Weather Log for the month:
Seasons: End-of-Autumn / Dry Season
Maximum Temps: 25°C - 31°C
Minimum Temps: 11°C - 22°C
Humidity Levels: 40 - 70%
Hours of daylight: 11 hrs 10 mins
Rainfall: 0 mm (0 ins.)
May: a true threshold month in the garden
By the end of May, the garden no longer feels newly released from the wet season. That was April’s story — the relief of being able to garden again, the first proper clean-up, and the great return to jobs that had felt almost impossible during the long, hot, humid months.
May feels different.
The rain has stopped. The air is drier. The ground is now very firm underfoot, and the sky has taken on that enormous dry-season blue that seems to stretch forever above the garden.
The days are still warm — this is North Queensland after all — but there is less weight in the air now. The afternoons are softer and the evenings are cooler. Not a southern winter chill, of course, but that lovely dry-tropics coolness that arrives almost as a surprise after months of heat and humidity.
Our tropical winter is approaching.
Garden Conditions
This is the month when the garden asks for small, sensible attention rather than big dramatic effort.
A little mulch here. A shifted pot there. Some trimming. Some watering decisions. Some slow wandering and close looking.
The garden is still green, but 0 mm of rain for the month tells its own story. May is the time to start thinking ahead and looking at the garden with dry-season eyes. Which plants will need more shelter as the dry continues? Which pots are too exposed? Which ones are too far from the hose? Which garden beds need topping up before the soil begins to dry out properly?
The same pots that were too wet in February will dry out quickly in the clearer, breezier weather. May is a good month for rethinking positions, rescuing tired specimens, and deciding which containers deserve the prime spots close to water.
The skies have been stunning — wide, bright, brilliant blue — and they have changed the whole feeling of the garden. After the greyness and heaviness of the wet season months, that clear blue sky makes everything feel lighter and more open.
These are the mornings when I find myself noticing the smaller things. A plant that has quietly improved. A flower hanging on longer than expected. A fern looking particularly pleased with itself in the shade house. A patch of weeds that is not going to pull itself out, no matter how patiently I ignore it.
Gardening Tasks
May has been a month of pottering in the best sense of the word — noticing, adjusting, rescuing, shifting, trimming, and slowly setting the garden up for what comes next.
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| Mulching is vital for the outdoor garden beds particularly for the - spaces with poor soil that are exposed to mostly direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day (on the left) - and the spaces that have only recently been established and need care (on the right). |
Mulching has become one of the important dry-season jobs. It may not be the glamorous side of gardening, but it is one of the most useful. A good layer of mulch helps keep moisture in the soil, protects roots, and gives the garden a better chance of moving through the dry months without too much stress.
Potted plants have also needed attention. I have been moving some into better light, giving others a little more shelter, and generally trying to make sensible decisions before the dry season properly settles in.
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There has also been weeding, of course.
Weeds creep through in between pavers, colonise garden edges, and pop up between treasured plants in garden beds and pots. Some are still easy to pull while the soil holds a little moisture. Others have already made themselves far too comfortable.
This is also a good time to notice what has self-seeded. I rarely find welcome little volunteers. They are usually future thugs in disguise. The trick is learning which is which before the garden makes the decision for you.
There is something satisfying about May weeding though. It feels less like the desperate catch-up work of early autumn and more like preparation — reclaiming the garden section by section before the dry season hardens the soil and makes everything more difficult.
Nothing too grand or ambitious. Just sensible dry-season gardening.
Garden Highlights
May brought some lovely little garden rewards.
The potted Plectranthus saccatus have been putting on a fabulous display out in the courtyard. They have that generous way of filling a pot and softening a space, and at the moment they are doing it beautifully.
The potted Impatiens walleriana have also been a quiet triumph. After looking thoroughly unimpressed with life during the wet season, they have recovered. All of them.
It is a small thing, perhaps, but after watching them struggle through the heavy rain and humidity, seeing them freshen up again feels like a proper little garden victory.
