any more ‘waterwise’ other than to destroy the garden and plant natives.
We will not do that as we believe native plants also need water, and we would destroy the present ‘micro climate’, which has taken years to achieve.
We believe we have risen to the drought challenge and work very hard to maintain our beautiful garden without wasting a drop of water.
Admittedly we are not in as bad a position as residents of Brisbane as we in the ‘Redlands’ are allowed some hose watering and we do of course take advantage of that.
Admittedly not all our plants are ‘waterwise’ but they do survive on minimal watering, our philosophy is to give each plant only enough water for it to survive, we hand water only, sprinklers, water systems ect were all mothballed several years ago.
I am a mad composter and have large ‘Greenfield’ petrol driven shredder, which is used to put all green waste through which then, is composted along with all the lawn clippings. I mix into the compost ‘blood and bone’, ‘hydrated lime’, ‘dolomite’ ‘urea’ and animal manure this accelerates my compost.
Bales of coarse Sugar Cane mulch are laid throughout the garden twice a year or wherever necessary. We would use well over 150 bales every year; this in turn decomposes and improves the soil and water retention. Compost is also added to the garden as well as trailer loads of animal manure. Mulch plays a very important part in our garden and on our open days I make sure that my shredder and finished compost is on display during our ‘Open Garden’ for visitors to see, we also make sure we are available to answer any questions relating to ‘waterwise’ gardening.

We have reduced our lawn area but it’s still a big area, I can assure you that the lawn survives totally from rain from the sky, it is never watered either from the tap or tank.
Bromeliads are a passion, we have 1000s of these and they are of course a ‘waterwise’ plant.
We now have three 15,000-litre water tanks and one 5000-litre tank, totalling 50,000 litres of rainwater. We have a small portable pump on a hand trolley, which we move between tanks.
The swimming pool is always topped up from a rainwater tank.
Due to the heavy mulching our gardens are weed free and also with the heavy use of seaweed liquid ‘natrakelp’ the plants are healthy and disease free, this of course strengthens the plant and helps it survive on minimal water.

Creating a new Garden

I usually have a picture in my mind of how it’s going to look.
The first job is to get out the garden hose a lay it on the ground approximately the shape and size of your new garden.
You can then give it a nudge here and there with your foot until you think the garden is the right shape and most importantly has the right ‘curves’.
Then go around the edge of the hose with a can of marking paint (Bunning’s sell for about $6.00), now you can see your future garden.
Next is to run a spade around the outer perimeter of the garden, take about 100mm depth of grass /soil out and enough width for the pavers and rocks.
I usually lay the pavers first, I use a 50mm paver, and my preference is the ‘Black and Tan’ paver. I lay these pavers on a 50mm bed of wet cement; it does not have to be deep as they all bond together. For tools I use a rubber mallet and a small line level, this makes sure all the pavers are level. It is a fairly easy task to lay the pavers once you get going. The beauty of the pavers is that they make a great mowing strip.
Next comes the rocks, these sit about 50mm back from the pavers, again these sit on a small layer of wet cement, don’t worry about gaps between the rocks as later you will fill these with a strong mix of black coloured cement.
Now fill the gap between the pavers and rocks, just run a trowel along the wet cement and smooth over. Any run off can be cleaned off with a bucket of water and a wet rag.
I then point in-between the rocks using black coloured cement and a ‘pointing tool’, this is important as it gives the garden a great finish.
Now, inside your new garden you have either poisoned the grassed area with Roundup or removed the grass. The first new layer is usually compost or manure, then the soil; it does not have to be great soil because with a bit of work ‘YOU CAN MAKE IT GREAT SOIL’ then another layer of compost/manure on the top followed by mulch. You will be surprised how quickly the soil improves, don’t forget the seaweed liquid it’s a great soil conditioner. Do not use a soil or organic mix which has less than 70% soil. A pure organic or low soil mix will shrink and eventually reduce to virtually nothing over time.
All that’s left is to dig your plants in, and again don’t forget to liquid seaweed them in after planting as the seaweed prevents transplant shock.
Hope this is of some help.

February 2007 garden news

February Garden news

What a great way to start the month Rain for two days, not a lot. It means we do not have to water for a few days, and it’s nice to see the plants looking so well, no matter how much we water, the plants never look as good as when it has rained.
The neighbours are sub dividing and when I arrived home there was a truck taking all the soil away, so like an idiot I asked for about six metres to be dumped over the fence. It was not as good as I thought it was, full of clay, rock and roots. It was a very tough job getting the soil into the new garden. There’s about a metre or so left and I just cannot face it, so I have called in Chad with the Dingo to clear it away. We have partly planted the new garden. Finally went out early Saturday morning in our local creek cast netting for prawns, caught about 6 kilos, it was a welcome break away from the garden. Once everything was cleaned I went to the landscaping yard and bought some brickies loam and some very nice flat moss covered rocks. I then cemented and pointed the rocks and laid a few loose ones to create a natural look. I then filled the pond with a mix of tank and town water, treated with ‘Phoslok’ and a pond conditioner. On Sunday went to see Franquois at Capalaba and bought 10 water lilies. I let him choose some ones that will flower for the ‘Open Garden’ in November. The pond looks great and I am very happy with the end product. All that is left is some planting and the addition of fish into the pond. At last some good solid rain over a few days, hopefully this will finally reach the subsoil, just cannot remember when the subsoil was last damp. Unfortunately the rain quickly disappeared (may of been an illusion) and we will have to start watering soon. It is now the last week of the month and all my new Water Lilies look like they are dying, had the Ph checked and that was all OK, so I have no idea what is wrong, next step is to change the water. Fish are doing well so perhaps it’s not the water.

