All I want for Christmas

All Judy and I want for Christmas is some rain.

It has been very frustrating seeing all the showers bypass us, just yesterday a suburb about six kilometers away received 60mm of rain while we got nothing.

The temperature has stayed in the 30s for what seems like months, there's just no respite.

This is the worst gardening time I have known in my life, it's just so sad to see my beautiful plants so stressed out and dying, what can I do other than use town water and there's just not enough of that what with the restrictions.

We will probably put another large tank in early next year. I knew we had enough water for four months of drought but never in my wildest dreams did I think we would go this long without rain.

Gardening is not an easy hobby that's for sure.

November 2009 Garden News

Again I have to start with the amazing run of dry weather, after installing six rainwater tanks storing 82,500 litres I knew we would have enough water to get us through any known drought, but, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would go almost SIX months without rain. The garden is turning into a dust bowl and all the trees and plants are looking stressed. We are now using town water, just enough to keep the plants alive (we hope).

The Open Garden lead up was the hardest and most stressful we have ever had, mainly due to the heat wave and dry conditions, but to make it worse the Lions Club pulled out of the catering and this was done by family.

The Open Garden was not a success with just over 400 visitors, this was down by 50%, catering lost about $300 and plant sales were down by 60%, I put it down to the heatwave as temperatures in the sun were in the 40s.

We will do it again next year and hope that the weather is kinder to us.

I know that garden visitor numbers are down throughout Queensland with some really good gardens getting only 200 visitors; we will not open again if our numbers were ever that low.

We are still buying plants, not planting them out until the weather changes for the better.

Now for some really exciting news, Judy and I are finalists in Gardening Australia’s ‘Gardener of the Year’ competition. This is the most prestigious award a home gardener can receive, so of course we are really excited about this.

The other good news is that our eldest son won the 'Sporting Wheelie of the Year award', very well deserved for this World Champion Disabled water Skier.

Garden News October 2009

First some figures, over 5000 people have visited this site and what is really interesting they have been from 80 different countries also my photo-bucket site has had over 154,000 photos downloaded.

‘Simply amazing’.

It’ has started to rain again in Queensland but seems to be missing Birkdale, one suburb close by received 135mm while all we got was a bit of drizzle.

All our tanks are empty and it’s getting stressful as we only have four weeks to our ‘open garden’.

I am still talking to Garden Clubs, Judy and I went to the Glebe Garden Club early in the month and Splinters Club at Indooroopilly.

I have distributed 4000 ‘Open Garden’ flyers so far, so hopefully if the weather is fine we will have a good turnout.

The Lions Club have just notified me that they cannot do the catering for our open weekend, that is a real disappointment as they always do such a great job, anyway my son’s fiancé has volunteered to do it, she seems very confidant, so there will still be a sausage sizzle, tea, coffee and cakes.

I have some great raffle prizes this year, all garden related, we will probably donate the proceeds of this to the ‘Sporting Wheelies and Disabled’ organisation.

I have had a crook shoulder for the past few weeks and after three cortisone injections it is not getting any better.

It’s amazing how many little changes you can make to the garden, a plant here and there, a pot in a different position can make a lot of difference.

We went to the ‘Cordyline Society’ meeting at Jacobs Well, the hosts were John and Jenny Catlin, well it was paradise, they collect rare plants and the collection is magnificent, we bought a few plants but will be going back to buy more. They had a Jade Vine in flower; hope mine will look like that one day.

September 2009 Garden News

As part of the SMART Gardener program I gave a couple of lectures on Sub Tropical Gardening at our local library, my talk seemed to be well received.

Judy has just come out of hospital after having her feet straightened, so I will be looking after her for a while as she will not be very mobile for a few weeks.

Scott did very well at the World Disabled Water Ski Championships winning gold and three silver medals, still a ‘World Champion’.

I spoke at the Aspley Garden Club, friendship day; Judy could not join me due to the surgery.

I have hurt my shoulder and am in a lot of pain, had cortisone injections and have bought a ‘circulation booster’ which is fantastic and is helping relieve the pain.

We have not had a spring; it’s just gone straight to summer.

We have had days and days of very strong winds with dust storms, the weather can only be described as awful, and it’s just so dry, only 8mm of rain since July. I can honestly say this period is the driest I have known.

We have emptied three tanks and are getting desperate; gardening is such a stressful hobby, it’s a real battle just to keep our plants alive.

Due to the very mild winter and early heat everything is going to flower early this year, caladiums out already!

