Green thumb Sunday

Well.... for this weeks GTS our Irises that are growing in the pond have decided to put on a show. They certainly add that extra touch of colour to the garden at the moment.
Our little Eastern sedgefrog population have taken over the large water bowl ( photo 3rd down rh. side) they are making plenty of noise, but no babies yet. A really good downpour would definately do the trick. It's probably worth a click for a larger view on the Iris shots.
Enjoy your week and Happy gardening!

Green thumb Sunday

Thank you for the invitation to join Green thumb Sunday.
Well.... our dear old heritage green watering can has gone into retirement. We decided that with the imminent introduction of level4 water restrictions ( which means restricted use of w/cans and buckets on alternate days) we really needed a more efficient watering can. The old chap looks quite happy housing the geraniums don't you think? Well one thing about the drought it's going to give us lots of exercise if we want to keep our gardens alive. Fortunately we've got our water tank as back up if we get any bad heatwaves. We think we'll probably plant more geraniums, being mediterranean plants they seem to cope well with hot dry conditions.
Happy gardening!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

New pot stand

I recently bought a couple of interesting plant pot stands from a local nursery. So I thought I'd share the idea with fellow garden bloggers. For plant lovers with limited space or people with patios, balconies or decks they could be ideal. The collage shot will give you an idea of the set up. The triangular formed galvanised mesh is concreted into a large plastic pot. In my case I got them to concrete 2/3 up so I could plant in the base (it's got a Hoya Australis planted in it) and I just drilled holes in the side for drainage. The centre upright has right angled swivel hooks attatched at various points and my terracotta pots fit in to the formed galvanised hangers. Of course you can just put plastic pots with hangers on if you wish. The benefit I found with the galvanised hangers was you can shorten them if necessary to create a staggered look. With the heavy weight of the concrete the stands are quite stable. The original height was about two metres which was a bit too tall for me so I cut 300mm off and screwed them onto my garden arbour. More places to put plants I'm such a garden tragic! The bottom shot is the stand planted with hoyas, It should look quite good once the plants grow and hang down and the base plant grows up the centre. I think the idea has merit for people with limited space who want to grow herbs or succulents etc, you can have a dozenplants concentrated in a small area.

Toowoomba prize winning gardens

As you can see some of these gardens were an absolute delight to visit. The climate in Toowoomba suits a lot of plants that we couldn't grow in Brisbane because of our humidity so we were a little envious when we saw the beautiful Rhododendrums and Daphne growing.
A visitor to my previous post kindly pointed out a mistake I'd made. The water provided to residents in the garden competition was bore water not recycled water, my apologies. I hope you will enjoy the beauty and colours of these gardens as much as we did.

Queens Park Toowoomba.

Just a few shots taken in Toowoomba during their annual "Carnival of Flowers" It's a real credit to the town that they where able to put on such a fabulous display. This was taken a fortnight ago, the district is now on level5 water restrictions now which means no outdoor watering at all. The residents have been preparing for this for some time and it seems most people have got either bores or water tanks. To ensure the carnival went ahead the council went around filling peoples water tanks with recycled water. When you see gardens like these it really is hard to imagine the area is facing such a crisis. I'll post some of the prize winning gardens in the next day or so. Take lots of deep breaths and enjoy the Spring (or autumn)