My Garden Diary

Hundscheidt Tropical Gardens

2008-02-23T11:07:00.002+10:00

The Hundscheidt Tropical Gardens are open over this weekend (22-24 February) as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme. I visited them yesterday afternoon and it was worth the drive. There were quite a few people there , but not so it was difficult to see or to move around.

The gardens are amazing. You have to remember that you are in the middle of suburbia and not in some topical paradise. The gardens feature water features, pavilions and balaliness inspired outdoor areas as well as bamboos, gingers , palms and bromeliads.

2008 Ginger Flower Festival Yandina

2008-01-25T18:50:00.000+10:00

Visited the Ginger Factory at Yandina today for the 2008 Ginger Flower Festival. When we pulled up at around 11:30 the carpark was full as will both sides of the street and centre strip. I can't imagine what it is going to be like over the (long) weekend! There were quite a few people there but it wasn't uncomfortably crowded. It was quite easy to move around and see everything.

There was a number of talks where you could hear about cooking, health benefits, and growing gingers, though I didn't attend any of these. I stuck my head into a cooking session but it was overflowing.

Aside from the talks the festival is a great opportunity to view the fantastic sub-tropical gardens that make up the grounds of the Ginger Factory and at this time of the year most of the gingers and heliconias are in bloom.

The festival also features a nursery selling a large selection of gingers and heliconias, with a smattering of palms. A lot of the plants where in flower and if they weren't cut flowers were arranged so you see what they looked like. I picked up a Heliconia Caribea, Ice Rose Ginger (Etlingera elatior) and Red Tower Ginger (Costus Comosus). (this was quite restrained compared to some others at the checkout)

Here are some pictures from the gardens:

Chocolate Beehive Ginger

Red Torch Ginger
Heliconias

Roma Street Parklands

2008-01-25T18:00:00.000+10:00

Dropped into the Roma Street Parklands last Saturday (19/1). The gardens are a real inspiration with the Spectacle Garden with it's palms, gingers, heliconicas and bromeliads all putting on a fantastic summer display.

Beehive Ginger (Zingiber Spectabile)

Bromeliads

Passionfruit

2008-01-15T08:19:00.000+10:00

Two weekends ago (5 Jan), in between the rain, I planted a Big Boppa and a Panama Red passionfruit along the bottom fence in the back garden. Both are going well and climbing along the wire I ran along the fence. The only issue is that it's complicated the mowing along the fence.

Wild Weather

2007-12-31T10:20:00.000+10:00

We have been spared the the usual hot and humid Brisbane Christmas weather this year with a large low sitting off the coast. Instead of the usual 35+ degrees (C) we've had temperatures in the high twenties but quite strong winds and overcast skys.

So far the garden has held up quite well although the winds have dried out some plants. We've finally got some rain last night and today is looking like it's going to shower on and off for most of the day. The low is meant to hang around for the rest of he week and hopefully we'll get a bit more rain and the winds will ease off.

Xmas Gingers

2007-12-31T09:44:00.000+10:00

What with a bit of time off to wander around garden centres and Christmas I managed to pick up four new gingers over the last couple of weeks. I managed to get a Beehive Ginger (Zingiber Spectabile) and a Silver Streaks (Zingiber Collinsii) both have gone into the back garden and are shaded by existing plants.

The Silver Streaks has beautiful dark foliage and I can't wait to see what the flowers look like up close. From the tag and other information it appears that it become dormant in winter. Grows to about 1 metre and is planted behind a golden cane palm. I'm hoping that as the palm grows that it will be more visible but still have adequate shade.

I've been looking for a Beehive Ginger for a while and have finally managed to get my hands on one. I'm still after a chocolate version. This one has been planted out with a little more exposure and is already produced a second shoot.

I purchased a Variegated Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) and have added it to the southern extension to the back garden.

For Christmas my Mum got me a Red Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior) from an garden that my parents visited as part of the open garden scheme. This one when in the northern extension of the back garden. From what I've read the foliage can grow anywhere from 3 to 6 metres (it's already at about 1.5) so I'll have to see how it goes. From photos I've seen the flowers are spectacular.

