Garden News February 2023

 

Well February was quite a horrible month for gardening, only rained once and temperature was in the 30c or more most days.

Having been in our Birkdale property for 34 years I would say this has been the second driest summer we have had.

Must admit I am looking forward to winter because I I write this in March, we are sweltering at 35c, I am over the heat.

Anyway, that is enough of my complaining.

Genny Catlins sister invited a few of her close friends for lunch at a Mt Cotton restaurant, it was nice to catch up with those people and hear some stories about Genny. We will miss her.

Very little happening in the garden, spending most of our time watering.

Our Worsleya's flowered for the first time.

I did find time to build Judy a new plant bench.

We had six tables at the Cordyline Society pop up plant sale which was held at the Birkdale Multi Sports Centre on a Sunday, it was the first time we had done anything like this and the result was pleasing.

Some of the plants from February's garden.

I have quite a few jobs lined up but waiting for the weather to cool down a bit before I start.

Heat Mats for Propagation

 

 We have found this firm to be very helpful and their product is Australian made.

First Blog for 2023 dated 13th February.

 

First entry for 2023, here I am sitting in front of my computer after a hard day in the garden working in 35 c heat.

It’s a bad time of the year as our three large gum trees are losing all their bark and leaves, clean it all up one day and it’s just as bad the next.

I just throw most of the tree rubbish on the lawn then mow over it as it will eventually make excellent compost.

Even though we had our 20^th and last Open Garden in November which almost 700 people attended I have still not stopped improving the garden and Judy is still potting her heart out.

The garden will never go backwards, I love my garden and plants too much to let the garden go downhill.

We just cannot stop, the exercise we both do all day keeps us quite healthy and most people do not believe our ages.

I have had and am having a big problem with some of the Epiphyllum’s growing up trees, one massive one was growing on a Neem tree limb and it became very dangerous and was affecting the health of the tree, so it was a terrible job to get it down without doing too much damage to the garden, I did it but had to take the large limb off.

I then found another growing up the ‘Fruit of the Rio Grande’ tree, that had to come off as well.

Our large Dragon Fruit became old and diseased and that also had to be cut our, all horrible jobs.

I have now found one on the front Macadamia, it’s very large and just may have killed the Macadamia, but that is a job when it gets a bit cooler.

The Garden Clubs are getting back in business as we are getting quite a few requests from garden clubs to visit or give a presentation.

I have a feeling it is going to be a busy year.

We may have a plant sale at the end of the year but it will not be anything like our ‘Open Garden’ where we had eight helpers, coffee van and a toilet, we will see what the year brings.

Some sad new as our friend Genny Catlin passed away late December, very sad and Judy and I will miss our visits the Jacobs Well nursery.

Judy and I tried hard to visit her on a regular basis and take her some of the food she loved and some of my book’s as she had the same reading tastes as myself.

We had a nice family Christmas with family down from Agnes Water and also a Swiss family so it was a busy time with 10 people in the house.

Our Granddaughter Charlotte brought eight ducks with her from Agnes Water, well they found the pond and proceeded to eat all the plants and the fish so it was a big job after they returned home to empty and clean the pond and re stock with fish and plants. We still love her to bits.

A few random pictures from November and January.

 

 

 

 

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.