Garden in December 2007

I must be an idiot, talk about ‘making a rod for your own back’, I have just ordered a truck load of rocks and will collect sleepers, pavers sand and cement on the weekend, so starts the first project for 2008.
This project will be in the front yard and will extend the front gardens quite considerably, plus another rain water tank will be placed in front of the two already in place, I am planning a trellis in front of the tank with a nice climber to hide it.
Just had a letter from ‘Burkes Backyard’ magazine who want to visit.
We have already bought lots of new plants including some nice torch gingers.
I started on digging out the area for the new tank stand and nearly suffered heat stroke, the problem is that my mind tells me I have the body and energy of a 30 year old but my body is starting to tell me I am 62, I will just have to pace myself and get things done tomorrow instead of yesterday.
Burke Backyard visited on Sunday 16th and they were very impressed by the size of the garden and the vast array of different plants we have. They took lots of photos so we will just have to wait and see what comes out in the magazine.
The garden has really suffered from heat and lack of moisture, the rain that was forecast did not arrive (same old story).
I spent Saturday mixing crusher dust and cement for the tank stand, it was very hot and I am again exhausted, anyway it’s all done and the tank arrives on 14th of next month.
I will not get a lot done over Christmas as I am only having two days off, anyway it will be nice to have all the family around and relax, oops did I say relax, did not think I knew what it meant.
To all that read this blog, a very merry Christmas and happy gardening for 2008.

November in the Garden

Well it’s all over for another year (Open Garden) and both Judy and I are ‘gardened out’.
It has been a tough year with rain on only nine occasions, gale winds, hail and the coldest winter for 50 years with about 20 Heliconias and Costus lost.
Despite all that the garden was looking great for the opening and the ‘Blood Lily' as usual were in flower just at the right time.
Saturday morning and we had a couple of very heavy showers of rain and at one stage it looked quite bad, but it fined up and visitors kept on coming.
We had a record turnout with approximately 1000 visitors in our backyard.
All enjoyed it and not one bad comment during the whole weekend.
The only bad part was when Judy noticed that her special “Hannibal Lectar’ Bromeliad was missing; someone who knew their Bromeliads stole it, ‘hope it rots on them’.
The Lions made almost $4000, which will be given to ‘Young Care’ and Norm ‘Mr Water-fork’ sold 25, which made him very happy.
I have one new project lined up and this will be an expansion of the front garden, which will help camouflage the new rainwater tank and give Judy more room to store her Bromeliads.
The back gardens need topping up with soil due to the dreaded ‘shrinkage’ and perhaps some minor changes, not a lot more that can be done in the back.
I just need to motivate this tired body again.

Open Garden Photos 2007

I have put 80 photos from our 'Open Garden 2007' on my photobucket album as below.
Please enjoy.
Ian
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Ianrobert/

Garden News October 2007

It’s far too hot far too soon; it’s only the beginning of October and its 33c. I just hope this heat will not bring out the flowering plants too early.
Bought two dozen caladium bulbs on ‘ebay’ as caladiums were among the many other plants that we lost due to last winter’s extreme cold, the bulbs arrived and were very large and just starting to shoot, at $3.50 each it may a good buy, let's see the colours first.
At this time every year I start to think that the Garden will never be ready in time for the opening, it always is.
We have had a few storms and in one of them we had gale winds, hail and 30mm of welcome rain, it was worrying but a later inspection showed little damage to the garden but a later inspection showed the bromeliads have suffered with some damage to the leaves.
I must admit my focus is now only on our opening and getting letters/flyers/articles out to the public.
We bought some standard ‘Abutilons’ from the Chandler markets, three plants intertwined through each other, they were only $20 each so we bought four, may still get a couple more. There will be a no show of heliconia’s this year as they were badly burnt by this year’s winter frost and are still recovering.
Another busy weekend in the garden with the compost heap turned over and lots of other jobs done.
All the caladiums are starting to shoot and a few gingers are starting to pop up.
Had some awful weather this week, gale winds for three days, the heliconias that were not killed by the winter’s frost have been shredded and some of the new standard abutilons damaged as well as leave/debris everywhere. Such is a gardener’s life.
So in the lead up to the ‘Open Garden’ we have had drought, frost, hail and gales, what else is there other than floods, bushfires and cyclones. I am on holiday now, it's all go for the next two weeks getting the garden ready.

