SubTropical Queensland Open Garden

Garden News until end of November 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 03:50:00 +0000

First, please accept my apologies for not writing a blog for the past few months, life is just so very busy and I am usually exhausted at the end of day, work in the garden never stops.

I must work through pain in my knees and hips and cannot get into a specialist until early February, anyway I can still get in a day’s work every day and have no intention of downsizing at the moment.

What would Judy and I do without our beautiful garden and plants.

Now to get on with garden news.

In August we had visitors from the Victoria Point Probus Club, no visitors in October and in November we had a return visit from the Lota Community Garden Group.

The Tropical Foliage Festival was held very early November which was a disappointment as virtually none of my Amorphophallus had come up, so now I am stuck with about eight trays to try and get rid of. Anyway, we still took a nice selection of plants and people know that our plants are good. Dammed hard work getting ready though.

As usual all the fruit trees needed trimming over winter and I cut them back more than usual in order to make it easier for next year.

It was our Granddaughter's Birthday in October so we decided to do a surprise visit to Agnes Water to surprise her and we certainly did so. She was at the beach and I jumped from behind some bushes and really and truly gave her the surprise of her life, one of those memories that will stay for the rest of our lives.

Everything has grown so much with all the rain but that soon stopped in September when we had to start hand watering the garden again.

We had contemplated having a Plant Sale here in November where people could walk the garden for free and hope they would buy a plant, but that changed as we had a massive storm here late November with GIANT HAIL some hailstones measured between 10 to 13 cm wide, it was like someone was throwing bricks on our roof. Damage was 12 broken roof tiles which we were fortunate to find someone to fix two days later. Solar Panels damaged and we think the solar hot water system was also damaged. We have an insurance assessor coming soon. Surprisingly the garden suffered very little damage other than a mass of leaf litter and a few gum branches.

We had a visit from peter and Genya from Lagoon View Nursery and they were happy to dig out some Alpinia 'Big Pink' from a spot in the garden where they had multiplied.

Photo was taken at Lagoon View.

My Amorphophallus collection died back and stored dry for the winter and in September I started to repot. Had some very nice ones in flower.

Garden Blog from April to July 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 05:05:00 +0000

I just do not seem to get enough time in the day to write a monthly blog these days, I am pretty tired after working in the garden almost every day and this year has been especially hard as we have has so much rain that everything has grown so much that I am continually cutting back to let light into the garden.

I had my 80^th Birthday in April, how did I ever get to that age?

We had a few nights in an apartment at Mooloolaba as we needed a break from the garden as there had been a very large clean up after Cyclone Albert. It was nice and we see our friends at Natrakelp and Maureen Simons at Mt Towen Tropicals were we bought quite a few new plants.

April was quite wet so not much hand watering had to be done.

In May we had a bus visit from Caloundra Garden Club, Jimboomba Garden Club and Bethania Community Garden members.

In June we welcomed the Budding Group to the garden as well as hosting the international Cordyline Society meeting, a garden presentation to Logan Garden Club and a bus visit from Aspley Garden Club.

Possum beat me to it.

In July we went to Agnes Water to see family then they followed us back to Brisbane.

While we were away a mini-Cyclone ripped through and caused some damage.

We then hosted a bus visit from Laidley Garden Club of 59 people.

Towards the end of month we went to see our friends Genya and Peter at lagoon View Nursery, it is beautiful and well worth a visit.

Garden News January through to March 2025.

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 23:46:00 +0000

Blog January, February and March 2025

Well today marked the end of summer and what a horrible gardening summer it has been.

Since prior to Christmas we have only had two small showers of rain yet we see plenty of rain to the South and North of us.

The daytime temperature in the shade has consistently been in the 30c plus range, the humidity has been awful.

The garden is just so dry and most of our time is spent watering trying to keep our beloved plants alive.

It is very stressful and both my knees are playing up and I am in pain all the time, but still must get all the work done.

I must be getting old as I had to enlist the help of my Grandson to move the compost from the front yard to the back, he did an excellent job and the electric wheelbarrow made it much easier for him, a good swim after and some cash made him happy.

I cut the Grumichama’s back quite severely as it has always been a difficult job, just trying to make garden maintenance easier in the future.

I thought I had lost my Lotus plants but after a while they have come up and one has flowered.

It looks like a very slow year for us as we have two bus visits booked for this year and as far as garden presentations only one booked although we do want to cut down on those especially the ones that involve City driving but we do miss the visitors.