West Indian Lime not flowering

2007-12-14T18:40:00.000+10:00

I have 2 citrus in the garden, a Meyer Lemon and a West Indian Lime. Both went in about 3 years ago and are doing quite well. While the Lemon has had plenty of fruit (currently about 15-20 mature fruit that should be ready for the new year) the Lime just hasn't produced. Over the 3 years I've probably had 4 limes from it, which I don't mind given it's quite young, however it hasn't had a decent flowering at all. I noticed a single flower on it today. Perhaps it's just a matter of waiting.

Tiger grass and extending the back garden

2007-12-14T16:09:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I cleaned up the bed along the bottom of the pool as the lawn was invading quite badly. It's most full of rhoeo but also contains a dwarf variegated bouganvilla. Used to have two but lost one over winter - I suspect the salt from the pool may have contributed. I added 2 tiger grasses to this bed, so hopefully they gain some height and width and provide some privacy.

I also extended the back border garden so that it mostly extends along the entire border. Emptied the entire compost bin and combined with the existing soil as it was quite dry and chalky even after the recent rains.

The main reason for doing this was so I could move the Corkwood (Euodia Elleryana) and Tulipwood (Harpullia pendula) trees from the existing beds to the newly created ones as they simply would not have had enough room to grow. They should both fill the space between the existing palm trees and provide shade.

The timor black bamboo shoot is now at tall as me (about 6ft) and almost growing before my eyes. I suspect that the hot humid weather as wel as the rain all are contributing to this. About to my the lawn after doing the edges with the brush cutter yesterday.

Timor Black Bamboo & other goings on

2007-12-03T18:06:00.000+10:00

Had a pretty busy schedule last week so didn't get to spend much time in the garden. Nick mowed the lawn on Saturday and that has tidied things up.

In the back garden I noticed the first new shoot on the Timor Black Bamboo (Bambusa lako) on Monday (26/11) and it is now about 20-25cm and growing fast.

The leafy green seeds I planted last weekend have all come up. The greens that are in the garden are all doing well but I'll probably need some help to get through them. I need to stagger the plantings better and have less in each sowing. I'm now using seed trays to bring up the seedlings so this should help.

The weather has been pretty mild with a few short sharp showers, the best was on Tuesday morning. Into summer now and things are meant to hot up this week with temps around 30C and the promise of storms.

New ginger, old ginger and leafy greens

2007-11-24T16:59:00.000+10:00

Bought a new ginger today, Red Tower (Costus barbatus) and have put in the back boundary garden. According to the label it gets to 2-3 meters so it should provide a bit of mid height structure and provide some shade to the lower levels.

Noticed that the last two seasonal gingers (dormant during winter) in the lower (south) garden have sent their shoots up.

These are Siam Platinum (Smithatris Supraneenae) and what I believe to be a Curcuma roscoeana.

The Voodoo Magic (Curcuma) has been up for a number of weeks. I split the rhizome in September and potted half which shot with a flower before any foliage.

Set some seeds in seed trays for some lettuce, rocket, pad choy and basil which should be ready for planting out in 2-3 weeks.

New shoots Ginger and Heliconia

2007-11-20T18:32:00.000+10:00

Discovered today that there are new shoots on the Lobster Claw Heliconia (Heliconia Rostrata) and the Ginger (I think these are Shell Ginger Alpinia zerumbet) in the new garden along the back boundary.

The Heliconia was initially in the bed along the southern side of the house but it wasn't getting enough sun and the wind was damaging the leaves. It's had several new leaves but this is the first new shoot.

The Ginger is from rhizome off cuts from my mothers garden and have been in for approximately a month. They have had a number of new leaves but these are the first new shoots.

Saturday in the Garden

2007-11-17T16:55:00.000+10:00

Added borders to the beds at the front of the house today using bricks from the old BBQ. Hopefully this will keep the grass out of the beds. Certainly makes things neater and will make mowing a bit easier.

The Eumundi quandong (Elaeocarpus eumundi) that replaced the palm at the front of the house has a flush of new leaves although those on the north side of the tree have a burnt appearance and are falling off. I'm wondering if the afternoon sun is just too much.

Cleared the grass from the base of the citrus, gave them a feed and topped up the mulch.

Gave the hedge at the top and bottom of the house a trim.

Mowed Lawn

2007-11-17T16:46:00.000+10:00

Mowed the lawn last night. Been a week since it was last done but we've had some rain during the week and with the temperature around the mid to high 20's during the week it's really greened up. According to the neighbor had 7mm of rain last night. Tank is full.