Over the last year or so, I have been regularly harvesting from my forest to use in the garden: leaves, rotting wood, and not so rotting wood. Great stuff in the garden or compost pile Granted, I try not to disturb the floor more than I can avoid. I use a bagging lawnmower or a hand rake--not the box blade on my tractor. I leave a majority of material behind, and selectively thin out some of the less desirable specimens to decrease competition an increase access. Some have chastised me for this, but I fail to see any logic behind leaving the forest strictly 100% off limits. Sure, this all part of a natural cycle, but so are forest fires. Who wants one of those in their back yard? If I am a bad steward of my land for this practice, am I also a bad steward by picking the wild blueberries? I've asked those who chastise me how they build their hugelkultur beds, or where they think their firewood comes from if not from a tree somewhere, or how they burn in those fancy little rocket stoves. The bottom line for me is that is makes perfect sense to harvest some fertility and organic matter to improve previously clear cut, graded and raped areas. This spring/summer I will stroll through select areas of my forest unmolested by thorny vines, tripping hazards, and hung deadwood while picking wild blueberries. Then, I will harvest from all the members of the plant and fungi kingdoms I have cultivated myself. I will be happy. My forest will live on and the earth will keep revolving.

Ian and Judy WintleÂs Birkdale Garden 2007 ÂA True GardenerÂs Garden ItÂs worth the trip; itÂs worth the time to enjoy Ian and Judy WintleÂs ÂGiving Garden situated on BrisbaneÂs bayside suburb of Birkdale. After 20 years of Service in the RAAF and nearly as many addresses Judy, our two sons and I were looking forward to putting roots down in one place. We acquired our one-acre block here in Birkdale in 1988 and proceeded to build a house that would actually be our permanent home. It was a bare block so we started well and truly from scratch. We decided from the outset that we would have a reasonably nice Garden, one that would return something back to us. It must be pointed out that we have done ALL the work ourselves, no Landscape Gardeners in our yard. It is basically a gardenerÂs garden built by sheer hard work and effort, the only help being shovel and wheelbarrow. We started off the Garden by planting a variety of Tropical Fruit Trees and basically lots of lawn. It was not until after three or four years after our eldest son became a paraplegic through a Motor Bike accident in 1996 that we really started to put our heart and soul into the garden, which then became an integral part of our own rehabilitation, Âthe harder you work the less time you have to thinkÂ. It hasnÂt been easy, very hard work Âpoor soil and Âno underground waterÂ. We rely on rainfall and the Garden hose; sometimes I wonder with the changing dryer weather pattern if we should have taken up a less stressful hobby. In 2005 we put in a 15000-litre rainwater tank and two more in 2006 (no rebate in Redlands). We now have four tanks with combined storage of 50,000 litres of rainwater for use in the garden. We also have another 15000 litre tank on order. This should make us Âdrought proofÂ, only problem is the 22 week wait. The soil is solid clay down to about 70 feet (we know this because we drilled for fresh water and found salt water at 80 feet), so over the years we have had to trailer in many metres of different mulchÂs. We bring in quite a lot of Stable and Mushroom Manure and compost everything that is able to be put through the Greenfield Shredder and use all the Lawn Clippings. Our main mulch is sugar cane of which we use about 160 bales each year. We have about 70 Tropical Fruit and Nut trees, with approximately 40 different edible varieties, we have Sapotes, Star Apples, Longans, Custard Apples, Sapodillas, Hog PlumÂs Wax Jambu, Lychees and of course several types of MangoÂs just to name a few. We also have a productive vegetable garden, which reflects the time we spent living in Malaysia, it is full of Asian vegetables. No matter what time of year it is we can always go outside and find something to eat, be it fruit or vegetable. Our Garden is a ÂGiving Garden and if we cannot eat it the Bats and Cockatoos will. The garden changes every year and is still evolving, it will never be a great Sub-Tropical...

Hi MM, If your roses are relatively newly planted, then they are only "babies" and have not handled the stress of the hot weather very well. Their root systems are not fully established to be able to take advantage of the moisture that you have put into the soil. Don't think about moving them too soon, let them mature and see if they handle the conditions better. My roses are in full sun in a very open garden, and we get some very hot days in summer here in southern NSW. Some varieties seem to be able to handle the heat, others fry on the first hot day. Usually our first hot days are late October, early November, just when the roses are in all their glory. I always pray that the hot spell will come a little later and allow the roses to flower longer. As someone said above, the spring growth is soft and not able to handle the early heat. Don't be disillusioned, be patient and coddle your youngsters a little longer.

Try your local landscape suppliers - listed in the yellow pages, or ask friendly people at your local nurseries. They can deliver mulch by the cubic metre. You won't need a trailer - they'll just dump it on your drive or lawn, and it is shovel and wheelbarrow time from therein. You might also be able to get something from your local council if they recycle  always worth checking. What to choose depends a lot on what you have planted and whether you will be needing to dig again. For example, a lot of the homemaker TV shows use large pebbles these days. It looks funky (if you like that kind of thing) but make things really difficult if you decide to move a plant, or put in more. Likewise itÂs a little hard to spread compost or manure around your plants if there is a layer of permanent pebbles! Plus very expensive. Things like wood chip are a middle option  fairly long lasting but not as dramatic OR expensive as pebbles. With delivery, you are probably looking at anywhere between $70 and $100 per cubic metre, depending on where you get it. Finally the more organic options like sugar cane, lucerne etc are worth looking at. They are cheaper but won't last as long (such is the trade off I guess!) But they add nutrients to your soil as they break down, and you have far better flexibility to move plants, put in new ones etc. If you are worried about weeds popping through, a few layers of newspaper underneath really helps. You can bring it home a few bales at a time, or some of the larger centres will lend or hire a trailer to you. If you are just starting out in this garden, IÂd reckon this is the best option for now. It is the cheapest and most flexible, and will improve your soil. Then you can always go for something more permanent in a year or two.