SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
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Explore our journey as gardeners in this blog. A one-acre Sub Tropical garden situated just east of Brisbane. We have opened our garden to the public for 18 years. We open in November to aid a specific charity. Judy and I are 'plants-people' and cannot resist buying something rare that we do not have. It has been very hard gardening as we seem to be in a severe drought most years.
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1w ago
I know a bit, perhaps a lot about garden hoses and the trouble they can be.
With our large one-acre garden I have to do a lot of watering so I need a good quality hose.
There is nothing worse than having to continually take out kinks in a hose.
Some hoses go hard and perish in the sun which is so frustrating, especially if they have been expensive.
I recently bought this hose from Bunnings, it was a risk as it was made from new material.
To my delight the hose has never kinked and remains supple and easy to handle and has an eight year warranty.
Yes, I am happy with my purchase and would recom ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1M ago
I am afraid I have been a bit slack in keeping this garden blog up to date, anyway as they say better late than never.
In July we did our usual trip to the Nambour Garden Expo, always interesting but only a few plants bought as we have so many already.
Then we drop in to see our friends at Natra-kelp whose factory is based at Maroochydore, really great product that we use all the time in our garden.
Still trimming back all the fruit trees, on my 24th trip to the dump this month of July, all the summer rain has caused everything to grow so much.
No bus visits or garden talks this month ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
4M ago
May was not a terribly busy month gardening.
We started off visiting Logan Village Garden Club to give a presentation for their friendship day.
The drive there was quite unpleasant due to heavy traffic but once there we found the club to be very welcoming and friendly.
I gave the ‘Clever Gardening’ presentation which seemed to be enjoyed by all.
The club put on morning tea and lunch which was very nice.
Did not sell many plants.
The big job of the month beside general gardening was to remove a Macadamia tree which had died, to make matters more difficult the tree had been strangled with ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
5M ago
With very little movement with bus visits and garden talks there is not a lot to tell.
I did my usual dump run one day in March and was lucky enough to find some nice moss rocks there and no Gestapo around, I managed to load around 40 nice rocks to take home.
So, out came and old tired garden and in went a new one, the result was very pleasing.
I bought some Sir Walter turf from Bunnings only to find it was full of Nut Grass which made me angry.
This time of year, all the trees need trimming.
I started on the Grumichama’s and Jaboticabas, giving them all a good haircut.
We wen ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
8M ago
What can I say about January and February other than it has been hot and humid.
This summer has been the hottest we have experienced here at Birkdale, hardly a night below 24 c and most days have been in to 30s.
Perspiration when working in the garden is massive, I must wring my singlet out at the end of a working day.
The heat and humidity have brought out just about every insect pest known to mankind Crinums, Clivea’s, Caladiums, Alocasia, Colocasia and others all eaten and the weird thing is they have not touched the Hippeastrums YET. It has been a real battle this year and I do n ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
10M ago
Usually at this time of year it is all systems go getting ready for an ‘Open Garden’ but we did say that after 20 years of opening 2022 was going to be our last and so far, we will stick to that, but you never know.
Anyway, even if were planning to open the garden is so dry as we have not had rain for months, it is not looking good enough to open and we would have cancelled.
All seven tanks are dry so we must be very frugal with watering.
It has been a busy year with plenty of visitors coming on bus trips, we have had 14 bus visits this year.
For the first time we had some selling table ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1y ago
Two months without a drop of rain, it is so disheartening to see the garden so drought stricken.
We have managed to use tank water until a couple of weeks ago but now we must rely on town water, not looking forward to the water bill.
In fact, the whole of this year has seen little good rain, despite BOM saying summer was going to be very wet.
We have been busy with a bus trip in September from Helensvale Senior Citizens Club and of course two days a week watering trying to keep the garden alive.
In October we visited Caboolture Garden Club and gave the ‘Aroids in the Giving Garden’ pr ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1y ago
July was a quiet month with watering taking up most of our time.
Of the large Pandanus which continually dropped large prickly leaves, thanks to our good friends Mike and Wendy Budden for the help, I could not do much as my knee was giving me hell that weekend and I could not walk without a walking stick.
One garden talk for ‘Indooroopilly Garden Club’ on ‘Aroids in the Giving Garden’, it was well received although club members have dropped significantly since we last went there.
We will not be crossing the city to do any more garden talks; the traffic is just too bad.
In August w ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1y ago
I seem to be spending most of my life these past two months watering as it has been extremely dry, badly needing some good falls of rain.
May has been busy with visits from ‘Banksia Garden Club’ and two ‘Probus’ Clubs.
I gave a presentation to ‘Carina Senior Citizens Club’, which was good as we did not have far to travel.
Arno King also visited and spent five hours here, lots of plants here that he was interested in, he will be coming back in September to take some Spring cuttings.
In June we travelled to Caloundra to give a presentation to ‘Pelican Waters Garden Club’, bit of a fuss ge ..read more
SubTropical Queensland Open Garden Blog
1y ago
I did not post in March as I just could not get past the horrible weather that we had virtually all month. It was hot, humid, and very dry and I seemed to spend most of that month watering plants.
Anyway, in March we had visits from ‘The Budding Garden Club’ and ‘Mt Tamborine Garden Club’ and I also gave presentations to ‘Mt Gravatt Garden Club’ and ‘Bayside Garden Club’.
Mt Gravatt was disappointing as we carted a car load of plants there, take the out of the car and set up only to sell four plants.
In April we had a break see family at Agnes Water and had an e ..read more