Top ten list of garden plants

  • Abutilons of all kinds
  • Buddlejas old and new
  • Epiphytic orchids and ferns
  • Gordonia species
  • Heliotrope, Lemon verbena, Fennel and herbs
  • Michelias of all sorts
  • Perennial Salvias large and small
  • Species Camellias
  • Tea and China Roses
  • Weigela of all types

Montville Rose

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Just another day

Hi All.
I just wanted to de brief  about my awesome day yesterday!!!

Possible titles - 'Shadows Big Day"  " How to make 10 Butter Menthols last a whole afternoon"  ' Do I need to carry a mobile phone?'How would it help?"


I started the day pushing  Michael up to  work and going to pilates. exercise- tick!
After an enjoyable yet hot morning of barrowing mushroom compost , Brent arrived to do some major pruning. Brent is Michael 's physical contribution to the garden and he had drawn a picture of what he wanted cutting seeing as he was at work. Brent is super slick and cheap!! and in no time we had the ute piled up with branches. We had a bit of a chat about the Mapleton tip and the hopeless opening hours and I decided that I may as well drive down to Nambour tip. Otherwise snakes might decide to get into the ute. ( in hindsight  - "snakes in a ute", may be preferable and could be a good movie) 
So I grabbed Shadow and we headed off. Straight to the Big Dump where serious dumping goes on. I unloaded , swept out and was ready to go when the ute wouldn't start. 
Not wanting to believe it I got out and waited and tried it again just in case it was being fickle.  ( The Prefect only started after it had been washed) 
None of the guys around me seemed to have a clue although they did insist on raising the bonnet and looking querulous for a while.  Brent drove in about 20 mins later and asked if it has fuel!! 
As I have no phone  Shadow and  I  in my mushroomy state of attire, went and bashed on the door of the office and was eventually heard.I now have a great appreciation for the amount of dump trucks there are on the Sunny Coast. I also have witnessed the amount of recycling  and the number of turkeys that go through it all.Anyway the guy there was lovely and gave me a phone and water for Shadow. I rang RACQ Waited for about an hour and more humming and haring when it was decided that it would need to be towed. 

More waiting and chatting to the guy when there was a lull in dump trucks and the general public  . I heard all about the whole enterprise and the way in the lead up to Christmas there is heaps more rubbish.Apparently lots of renovating goes on . Shadow and I did circuits of the place and wandered down the road always imagining that at any moment the tow truck would be there.(The watched tow truck never comes) Then yeah it was there!
This saga began at 2.30 and we didn't get home until 7.00pm. The tow guy said I couldn't have Shadow in the RACQ Cab and he would have to ride in the ute so poor Shadow looked very forlorn as he was winched up.
I can only describe the drive in the truck up the Range was like a bat out of hell. Was it the great rush of air due to no aircon , was it the speed and swervy cornering or was it the hits of the 80"s at volume? I was holding on and couldn't look back to see Shadow.  I was so worried about Shadow being tossed around or found unconscious on arrival. Anyway finally landed   at Montville Auto in darkness. I  rescued Shadow and walked home. Dragged the bin out as ironically it was bin night.
I walked in to Michael sitting at the table . No sign that anything had been done like taking his tablets or rustling up a delicious meal -drat! 
All he could say was gee Brent really massacred the wattle bird!!! Actually he was concerned about my day but mainly the fact that through Chinese whispers aka the receptionist he had no idea what had happened or where I was. 
After a shower I steamed those Japanese stand by dumplings and watched Man Up. Kyleigh

stop press: The ford falcon ute has a smart locking thing with the ignition .At this moment I hope the whole thing is being dismantled and thrown in the bin. Kyleigh

Sunday, October 9, 2016

open garden over and Summer is here

Our Open garden , Springtime in Montville was sucessful in perfect weather and almost overnight summer arrived.
We were blessed with incredible luck that the open garden event coincided with a flowering event involving most plants in the garden with spring, summer display.
 Ellie from Cittamani Hospice service receiving the proceeds of Open garden 2016

Open Gardens can't appen without help and input from family and friends. there is aquite a bit of work to do. Thanks to Chris and tracey, Chris Donlen and Ed, Margaret Jeays, and from the uniting Church, Heather, Darryl, Merle and all who helped. Then there is of course Eleanor, Denise and John who worked all weekend
Denise and John manning the gatehouse.

Eleanor and John the plant sellers.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

THANKYOU FOR ATTENDING OUR OPEN GARDEN



"Shadow" waiting to welcome garden vsitors
Thankyou to all who attended our Open garden in perfect weather on 1st and 2nd October.
Over $2400 was raised for the Cittamani Hospice Servicehttp://www.cittamanihospice.com.au and over $1000 was raised for Frontier services, through the Montville uniting Church https://frontierservices.org/
Everybody wanted to know about the Golden flowers of The Tabebuia chrysora, and everyone loved the orchids

Tabebuia chrysora "The Shambles" 

Dendrobium nobile "The Shambles"