Our Tropical Wintertime Draws To A Close ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... End-of-Winter, Week 33, August 2025

Garden Journal Entry - Week 33

This week's weather:

Seasons:  end-of-Winter & Dry Season
Daytime Temps:  20°C - 29°C            
Night Time Temps:  8°C - 19°C
Humidity Levels: around 70%     
Hours of daylight:  11 1/2 hours
Rainfall:  0 mm (0 inches)

🌿 August in the Tropics

As we approach the close of winter, August has delivered the gentle rhythm of tropical late-winter weather that we've come to expect.  Nights have mostly hovered around the average for the month, with an occasional cooler evening reminding us that winter still lingers.  Daytime temperatures have been steady, mostly typical for August, though a refreshing cool day of 20°C and a few warmer touches of 28°C have provided some variety.

☀️ Weather Watch

The past weeks have been a dance between bright, sunny days and the occasional overcast spell.  Some days shift from cheerful sunshine to dreary clouds in a matter of hours.

Unfortunately, these grey spells have brought no rain, leaving the garden to contend with the drying effects of blustery winds and extended hours of sun.  Consistent deep watering has therefore become an essential part of weekly gardening routines. 

Even so, the occasional overcast day offers a quiet reprieve - a perfect opportunity to spend hours outdoors, tending to the garden and giving the new plantings a healthy start.

🌱 New Garden Projects Settling In

Both of the new garden spaces are now fully planted, mulched, and beginning to flourish.  (See the last post to discover why I began creating these new spaces: New Gardening Projects ) Adjustments to the dry season watering schedule have been necessary to ensure the newcomers thrive until the wet season arrives at the end of the year.

The new garden space at the end of the driveway

The new rock garden space near the old chook pen

🌱 Old Garden Project Progressing Nicely

Pergola Rock Garden - Phase Two

The back section of the rock garden space under the pergola has entered its second phase.  Some original Coleus, that were planted in the ground, struggled with frequent mealy bug infestations and were ultimately removed.  The area now features the addition of potted Coleus and potted Begonias adding renewed colour and vibrancy.  Having these plants potted, instead of planted in the ground, means possible future treatment and/or removal will be a whole lot easier for me.

I'm finding the transformation far more pleasing, with the pergola garden now looking lush and lively.

🌼 Shade House Blossoms

Recently I've been very busy revamping the hanging baskets in my shade house garden - adding fresh coir linings, replenishing the potting mix and planting new flowering plants - in preparation for a springtime show.

• Fifteen new hanging baskets have been planted up with new babies and will soon brighten the shade house garden space.
• Most baskets are filled with Impatiens hawkeri  (New Guinea Impatiens).  

Newly planted hanging baskets in the shade house garden

These vibrant plants are a perfect match for Townsville's warm, humid climate.  Thriving in partial shade, they bring a splash of colour among the greenery of the ferns, and their moderate water needs make them ideal for our dry tropics conditions.  I can't wait to see them mature and fill out the baskets.

🐝 Life in the Garden

Even in these drier winter days, the garden buzzes with life.  Native bees, butterflies and other insects flit from flower to flower, keeping the ecosystem balanced and healthy.  Their presence is a beautiful reminder of how interconnected garden life really is.

😟 Ecological Threat

Meanwhile, on-going efforts to manage Anoplolepis gracilipes (Yellow Crazy Ants) here in the southern suburbs continue to be a critical biosecurity priority for our Townsville City Council.  Treatment programs, running since October last year, use helicopters, drones and ground crews to distribute bait, designed to be taken back to the colony by worker ants in order to target the queen, and ultimately the entire colony.

According to the flyer distributed to all households last year:  "Yellow Crazy Ants form super-colonies consisting of multiple queens supporting multiple nests and millions of workers.  

They out-compete other ants and spray formic acid on other prey, decimating biodiversity."  

Our City Council considers that multiple treatments will be needed over several years to control each of the infestations, so we will be getting very used to the sound of helicopters and drones in our area every month for the foreseeable future.

Over the past two weeks, our area has witnessed yet more aerial and ground treatments, reminding us that vigilance is needed to preserve local biodiversity.

There was a helicopter buzzing around last week, dropping baits, 

and then this week a drone carried on with more targeted bait dropping.  Members of the Yellow Crazy Ant program ground crew also visited our place yesterday to further continue the treatment.  