People can visit by appointment and Judy always has a range of nice plants available.

Due to weather conditions the Caladiums and Amorphophallus are dying back early this year.

Just prior to me posting this Cyclone Albert was closing in on Brisbane, so it was time to move plants, secure everything loose, and chase up sandbags and a generator.

Panic at the sandbag station but I managed to get six bags, I had to hunt down a generator and finally found one of the last ones available, so that was lucky.

The Cyclone came over as a Category 1, then turned into a rain depression dumping 541 mm of rain in our garden.

We lost power, phone, and mobile coverage for three days, the generator kept the fridge and freezer going.

Damage, a large ‘Cherry of the Rio Grande’ was blown down as well as a Coffee tree and a whirlybird was blown off the roof causing some water to enter the kitchen.

What a terrible job it was to clean up, the ‘Cherry of the Rio Grande’ was a large tree and absolutely covered in ‘Lady Slipper Vine’, it was a tangled horrible mess to remove.

Trouble is it has left an are that was in shade now in full sun so I have started to build a cover over that areas but the plants are burnt, so lot’s more work to get it right.

Not an easy job as there are so many angles and just a few weeks before I turn 80 it’s the last thing I need, anyway at this point in time I have managed to get most of the stump out and the frame up, now have to put the shade cloth on.

We are now at the end of the month and it’s pouring rain, all tanks are overflowing, so looks good for winter which is usually our driest season.

We visited our very good friend Rod Patterson who turns 92 this year, still loves his garden.

No blog would be complete without a few garden photos.

Our Nam Doc Mi Mango crop, not my favorite.

October to December Garden News 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 05:31:00 +0000

Pretty well all of October and part of November we were dog sitting, our son and family went To Thailand for a four-week holiday so we had a Jack Russell and a large sheepdog to look after.

This meant that all the gates had to be kept shut and made it very difficult to do a lot of gardening.

Very little happened in October and Judy had to spend a lot of time getting plants ready for ‘The Tropical Foliage Festival’.

We were back to watering the garden by hand as there was quite a few very dry spells.

I did manage to top soil the back lawn with a sand dressing.

Well, did it ever rain in November in the space of a week we had over 350mm of soaking rain and everything like crazy, I can see so much pruning will have to be done in winter.

Our Mango showed so much promise with a magnificent flowering, but of course we had a shower of rain and will only have six Mangos to pick, that is if we can beat to Flying foxes.

They have already eaten most of the Longan and Lychee crop, they eat them when they are the size of your small fingernail.

We took a lot of plants to the ‘Tropical Foliage Festival’ it was hard work setting up and the Saturday was quite busy, nice to meet some old friends there.

We had a bus visit with 37 people from the ‘Cleveland Over 50s’ visit us again as they wanted to see the mass plantings of Caladiums, they enjoyed the garden.

I have had to say no to presentations to a couple of garden clubs as we do not want to travel through peak hour traffic, and believe me it’s bad here in Brisbane. We will still do reasonably local ones.

Well, that’s it from a very wet ‘Giving Garden’ for the rest of the year, lets see what 2025 brings.

I know one thing it will bring and that is my 80^th, apart from aches and pains I am going reasonably well.

Have a great Christmas and a happy new year, all the best.

Garden Hose

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 05:52:00 +0000

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 recommend it.

July August and September Garden news

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 23:32:00 +0000

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 24^th 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, big change from last year where we were very busy hosting trips.

I got fed up with the Bombax Tree never flowering and dropping off dead limbs, so I took off as many limbs as I could then paid someone to take down the trunk, such a messy tree, one that I will not miss.

Went to get my long Fiskars pruner out and found the chain had come loose and disappeared inside the mechanism, not a problem as Fiskars have a 25 year warranty so it was off to Bunnings to do a quick exchange, great as a new one costs $239.

I love my Ryobi One tools as they are cordless and if you register online you get six year warranty, how good is that.

Judy was out of 15mm pine back which she used for her Bromeliad mix, nowhere seems to sell it so it was a trip to Bassett Bark at Glasshouse Mountain to fill up the trailer, great and very helpful people there.

In August and September we seemed to spend most of our time watering as it was very dry except for one day.

We hosted a bus trip from the ‘Cleveland Over 50s’ and that was good, they really enjoyed the Winter Garden and plan to come back late November to see the mass plantings of Caladiums and other summer flowering plants.