Near the car shed, the Iris domestica, commonly known as the Blackberry Lily or Leopard Lily, was showing off its last bloom. Just one — but it caught my eye. These last flowers of a season always feel worth noticing. They are like a final word before the plant slips back into the background.
Under the pergola, the pink Begonia semperflorens has been producing the tiniest blooms. They are not showy in a loud way, but they are beautiful. Little details like that are easy to miss if I am rushing, but May encourages slower looking.
And in the shade house, the beautiful Davallia fejeensis, the Rabbit’s Foot Fern, is showing exactly why it is such a great plant for that protected space. Its soft, divided fronds and those wonderfully strange furry rhizomes seem perfectly at home there.
Seasonal Markers
Autumn colours are not a usual occurrence here in the dry tropics, certainly not in the way they are in cooler climates. But there are still some trees that mark the seasonal change in quieter ways.
One of these is Lagerstroemia speciosa. It is winter deciduous, and as the dry season transition begins, the older leaves turn red or rusty-coloured before falling during our mid to late autumn.
Another marker at this time of year is the native Eucalyptus platyphylla, commonly known as the Poplar Gum. It is notably dry-season deciduous, and as the season shifts, the outer layer of bark begins to fall away, revealing the smooth white trunk beneath. Looking around my garden and the surrounding bush land, I noticed the Poplar Gums are all at different stages of this process. Some have already shed most of their rough outer bark, while others are still in the middle of letting go.
As autumn ends, one of my favourite sights in the garden is the burst of colour from my Calliandra haematocephala, or red Powderpuff, and Calliandra surinamensis, or pink Powderpuff. The flower buds look like little raspberries before they bloom — first green, then red. Once they open, the individual flowers are small, but they cluster together to form those wonderful soft, spherical powderpuff blooms. It is a delightful sight, and another little signal that the season is shifting.
Smoke on the Horizon
May also brought one of the unmistakable signs that the dry season has begun.
Planned burning has started near where we live, in the Mt Elliott section of Bowling Green Bay National Park. Yesterday, as we were driving into our rural suburb, we could see plumes of smoke rising in the distance. This morning, there was still a faint hint of smoke hanging around the foothills.
It is another seasonal marker.
In the dry tropics, the approach of winter is not only about cooler mornings, crisp evenings, and pleasant gardening weather. It is also about drier grasses, clearer skies, smoke on the horizon, and the start of bushfire season.
The garden might be my daily focus, but it sits within a much larger landscape. The foothills, the bush paddock, the national park, the grasses drying out beyond the garden fence — they are all part of the same seasonal story.
May makes that very clear.
What Flowered During May?
The Justicia brandegeeana, or Shrimp Plant, has been covered in blooms. It is one of those plants that always seems to bring cheer to a garden corner, with its curious, layered flowers and easy-going character.
The last of the Mussaenda philippica x flava ‘Calcutta Sunset’ flower sprays are still hanging on too. They are past their peak now, but still beautiful in that lingering, end-of-season way. I always admire plants that hold onto their colour just a little longer than expected.
The Gerberas have been blooming once more, which feels like another small reward. Their flowers have such simple brightness to them — bold, cheerful, and impossible to ignore.
The rather leggy Salvia madrensis, or Golden Fountain Salvia, continues to show off its flower spikes. It may not be the neatest plant in the garden, but when those yellow flowers appear, all is forgiven. Some plants earn their space by being tidy. Others earn it by having a moment.
Closing Reflection
May in a Townsville dry tropics garden is a quieter kind of beauty.
It is found in the big blue sky, the clearer air, the crisp evening coolness, and the pleasure of wandering without hurry. It is found in small jobs, sensible decisions, fresh foliage, late flowers, and the gentle satisfaction of seeing a few tired plants spring back to life.
The garden is no longer simply recovering from the wet. It is settling into the drier part of the year with plants slowing, shedding, and conserving themselves.
Wintertime is drawing close, and we are beginning to feel its first cool touch.
Until next time,
🌸 Happy gardening from the dry tropics!
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