Thanks Alison - I agree that you can take a lot away from the efforts of others, and I devour every article I can get my hands on. I'm hoping that GA's Gerry Coleby will return to segments on his efforts to establish his subtropical garden in Brissie, but they seem to have moved away from tropicals lately. I'm in Brissie for a week in early May, but my time will be taken up with the course I'm attending (work, I'm afraid). Ideally, I'd like to see the Birkdale garden, and Suan Sawan in Bray Park, along with Dennis Hundscheidt's 'compound' on the southside. If only more landlords were like Dennis - planting a tropical wonderland and making maintenance a condition of the lease ! I lived in SE Qld for many years, and never once made the effort to visit the Ginger Factory at Buderim : now that I am 5 hours drive from the Sunshine Coast, I'm really kicking myself over that little oversight. Cheers, Artie

We will try and get along to it this year Ian, would love to see the new brom house. And all Judy's broms of course. So here's hoping Ian and Judy that the skies open up quite a bit before the great day. And that everything in the garden is sparkling for you both.....Cheers...MM

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...

Plymouth (MA) Garden Club. Our plant sale is this Saturday May 21 from 9 to noon at the Chiltonville Congregational Church 6 River St Plymouth MA. We have very nice plants both divisions and starts carefully tagged and packed, as well as kitchen treats, attic treasures and boutique items. Come early for best selection. Benefits scholarships and civic beautification projects in our town. Thanks NH Babs for this thread.