This time of the year while the garden is always inviting during summer in the tropics, not so much. You can’t escape the midges or mosquitos. If its midges hose down your calves, ankles and feet. You will wash they’re urine off which is apparently what causes the itching.
I choose mornings to potter and the air is still despite the proximity of the sea. It’s not uncommon for it to be at 90% humidity with a temperature creeping up 30 c and warmer.. Before long the air is full of smoke from mosquito coils. These help, unless you go into the shade and then nothing can save you.
Garden real estate is at a premium at my place and plants compete for space with the strong outgrowing the weak The gingers and heliconias are forever advancing and the combination of heat and water from regular irrigation creates a jungle.
Every other day there is the pruning. So even in a small garden with these small windows of time for activity, It can be barely enough to contain the growth.
The cordylines are pruned hard. Big brown grasshoppers love them and will strip the leaves to nothing. They get quite lanky too and become all stick. It’s better to cut them right down and wait for winter. They grow fast and are at their best in winter when they provide pops of colour. Sometimes you want more than lush green. Just unadulterated verdant green!
Acalyphas grow well here with their painted bright orange/red foliage. They are hard pruned to keep whiteflies under control, which are an annoyance more than anything.
The garden is watered until the wet season when the heavens open and you think about building an ark. But at the moment the skies are blue and cloudless and when the wind blows up the sandy soil dries quickly.
Disappearing as quickly as it is laid is the sugar cane mulch. I know its feeding earthworms and bacteria and the plants but its breaking down so fast the wallet can’t keep up. You think in the land of sugar we would have an abundant and cheap supply but sadly, no.
The last day or so the heat has been relentless and I’m peering out the windows enjoying the view of the garden and and further afield HInchinbrook Island and the coral sea, all in the comfort of cooled air :).
