Garden Show fever

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show kicked off today with a real bang. Actually there was an air of triumphance about it.

Cactuses growing inside dessert dishes - Yay, Ross

Lots of examples of sustainability and gardening exultation. The possums had been dive bombing and having a good masticate by the looks of things on our Sustainable Gardening Australia silverbeet, beetroot and chard (bio-diversity themed) display. Fantastic garden walls vegetated doubling as rain-water tanks, and tonnes of vertical gardens sprouting with herbs and flowers.  The promenade with outdoor sculpture was really inspiring.

Actually I feel really bad as one of our study mates asked us for help with his entry as a finalist in the Student Category of the Show, (see top 4 photo images) but low and behold, despite most of us being too busy to help, he won the Gold Medal. Top stuff, Ross Uebergang. I always called Ross 'Mighty Multi-Media Man' as Ross' work always stood out with his incredible 3-dimensional designs, now realised here in real 3D.

Have been a bit busy these last few weeks to post anything on this blog, finalising my book - Green Spin - Promoting the Green Message, and the cover is finally coming along, thanks to a wonderful artist friend.

Ross' winning design

One of SGA's displays - gorgeous

No worries - reverse the flood flurries

Crazy weather means we have states all over Australia waiting for levies to break and rivers to overflow.  I heard something about 75 per cent of New South Wales, including Sydney is affected.

One turf grower was asked by the journalist (a little naively me-thinks) doesn't the rain bring you more top-soil. It seemed to be implied in her question, doesn't the rain improve growing conditions? No, was his unsurprising reply.  The rain brings more sand deposits than top-soil.  Are we people so not in touch with our earth, that we don't know floods destroy crops? Was she trying to put a positive spin on floods?

Ironically, this is a strong reason to get in to growing vegies and other produce around your property, to help absorb the heavy rains, which these mad weather patterns are bringing so they don't rush down the drains, in to rivers which then end up overflowing.