After cutting back very heavy, the Mango is showing it's appreciation.

it was also time to get my Amorphophallus tubers/corms out of hibernation and start to repot, the drill auger comes in very handy for mixing the potting media.

In September we hosted a bus trip from ‘Stafford Garden Club’, again in was a successful visit with all our visitors enjoying the garden.

Again, very dry and I really hate having to spend two days watering when there are other jobs that need doing.

Still trimming, pruning, and cutting back shrubs and trees and took trailer load 30 to the dump, thank goodness our dump is free otherwise I would have to get a bank loan.

I top dressed the back lawn with sand and thankful that I had the electric wheelbarrow as my knees are both not the best these days.

My Facebook page is doing well with 4000 plus likes and 4000 plus followers and ‘Open Gardens and Events Queensland’ has over 7000 likes, thanks Marie Jones for helping me out by becoming the second Admin.

May and June Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 04:36:00 +0000

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 a massive ‘Queen of the Night’ Epiphyllum climber.

I then hired a stump grinder, well that was hard work as it was a big heavy machine that kept bogging.

This climber was very hard to remove as it was very thorny and covering the tree.

I had to buy a new chain saw as my little one could not handle the Macadamia trunk.

June turned out to be very busy as I set about trimming the fruit trees and ended up taking 20 big trailer loads to the dump, thank goodness our dump is free.

We had a small visit from Mt Gravatt Probus Club. And I gave a presentation to a small group at Carina Senior Citizens Club.

Then the big job started.

I had to replace the rotted wood beams in my Amorphophallus shade house with metal which turned out to be a bigger job than expected and when I finished that I noticed that the Orchid shed beams were rotten and the shade cloth worn, so then I started on that.

Every bit of wood was rotten and all bolts were rusted, I only wish I had a dollar for every time I went up the ladder.

I replaced all the side timber with hardwood and put metal beams through the center then replaced the shade cloth as I bought a new roll from the Shade Centre at Brendale.

After finishing that I noticed the timber on the benches was rotten so I have had to replace those.

I am exhausted after this undertaking.

Just some garden photos.

March April and May Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Mon, 27 May 2024 05:28:00 +0000

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 went to Agnes Water to see family and brought our two Granddaughters back with us.

Certainly, no gardening done that week as the girls love to visit the shops.

We had a small visit from the ‘Queensland Camellia Society’ and a bus visit from ‘Labrador Senior Citizens’.

We visited ‘Logan Village Garden Club’ in May for their friendship day, it was a very friendly club and we were well received although the journey to get there was a bit of a nightmare.

We are cutting back on garden talks but still hope the bus visits continue.

I seem to do nothing but fill up the trailer and take lots of waste to the dump, I think it is due to the wet and humid summer we had which made everything grow like crazy.

Garden News January and February 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 05:22:00 +0000

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 not think I was the winner.

The main job was to cut our Mango tree down to a reasonable size, it was a big job as I had to remove plants and shade-cloth from below the tree.

I ended up taking three massive loads to the dump.

Then I put up steel rails over the plant stands to keep the shade cloth from sagging, looks much better now.

A terrible job was to repair the Bromeliad Shade house as it was damaged in a storm.

Three posts were dislodged or broken and all the steel overhead had collapsed, so with the help of a Jackhammer I had to get these posts out and it was not easy especially in the heat, then cement new posts in and replace the roof battens and to make matters worse a horizontal post fell on my head causing massive bleeding, I was very worried and Judy took me to the Doctor where I had six stitches inserted.

Not a job I want to do again in a hurry.

The swimming pool had a good work out after a day’s work in the garden.

November / December Garden News 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 04:19:00 +0000

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 tables at the ‘Tropical Foliage Festival’ at Belmont.

My god it was busy but we were not in a good position as we were down by the cash registrars and were blocked off by the paying queue for quite some time and a lot of people said they had spent all their money prior to seeing our table.

We did OK but not as good as expected.

December started and the heatwave started, first time ever Judy and I stayed indoors with the aircon on, mind you it was only for a couple of days as the garden is always calling.

Caladiums are spectacular this year.

Our family from Agnes Water came down mid-December and stayed until the day after Boxing Day.

They brought two dogs, one ‘Jack Russell’ was a real character as are most of that breed. The one on the left is 'Trixie' and on the right is 'Diggity' who passed away a few years ago.

Just after Christmas we had a bad storm which damaged our Bromeliad Shade house but no trees down, unlike the Gold Coast which had serious damage.

It is raining now and all our tanks are full, what a relief.