September Garden News 2007

The first weekend of the month was ‘Custard Apple Pruning’ Kaspar came around to lend a hand, we really gave the five trees a good prune and all the small branches and leaves went through the shredder to make compost and the branches went to the dump.
Another metre of soil on the garden, this time Judy dug up the ‘Blood Lily’ bulbs and then I topped up the bed with almost a metre of soil.
It’s incredible but it is still raining, another two inches.
The second weekend was spent mowing, first time this has been done for months. I then went all round the garden with watering cans filled with seaweed and trace elements, a big job and I could hardly move afterwards.
Due to the drought and the recent rain the weeds have come up like no other year, I will have to spray a few times to clean up the lawns.
I (foolishly) decided to extend the pool area deck prior to ‘Open Garden’; it will extend so that it meets the garden and will have a nice curved edge.
I took the Friday off work and dug 16 holes and cemented all the posts for the deck then on the second day I put all the bearers in place, which was a big job, took almost 50 metres of 100 x 38 pine rails with no timber left and almost 250 screws. It was a very big weekend and it was good to come back to work for a rest from physical labour. Our Solar System sprung a leak on Wednesday so I had to stay at home to wait for the tradesmen to arrive, so that gave me a chance to start on the actual decking which I did and was four lengths short. I found the rectangular fish pond that I have been looking for and it arrived yesterday, its full steam ahead.
It was a very busy weekend which saw the last of the decking finished (140 lineal metres) and oiled. The edging pavers were cemented in and the path filled with crusher dust, I also built a ramp and levelled the concrete step and sealed the fish pond. Phew it’s been a hard slog and has cost about 100% more than I estimated; (about $1000) imagine how much it would of cost if I had hired someone in to do it for me. Anyway the finished product looks really good and has given us a really nice outdoor area, will be great over the Christmas break.

August 2007 Garden news

The garden is as dry as a bone, no rain whatsoever during July and so far up to mid August, just extremely cold.
A yearly job is to prune the carambolas (five corner fruit), I usually do this at this time every year to keep them at a manageable height.
I am going right through the garden at the moment with watering cans filled with a mix of kelp and a liquid fertilizer, this should give the plants a boost when the cold weather finally finishes.
It is the official opening of this seasons Queensland ‘Open Garden’ Scheme, this is being held at Government House in Brisbane on Friday 10 August 2007.
A couple of days prior to this Kim Rabbage from the ‘Open Garden’ Scheme contacted me and asked if I would be a guest speaker, like an idiot I said yes, hopefully my speech will be reasonably interesting and not too boring. I must admit to a few nerves.
Well the speech went well and such notables as Colin Campbell congratulated me. Judy and I had a nice morning tea and met some very nice fellow gardeners.
I arrived back home to a truck load of soil and spent the rest of the weekend wheel-barrowing the soil to the back yard, then bucketing it into the needy gardens. This was an absolute cow of a job, but the gardens will spring into life soon and this will give an added boost.
I calculate that I have wheel-barrowed at least 30 metres of soil this year around the gardens, its no wonder my shoulder, hips and knees are sore.
Rain is forecast for this coming weekend, I have bought a 40 kg bag of Crop King 88 and hopefully I will get to spread it on the lawns. If it does rain it will certainly be at the right time as the garden knows that spring is almost here.
Well it has rained; we had 26mm overnight and what a difference this will make.
I had to cut the Citrus trees back a fair bit this year just to get rid of the ‘gall wasps’ I have now treated with the trees with trace elements, kelp and fertilizer, they are now showing good signs of early growth.
Another two metres of soil put on the garden this weekend plus some of my own compost mix.
Lots of new plants put in the garden, amazing how I find room for them all.
What with pots, plants, soil and fertilizers I calculate that we have spent almost $1000 on the garden this month, plenty of new and interesting plants for this years ‘Open Garden’.
Well it has certainly has rained. We have had three inches so far with more to come, but the bonus came with a price and that was very strong gale force winds. The winds were up to 100k an hour causing damage to the Brugmansias, and Heliconias (as if they haven’t suffered enough with the cold) and a Curry Tree uprooted.
The Heliconias that are left are going to be a real mess for this years opening.
This weekend will be a cleaning up weekend as there is debris everywhere and the swimming pool is full of gum leaves.
Well it hardly seems true but we have had five inches of rain this week, what a bonus, all the rainwater tanks are overflowing.
Well the rain has stopped and the sun is out, we should see a real difference in the garden in the coming weeks, it’s always exciting when the garden knows spring is here.

Water Plants

To re-pot: Separate into crowns, cut away excess roots, and then line the new pot with newspaper. Use a garden soil do NOT use a potting mix. Put some blood and bone or wrap a fertilizer tablet in a cloth or newspaper and inside the pot. The crown of the plant should be level with top of pot. Top off with sand or gravel. The water lily should be at a depth of between 45 to 50 cm and at least 25cm from top of pot to water level.

Remember, water lilies like at least 4 to 6 hours of sun daily.To maintain: Remove old spent leaves and flowers, keep water level up, re-pot prior to spring growth starting. The bigger the pot the bigger the flowers and leaves will be. Most water lilies will die down during winter