🌸 Highlights Around The Garden:

• Agave Bloom:  I've been delighted to see one of the large Agaves blooming this year.  It was the first in the group to bloom and right now there are loads of little pups (bulbils) forming along the flower spike.  The mother plant is dying and throwing out lots of new little babies to take her place.  I'm just letting them fall to the ground to see if any of them will survive the dry season and grow roots before our harsh summer rolls around at the end of the year.  Given that this section of the garden only survives on rain from Mother Nature, it will be interesting to see if any of the pups will take off.

• Splashes of Colour:  There's a bit of pink splashed here and there in various garden spaces - Adenium obesum (Desert Rose), Calliandra surinamensis (Powderpuff), Ixora and Kalanchoe.

• Birdwatcing:  One of the things I love most about my place in the world is the variety of birdlife I'm privileged to see almost on a daily basis.  This past week I've noticed a few beautiful visitors during my wanderings around the place - 

Top row L - R:  A Coracina papuensis (White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike), and a Lichenostomus flavus (Yellow Honeyeater)
Bottom row L - R:  a female Sphecotheres viridis (Australasian Figbird) and Dacelo novaeguineae (Laughing Kookaburra).

🌿 Looking Ahead

This end-of-winter period is a time of quiet growth and preparation.  The garden continues to show resilience, and the new plantings promise vibrant colour and life as we move closer to spring.  

Until next time,
🌸 Happy gardening from the dry tropics!

The End Of Winter Is Here ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Week 36, 2012.

Date:  August 26, 2012

Season:  end of Winter, and mid-dry season

So this is our last Winter weekend and Spring is almost upon us.  This was the prediction for the weekend ...

Fri Overcast Low: 18°C High: 26°C

Sat Cloudy Low: 18°C High: 27°C

Sun Overcast Low: 16°C High: 25°C

Mon Cloudy Low: 17°C High: 26°C

... and that's pretty much how it all panned out too.  Our glorious winter daytime temps, which were hovering around the low to mid 20s (C), are now pretty much over and done with.  The mercury is now climbing up into the high 20s (C) every day, preparing the way for the rapidly approaching very warm Springtime temps. 

With one more week left before Spring officially arrives here Downunder, those of us who live in the northern tropics start bracing ourselves for the arrival once more of the fierce sunshine, the horrid heat and the awful humidity.

Our Spring begins in September and ends in November, and occurs towards the end of our 'dry' season.  There are predictions that a weak El Nino will develop, apparently the result of emerging warmer than normal waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and persistent warmer than normal waters in the Indian Ocean.
 

That raises the chances of 'drier-than-usual' conditions over the coming months.  Given that our long 'dry' season doesn't actually end until around early December, it seems that the end of this year's 'dry' is really, truly going to be DRY! 

There's only a 40% chance of exceeding the median rainfall total for Sept to Nov ... meaning there's a 60% chance of receiving well below the median rainfall total for Spring here in the north.

For the month of August, Mother Nature only managed 1.4 mm of rain ( 0.1 of an inch).  That has brought the 'dry' season total so far this year, from April to August, to 217.2 mm or 7.4 inches.  Compared to last year's total for the same period, April to August, of 128.2 mm or 5 inches ... this year's 'dry' has not been too bad.  Let's see how the next three months or so turn out.

Around my place, things are definitely drying up pretty quickly.  The grassed area at the front of the house is turning its usual winter / spring shade of attractive dead-and-dying brown.  As we received slightly more rain than usual this 'dry' season, we've been lucky enough to enjoy the green grass for slightly longer than most years.

It's interesting to watch both the Crotons and Acalyphas during our long 'dry' ... they both drop a lot of leaves during the dry months in an attempt to get through this harsh time of year.

Here you can see the pile of leaves that have fallen off the Acalypha wilkesianas ...

... and a pile of Croton leaves.  Of course, these water-deprived distressed shrubs are creating their own pile of mulch and thus helping themselves to survive.  I help out a little by giving them a deep watering every couple of months.

Out in the bush, the trees have started dropping their leaves as the 'dry' rolls on.  You can see the leaves browning off before they fall.   This is the time of year when bush fires can break out, and we may start to see plumes of smoke way off in the surrounding ranges, or perhaps a little closer in the foothills around here.