For the first time in over 30 years we have had a pair of King parrots visit us.

Overall, the year has seen highs and lows but I think every gardener will say that.

Anyway, Judy and I wish all readers all the very best and happy gardening for 2024.

September October 2023 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 05:21:00 +0000

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’ presentation then after that we visited our friend at Elimbah where we bought some fertilizer (Crop King 88) for $32 a kilo bag, here it is over $44.

Caboolture Garden Club then visited our garden the following week and that same week Glebe Garden Club visited.

So that was 14 bus visits this year, we are going to slow down the garden presentation as I cannot stand driving through the city any more.

We now must get ready for the Tropical Foliage Festival where we will be selling plants.

A big job was to remove the old thatch roof and put a new one on.

We went to Nursery Traders and found this amongst a few plain green ones, all at $50 so we bought this one and all the staff were incredulous that they failed to see it.

I think we had a bargain.

Garden news July/August 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 03:47:00 +0000

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 we went to ‘Ormiston Garden Club’ to do the Aroid presentation, this club seems to be very active with new members.

We had a bus visit from ‘Karana Downs Garden Club’ and that went well with them all enjoying the winter garden.

It was our very good friend Rod Paterson’s 90^th Birthday and Judy made him a special lunch.

We had our annual ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ garage sale and sold quite a few plants.

After all that we drove to Agnes Water to see our son and family, after a few days we get restless for the garden, still it was lovely to see family and have a bit of a rest.

Still no rain, garden is parched and getting low on rainwater.

May- June Garden News 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 05:15:00 +0000

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 getting set up but turned out well.

We had bus trips here from ‘Logan Village Garden Club’ and Caboolture Bromeliad Society’ both went down well.

Another presentation in June was to ‘Bribie Island Garden Club.’

We have given over the years over 200 presentations and feel it is now time to cut back, we will still accept bus visits as we enjoy those and it’ is relatively easy to prepare for them.

Not a lot happening in the garden, just a lot of Winter cutting back, old Heliconias, Costus and Gingers and of course it is time to cut back all the fruit trees.

While doing all this I have done something to my knee, very painful and X Rays show no damage so it will be off to the Physio for some treatment as I still have lots to do.

I have been trying to add to my Amorphophallus collection and the only way I can do this is through auction on eBay, I get beaten every time and the competition is fierce, I am limited in what I can spend.

Talking about Amorphophallus, I have emptied them out of their pots, cleaned the tubers and stored them dry in my shed on a layer of vermiculite, a big job.

My petrol pressure cleaner pump packed in, so I had to purchase a new pump from Karcher.

My new best tool is this Ryobi hand held Chain Saw, I can climb a tree, hang onto one branch, and cut with the other and I bought it at a great promotional price.

Talking about Ryobi One tools, my lopper broke, so as it has a six-year warranty back to Bunnings to get an immediate replacement.

Another job was our almost 30 year old swimming pool which had become quite badly stained over the years, I bought a product which claimed to get rid of all the stains, well it did, so much calcium, irons and other metals that had to be vacuumed off the pool floor, but it was well worth it to see our pool so sparking clean.

Some photos.

March and April 2023 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 03 May 2023 04:42:00 +0000

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 enjoyable visit, it was nice to swim in the ocean and have time to read a book.

We had one bus trip that month from ‘Clayfield Ascot Garden Club’, only 16 members but were all nice and enjoyed the visit.

No big jobs in the garden just one building a new garden bench for Judy, otherwise putting mulch down and general maintenance, always plenty to do.

Garden News February 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 05:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 05:33:00 +0000

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

First Blog for 2023 dated 13th February.

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 05:33:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 04:41:00 +0000

November garden news 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 05:08:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 06:19:00 +0000

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.

August 2022 garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 05:44:00 +0000

Not much to say about August as we had no garden presentations and one bus trip.

The Sub Tropical Garden Club came here from the Sunshine Coast and they were all plant lovers who really enjoyed the garden. This club is all that is left of ‘The Tropical Foliage and Garden Society’ which used to be quite active a few years ago until petering out some years ago. It was a shame as they produced some really good and informative information.

It was a bit of a worry as I had mislaid the information about their visit so we only found out a couple of days prior to them coming.

What a rush to get ready but we did it and the garden was looking great for our visitors.

I suppose the biggest job of the month was to take my Amorphophallus out of the shed where they have been stored dry over winter and to repot them.