January Garden news 2007

I have a very sore shoulder at the moment; some small movements cause a stabbing pain down my arm. It’s funny because I can still do most jobs, dig holes, shovel soil ect but when I try and do little things like lift a pot or wash my back in the shower the pain starts. Hopefully with some cortisone and massage I can get back on track.
I have started on the lily pond, I was going to make the new garden an island with two branching pathways, my son had a look and persuaded me that it would look better as an addition to the existing garden, so that’s the way I am going to go. I was very proud of him coming up with this idea.The ‘Dingo’ is coming this week the dig the hole for me, and then I start on the pavers, rocks and soil, then of course the choice of suitable plants. I think I will have the large yellow ‘Blanchetiana’ Bromeliads with Red Sensation, Red Fountain Cordylines, colour is really important in our garden. So far we are three weeks into January with high temperatures and absolutely no sign of rain. It’s so bloody frustrating. Basically we are only just keeping our plants alive; nothing is what you could call thriving. What a great garden we could have if we only had good soil and unlimited water. Having a garden like ours is a real test of character. The mini excavator arrived on Australia Day and Chad had the grass out and the hole dug in a little over an hour. The ground was as dry as a bone; I could never have dug this hole. As it was the temp was 35c with about 80% humidity and I was silly enough to cement the paving strip and place rocks and point. At the end of the weekend I am exhausted.

December 2006 Garden news

The Christmas Party for ITGFS was very quiet and only about 30 people attended, the weather was hot and muggy and by the time the party finished every plant in the garden looked stressed.
Seems that this plant Society is like every other one, infighting, if this falls apart I will be staying away from clubs, societies, ect. I just do not need this sort of crap in my life.
Fortunately we had a storm on Sunday night and received about 30mm of badly needed rain.
I will not be adding much this month as I am just about ‘gardened out’, sick to death of this dry weather and when it does rain we seem to get gale winds following which have done a lot of damage this year
It’s been a long hard year and my Arthritis is not getting better, the bones are not what they used to be.
Have a couple of small jobs to do over the Christmas break. I think I will leave the lily pond for a few months, no hurry with this as the Water Lily’s are dormant in winter anyway.
Well we have had a nice Christmas and I actually had a five day break from the garden, which is pretty amazing.
I cleaned and serviced my boat, outboard and fishing gear. I intend to get out on the bay during 2007.
After Christmas I couldn’t help myself, refurbished the garden behind the house, took out some Heliconias which have never flowered and replaced them with Gingers, Cordylines and Costus.

November 2006 Post Open Garden

Well after Wednesdays hail and Thursday’s gale winds we are finally opening our garden for 2006. It’s a lot more work than most people realise; basically we start next week on getting ready for the 2007 opening.
The weather is perfect, fine and sunny.
All the usual helpers are here, we need help with the gate and plant sales.
As usual the visitors who know the quality of Judy’s plants are the first to visit, and the Bromeliads are going out by the wheelbarrow load.
Saturday turned out to be a fairly slow day as far as numbers goes, about 300, the ‘Lions Club’ were disappointed as food sales were slow.
The Garden featured on the ‘Garden Gurus’ television show on Saturday evening and this created a lot of interest on the Sunday, we even had visitors from as far away as Bundaberg.
The crowds on Sunday were much bigger with just over 500 visitors.
The ‘Lions Club’ sold out of food and they were very happy, they are going to make a sizeable donation to ‘Young Care’.
Every visitor seemed happy and the comments in the visitor’s book were all good.
No damage to the garden and anyone who wanted a cutting asked first and I was only too happy to oblige.
All over, the ‘Open Garden Scheme’ was very happy as most garden attendance numbers have fallen drastically, ours was an exception.
We then went to the Sunshine Coast for a few days well deserved R&R.
We returned from our holiday with a car load of plants from Jean and Leo Gambles Nursery and the Yandina Markets. Both Judy and I had lots of aches and pains, seems we are better off working than doing nothing. I especially noticed my arthritis had got much worse while on holiday.
The garden featured on ‘Gardening Australia’ on 25 November and looked really good; lots of people have seen it and all comments were positive.
We are hosting the ‘International Tropical Foliage and Garden Society’ annual Christmas party this Sunday 3 December.
I cannot stop myself, I bought a couple of rare miniature Daturas yesterday, they were expensive but worth it as I have never seen them before.