Bushbernie's Profile

Amateur gardener, wildlife enthusiast, Australian. (I was previously known as 'bernieh' on this site.)

My place is in Townsville, north Queensland, Australia.
I live on a 3-acre property situated on the side of a rocky hill. Most of the property has been left as bushland because of the steepness of that part of the property.

Gardening here can be quite challenging.

Firstly, there's the climate. Townsville is in a region known as the dry tropics. Our dry tropical climate has two distinct seasons: the wet season from November to April (end of Spring to mid Autumn) and the dry season from May to October (end of Autumn to mid Spring).

During the dry season we can receive little or no rain for nine months of the year then, come summer, between 1000 and 1200 millimetres can fall. Wet season here can be a hit-and-miss affair though. We often experience back-to-back failed wet seasons.

Then there's the soil. There are three types and they're all bad for gardening. Near the coast the soil is exceptionally sandy and nutrients leach right through it during the downpours. On the floodplains, there's sodic clay which is exceptionally hard during the dry season and waterlogged during the wet season. This soil erodes easily and has a high salt content which can retard the growth of many plants.

Finally, on the hills surrounding Townsville (which is the location of my place), there's a thin layer of poor quality decomposed granite soil over granite rock, which is not ideal for gardening.

The granite soil and rock here are hydrophobic, so the water just runs through it and doesn't penetrate very deeply. Plants have to be quite drought tolerant to thrive in this soil.

Added to all this we experience high temperatures, especially in summertime, high evaporation rates and high humidity levels. Plants need to be heat and humidity hardy.

My garden is not a typical suburban garden, with lush garden beds and green lawn. As the soil is almost nutrient free, and the hillside site is exposed to the elements, we've had to create a garden by building up beds with purchased soil and creating areas where potted plants can thrive.

My garden consists of:
- the outdoor garden beds on both sides of the long driveway into our property

- my courtyard garden where I grow my potted plants and plants that need some shelter from the hot midday/afternoon sun

- my shade house garden which is covered by shade cloth and provides protection and shelter for hanging and potted plants

- some garden beds around the front and side of my house

- a tiered garden bed outside my shade house garden

- and garden beds next to and across from our car shed at the end of our long driveway.