Judy has started to repot the Caladiums and we are using so much potting mix that we have been twice to Centenary Landscapes to purchase one metre of their platinum mix each time.

We have been down to Jacobs Well a few times to see our gardening friend who is not well and always bring her some home cooked food and a bundle of books to read.

Otherwise it’s all been about maintaining the garden.

June and July 2022 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 23:48:00 +0000

I have not posted for a month due to Judy being hospitalized for two weeks with a serious foot infection, driving every day to the hospital meant little gardening has been done.

The good news is that she is recovering, it will be a slow process but she is back to potting.

As for me, I have Covid and am presently isolating, not feeling the best but hopefully will get through it without any side effects.

I am on anti-virus tablets at $1000 a bottle, thank goodness for the PSB scheme where I only have to pay around the $6 MARK.

So, in-between driving to Greenslopes Hospital every day I have been pruning all the fruit trees, so much extra growth this year with all the rain we had. I have cut them back hard this year as it is getting too hard to climb up with a saw.

The gingers are all dying back with the cold, in my opinion this is the coldest winter we have had for many a year, the garden is looking quite cold affected.

A lot of Coastal Python activity this year.

For the first time we will have Beehive gingers available at our Open Garden.

A lot of pathway gravel was washed away during the rain so I had to replace that.

We are still planning on opening in November, it will be our 20^th ‘Open Garden’, I thing that is quite a feat, we are still feeling it will be our last.

While Judy was in hospital, I kept my word to the Bribie Island Garden Club and drove up there to give a presentation, very friendly and provided lunch at the local bowls club.

The turf I put down last year needed a top dress, so I went to my local landscape yard and they recommended a Botando top dressing, I would have preferred the Candy one but they no longer stock that brand.

Well, was that a disaster the top dressing went as hard as a rock and killed all the grass, I did complain and the owner came around with some flowers for Judy and some sample soil for me which turned out to be quite bad.

Anyway I spotted turf at Bunnings going out for $2 a roll so bought 50 rolls, then tilled the area and levelled before laying the new turf. End result very good.

Amorphophallus Konjak appeared in the garden.

May 2022 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 05:11:00 +0000

We had a bus tour here from ‘Pelican Waters Garden Club’ of 50 members who stayed all morning and really enjoyed the garden. This was our first bus trip for ages.

I had to cancel a presentation to ‘Ormeo Garden Club’ due to the wet weather as it was being held in a member’s garden.

It’s been a poor year for us re presentations and bus trips, perhaps it is the Covid hangover.

We had more rain in May 280mm, the garden is soaking wet.

I have for the first year potted up a great selection of beehive Gingers ready for Novembers Open Garden.

Everything has grown so much that I am constantly pruning to let light into the garden.

I am still changing things in the garden, it is never the same year to year.

April 2022 Garden News

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Tue, 10 May 2022 23:10:00 +0000

Still making improvements to the garden with six minor garden renovations this year which means old plants dug out and new ones in, it never stops.

The biggest job was to dig all the Caladium bulbs out and then raise the garden wall ready for next year.

The BIG news was receiving over one metre of rain, we are soaking wet and all seven tanks are overflowing, it's gumboot time in the Giving Garden.

The Caladiums are cleaned and stored in the garage dry on a layer of vermiculite ready to plant out in the spring.

Good that all the garden show are starting up again, we went to the Bromeliad show and bought a few plants, must admit it gets harder and harder to find something new.

Judy and I went to ‘Logan City Garden Club’ to give a presentation on Aroids, not many in attendance and quite aged in average. I often wonder what will happen to garden clubs in a few years’ time as most are made up of members over 60.

Bought some terrible soil from our local landscape yard, it was told it was premium soil, I think or rather know that this soil is absolute crap.

We had a break to see our son and family at Agnes Waters’, nice to have a break away from the garden.

March garden news 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Wintle) — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 05:34:00 +0000

Well March was certainly different.

Rain, rain and more rain, more than we have ever seen, in all we had over one metre fall from the sky.

The garden was waterlogged but no problems as the drainage system worked very well.

The trees all had a great spurt of growth so much so that I have spent quite a bit of time cutting back to let some light into the garden.

We went to a Cordyline meeting at Lagoon View Nursery and it was nice to catch up with other fellow gardeners.

I have been doing a lot in the garden and have replanted in four areas, looking for colour and variegation in the new plants.

Bunnings are getting in some interesting aroids so once a week I go searching there and have found some beauties.

There has been a few Carpet Pythons around and I have had a couple of close encounters.