We started February with some good rain, which was great as January was completely dry and hot.

The ‘Tropical Affair’ plant sale was on at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens and I wanted to be there early to hopefully get some good plants, I was fortunate to get four Orthotrica Heliconias and some Beehive gingers that I did not have, so I came away a happy man.

We had a bus trip from the Beenleigh Garden Club It ended up being disappointing as it was a very hot day and most visitors just wanted to stay under the shade of the patio, plant sales were very poor. I sometimes wonder whether garden clubs are just a social outing for most members.

We have started to build a car port as an extension to our house, this will be a great area to sell plants during our ‘Open Garden’, all the runoff water will go into our seventh tank which will be the largest at 24,500 litres giving us a total of 107,000 storage capacity, perhaps this will finally make us drought proof. I had to take out one of our Jaboticaba trees but it was for a good cause. The tank is four metres diameter and has to sit 800mm in the ground to catch the run off so there was a lot of shifting the top soil then when I struck clay I had to get a a digger in to remove five trucks of clay. It’s amazing how much dirt can come out of a hole.

The ‘Golden Trowel’ is a treasured possession and I took it to the Wynnum ‘Bayside Garden Club’ to show off.

The local newspaper ( http://www.baysidebulletin.com.au/news/local/news/general/wintles-runnersup-in-gardeners-of-year-competition/1757825.aspx ) did a great two page feature on our garden.

I gave a garden talk to a small gathering at the Stafford Garden Club and double booked a speaking engagement for March which I was fortunately able to fix, not without a bit of embarrassment.

I also attended a Smart gardening meeting and a Cordyline Society meeting; of course the golden trowel went with me.

I biodynamiced the garden which was easy, the hard part is stirring the mix for one hour, I hate that boring part.

I also put 20 litres of kelp soil conditioner in the garden, this was mixed in a 200 litre drum which made 2000 litres which was then put into watering cans and spread around the garden, it felt like I had been doing weights after I finished.

So, all in all a very busy month and dare I say it plenty of rain, in fact it is pouring as I write this.

For once I am writing this blog and not whinging about the weather.

The Golden Trowel

Well we are the runners up in Gardening Australia's 'Gardener of the Year'.

This is quite a feat and we are very happy with getting so far in the competition.

January has been a weather hell of a month, of course no rain and temperatures every day in the high thirties, the garden is again stressed but at least the rain just after Christmas gave us about 25,000 litres of rainwater, so we can at least water the garden.

We have decided to extend our house and put a car port in as part of the house not just a metal extension, it’s not going to cost a lot more and of course will look a lot better.

I decided to replace about half of the front retaining wall where the car port is going, phew it was a big heavy job and I have again hurt my shoulder but it looks good. .Another 30 sleepers will finish the job, but that will wait for cooler weather.

We are picking star Fruit and Dragon Fruit at the moment the entire mango crop has been eaten by us, family and friends, and what a fabulous crop it was. I managed to keep the flying foxes away by stinging up a 30 metre length of Christmas flashing light tube, did not worry the possum but anyway it’s a ‘giving garden’.

We have heard from ‘Gardening Australia’ but that’s for another post later this month.

I am getting booked up giving talks on ‘Smart Sub Tropical Gardening’ and have a bus tour through shortly.

I have made a few minor changes to the garden this month, everything I do just adds to the beauty of the garden, it never finishes.

It’s almost time for the prawning season to start again, I am looking forward to this year’s hunting and gathering, its hard work throwing out a large cast net but I enjoy it especially eating fresh prawns at the end of the day.

Finalist 'Gardener of the Year'

If you are here after reading 'Gardening Australia' magazine then please have a look at my photo album, it's got photos from every 'Open Garden' and every project I have done plus 1000's of plant photos all from our garden. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Ianrobert/?src=wap

Please enjoy the tour of our garden.

PS. After the rain the garden is looking great, amazing how things come back.

December 2009 garden news

After the less than successful open garden we went up the coast to Mooloolaba for a well deserved break, only problem was that doing nothing does not really suit me as I ended up with a very painful hip and had several visits to doctors and Chiropractors to get it better, basically a month of not working in the garden.

The dry weather continued until Boxing Day, then Santa came and finally after over six months brought some welcome rain, overall in the last week of 2009 we have had about 110 mills.

I could not be happier.

I have now started to plant out some of the new plants we have been saving for rainy day.

It’s amazing how quickly the garden can recover, we have lost quite a few plants but others that were on the brink of dying are now recovering.

I do not think I will be doing any major projects this year as I am finally happy with the garden the way it is, we will still collect rare plants and change garden beds ect, but no new gardens this year.

I think 2010 will be a year of consolidation and just making the garden better and of course more interesting for our visitors.

I am of course anxiously awaiting news from ‘Gardening Australia’, it would be so nice to win the title ‘Gardener of the Year’, Judy and I have certainly put the effort into our passion.

Overall I am looking forward to 2010; I have quite a few garden club bookings already as well as ‘Smart Gardening’ and the visiting the gardening societies and clubs we belong to.

This New Year will bring in many changes including our youngest son getting married and perhaps them moving into a new house and of course we are following our grand-daughters progress seeing changes in her every week.

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.