There are a couple of trees on my property that are deciduous in the 'dry'.

The Plumeria rubras have had no leaves now throughout the winter months ...

 ... and I just spotted the first little evidence of re-growth this week past.

The Lagerstroemia speciosas or Queen's Myrtles are also deciduous during the winter months /dry season ...

... and both are in varying stages of undress at the moment.

The young Lagerstroemia indicas or Crepe Myrtles look like sticks at the moment.  You can see them standing up tall and naked beside the dwarf pink Euphorbia pulcherrima, which blooms during the winter months.

The Hemerocallis, which have a corner at the end of this top tiered garden bed, are starting to show new leaf growth, gearing up now for the coming Spring.

Everything else in this top tiered garden bed has really slowed down and are not looking as lush as usual.  The Justicia brandegeana or red Shrimp Plant, and the Iresine herbstii 'Blazin Rose' however, are both blooming.  So is the Pentas, which can be spotted off to the right of the shot.

On the other side of the tiered beds, there's not much going on either.  The Dietes bicolor, old red Gerbera and the Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' are all putting on a little display, but the Salvias and Angelonias were all trimmed back a few weeks ago, and the Ground Orchid is just starting to send out new shoots.  Those pots sitting precariously on the slope in front of the tiered beds are filled with last year's Asiatic and Oriental Lily bulbs, and they're just starting to wake from their dormancy.

I had to do a little repair job on the end of the tiered garden beds this weekend.  This section was teetering on a very dangerous angle after our last 'wet' season, and I just hadn't gotten around to fixing it.  Well ... finally I made the effort!

Out in the Courtyard Garden, the native tree Sterculia quadrifida, or Peanut Tree, is completely bare of leaves but has the most spectacular display of fruit in varying stages of ripening.  

The Figbirds are having a feast on the seeds inside those fruit pods.

At the moment there are few gardening jobs for me to do, apart from the watering.  Most of the plants that grow here on the property have to get by without much help from me during our long 'dry' season.  I only regularly water the shadehouse and courtyard garden plants and fertilise every few weeks leading up to Spring.

Scattered around the courtyard I now have around 80 potted plants which provide lots of colour and interest to what would otherwise be a quite boring space.

You may notice some rather sorry looking pots in this corner of the courtyard.  I've had to cut the potted Petunias right back this weekend as they were getting very, very leggy.  They were planted back in April and I've only cut them back once since then.  The recent haircut will help keep them going throughout the coming Spring and into early Summer.

Most of the other potted plants in this corner go on and on for months, providing great foliage and flowers.

The renovated section under the pergola is coming along very well now.  I'm still working on cleaning out the pond though.  With one last push, and help from my darling hubby, it should be sparkling clean by next weekend.  Then it will be time to choose some water plants and turn it into something eye-worthy rather than the eye-sore it is at the moment.

The courtyard is not looking too bad right now,

but I'm waiting for this year's purchase of Asiatic and Oriental Lilies to fill out and bloom, adding some more lovely colour to the space.

Out in the Shadehouse Garden, I've had to trim back the hanging baskets of Dragon Wing Begonias and get them ready for a springtime show.

The hanging pots of Impatiens walleriana on the other side are all blooming away nicely, and the foliage plants just need a regular watering every second day or so to stay happy. 

Elsewhere on the property, the drought tolerant plants carry on with little attention from me.

It's lovely to see the display on my neighbour's white Bauhinia trees though.  Those trees hang over our fenceline and provide great splashes of white in amongst the other trees and shrubs,

... while my little cyclone-damaged stump is still limping through its recovery.

Of course, I'm very pleased that my little stump is showing so many stark white orchid-like flowers.

The two sections of rock garden newly established last year are also limping along quite nicely.  I've been slightly surprised that I haven't lost anything yet, so I can give myself a pat on the back for great planting choices.  I do expect these new plants will take off somewhat when the rains arrive at the end of the year, and both areas should start looking fuller.

Well, I started this post after having a bit of a break while I recovered from some nasty virus, and I was thinking I wouldn't find much to say!!!   Now I find I have to stop myself from prattling on any longer, as this is becoming a marathon of a post.  To finish off, I'll just add some shots of some of the blooms and colourful foliage around the place on this last Winter weekend. 

pinks and purples

whites, creams and yellows

reds and orange

fab foliage