I visited our local landscape yard the other day and fell in love with some large boulders they had, they had a reddish tinge which goes with the colours of our house, so I bought them and had them delivered on the front lawn.

I then used a crowbar to put them in position (no wonder I have a crook shoulder) brought some soil in and planted four ‘Black Boys’ or to be politically correct ‘Grass Trees’, so my project intended for 2010 has been completed in time for our 2009 ‘Open Garden’.

I am still on long service leave and probably will not retire until mid 2010.

The Garden August 2009

Well it has now been over two months without a drop of rain. Same old story year after year. The garden has really suffered this month due to the winter heat wave we have experienced here in Brisbane. The temperature has reached 42c in the sun, that’s just crazy.The plants do not know if it is winter or summer, some plants are flowering two months early, one thing for sure is that this years ‘Open garden’ is going to be very different.

This month I have given my ‘Smart Sub Tropical Gardening’ talk to Benowa Point Garden Club and also at the Cleveland Library.

Warrick and Fabienne returned from their six-week holiday in Switzerland and Scott has left for France to compete in the World Disabled Water Ski Championships’, hope he does well.

Judy goes into Hospital to have her feet fixed up, the rheumatoid has disfigured all the bones in her feet and it is terribly painful walking, hopefully this operation will help her.

I arrived home the other day to find two chickens in our yard, what a mess they made scratching in the mulch, soon found a home for them.

Not much in the way of garden news as I have spent the last three weeks painting the house.

Besides it gets depressing when the place is so dry and you have to spend hours and hours watering just to keep the plants alive.

Judy is having an operation this month to try and straighten both her feet, the rheumatoid has bent and twisted then and she finds it painful to walk.

Well, the last day of the month and 8mm of rain, not a lot but very welcome.

July 2009 Garden news

To start off the month I was asked by the Ormiston Garden Club to talk at their meeting, I was only given 24 hours notice but still agreed to do it.

As I now have a very good ‘Power Point’ presentation I needed a projector. Luckily they were able to source one at the last minute, but it was not compatible with my laptop, fortunately one of the members was able to source another laptop within a few minutes and the presentation went ahead. This mix up has given me the impetus to purchase my own data projector and screen.

I am really enjoying talking to Garden clubs.

On the day prior to the Nambour Garden Expo we had some visitors from the 'Sydney Tropical Garden Society' even although most of the tropical plants were in the dormant stage they still went away very impressed.

The Nambour show was as usual a great day out and Judy and I managed to source some new plants.

SMART gardeners are still having monthly meetings and I am booked to give a couple of presentations at the Cleveland Library.

My youngest son Warrick and his girlfriend are away on a six-week holiday in Switzerland and we are looking after their two Jack Russell dogs, this is hard work as they are both demanding pets.

The big news is that Warrick proposed to Fabienne and of course she said yes, it was nice as we were able to watch the proposal on ‘you tube’,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFz3L-KYfJ4

I built a new extension to a garden and planted some very rare Hawaiian Cordylines that I had sourced.

I think the back yard is finally finished landscaping.

It is back to being very dry and we are watering from the rainwater tanks at the moment.

My eldest son Scott is off the France shortly to compete in the ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’, these are held every two years. Scott is the present World Champion in his division (paraplegic). What really annoys me is that he has to mostly self fund this trip, he even has to pay excess baggage on his water-ski equipment. It seems like representing Australia does not count for much unless you are in a high profile sport, then they just throw money at you. He is a real hero to have conquered his disability with such outstanding courage. He Puts a few of the high flyer's to shame. I just wish I could help him more.

June 2009 Garden News

There’s not a lot of news this month, it has rained again, we had 100 mills during the month and the place is very wet, in fact I was overheard to say “I wish it would dry up a bit”. I could not imagine myself saying that a couple of years ago.

Even though it’s winter the garden is still looking good, I believe this years ‘Open Garden’ will be the best it’s ever looked.

I have been helping Judy with her Bromeliads a lot this month and she is pleased with our joint effort.

I am in demand as a speaker to garden clubs; I am booked to talk at Ormiston, Aspley, and Ipswich Garden Clubs as well as two talks at the local library. I have made up a power point presentation on ‘Smart Sub Tropical gardening in SE Queensland’. So far my presentation has been very well accepted.

I am doing lots a little jobs around the garden like placing miniature Bromeliads in trees and filling up low spots with dirt.

I must have about five or six cubic metres of compost brewing at the moment, all mixed with mushroom compost. I always keep a few extra bags and place under the Custard Apple tree; this gives us enough mushrooms for family and us for quite some time.