Rain, Blooms & Seasonal Shifts ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Beginning of Autumn, Week 12, March 2025

Garden Journal Entry - Week 12

This week's weather:

Seasons:  early Autumn & Wet Season
Daytime Temps:  26°C - 30°C            
Night Time Temps: 22°C - 24°C
Humidity Levels: 70 to 100%     
Hours of daylight:  12 hours 5 mins
Rainfall:   mm  ( inches) 

It's been another week of relentless rain here in the foothills, with a whooping 261 mm (10 inches) falling over the past seven days.  The inner city has been hit harder, recording 563 mm (22 inches) in the same period - adding to an already record-breaking month!  With near-constant grey skies and rain, day and night, gardening has taken a back seat.

I did manage to spot a sliver of blue sky this morning, but it was a fleeting vision!  Despite the dreary weather, the temperatures have been rather lovely, hovering between 26 to 28°C most days.  With the March equinox arriving yesterday, we've officially entered the season of shorter, cooler days.  

Rainy Days and Minimal Garden Work

With all this rain, my garden tasks have been minimal.  The only work I've managed this week, during the brief dry spells, has been some light weeding and monitoring plant health out in the shade house garden where there is little ventilation during these rather still days.  

But even with the lack of sunshine, Mother Nature is still putting on a show.

Signs Of Autumn:  Acacias In Bloom

A sure sign that autumn has arrived in the dry tropics is the blooming of our native Acacias (Wattles).  I've spotted them in full display out in the surrounding bushland and in our neighbour's yard during quick strolls between showers.  

There are two varieties around here - 

one with golden yellow flowers 

and another with a softer, pale lemon hue.  

Unlike their southern counterparts, which bloom in September (our spring), the Acacias here in the north flower from March through to May, bringing golden highlights to the landscape.

The Golden Rain Tree and Peanut Tree Put On A Show

The Koelreuteria paniculata, or Golden Rain Tree, is another autumn star.  The tree near my fence line is covered in golden flower clusters, and striking red papery seed capsules.  It's a spectacular sight against the otherwise grey backdrop of rainy days.

Another native beauty, the Sterculia quadrifida, or Peanut Tree, is also making the most of the season.  Right now, it's bursting with clusters of small, fragrant cream-white blossoms, a classic feature of autumn in our region. 

The Peanut Tree is a feature planting in the courtyard garden and is providing a carpet of little blossoms for the brick pavers at the moment.  The area does require a bit of a clean-up after a few days.

A Last Splash Of Summer:  Cassia fistula

The Cassia fistula (the Golden Shower Tree) has also been holding onto the last bit of summer, with a few bright yellow, pendulous flower sprays still clinging to its branches.  This tree typically blooms in the heat of summer, but it's been a pleasant surprise to see it hanging on a little longer this year, adding a pop of colour at the back of the courtyard garden.

This Week's Garden Highlights:

While out and about this week, I noticed lots of lovely butterflies fluttering through the garden, taking advantage of whatever brief sunshine they could find.  I also came across quite a number of very large brown stick insects hanging around in the garden beds.  Their clever camouflage always amazes me - if I hadn't been looking closely, I might have missed them entirely!  

Looking Ahead

With more rain in the forecast, I suspect garden wok will remain light for a little while longer.  As we move further into autumn though, I'm looking forward to watching more seasonal changes unfold.

How is your garden faring in this wet season?  Are you spotting any autumn bloomers or interesting garden visitors?

Until next time,

🌸 Happy gardening from the northern dry tropics!

The Start Of A New Gardening Year ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal, Mid-Summer, Week 2, January 2025

Garden Journal Entry - Week 2

This week's weather:

Seasons:  Mid-Summer & Wet Season

Daytime Temps:  30°C - 33°C

Night Time Temps: 22°C - 24°C

Humidity Levels: between 60% & 90%

Hours of daylight:  13 hours

Rainfall:  0.4 mm

January marks the beginning of a new gardening year for me, though I know other Australian gardeners might differ in opinion.  Many consider the arrival of spring as the true start of a gardening year.  However, here in the tropical north of Australia, January - mid-summer and well into the wet and cyclone seasons - feels like a natural starting point. 

January's typical unpredictable weather often brings challenges that define the gist of what needs to happen for the rest of the year.  Preparing for the arrival of a lengthy dry season though, which typically runs from April to November, begins now.

The Unusual Weather Patterns of January 2025

This January, the weather has already been particularly peculiar. While November traditionally marks the beginning of the wet and the cyclone seasons, both of which typically last until mid-March or April, this year’s wet season seems stuck in a holding pattern. The usual monsoon trough—our “rainmaker”—has been notably absent, and the expected tropical cyclones have yet to appear.

In the first week of the year, we’ve experienced only isolated showers, amounting to a mere 1.6 mm (less than half an inch) of rain. This follows a record-breaking December rainfall total, but even then, the showers and storms last month were sporadic, hinting at the delayed onset of the monsoon trough. The absence of monsoonal rains so far into this wet season is highly unusual and has left us wondering how the rest of the 2025 monsoon and cyclone season will play out.

Garden Observations and Preparations

January’s unpredictable weather so far has reminded me of the need to adapt and prepare. Strong winds, sudden downpours, or extended dry spells can all disrupt the garden, so I’m focusing on the following tasks:

• Pruning Shrubs: Cyclone season can bring fierce winds, so it’s essential to ensure the foliage of  shrubs in exposed spaces is pruned back to reduce wind resistance.

• Soil Care: Adding organic matter to improve soil resilience in preparation for the long dry season ahead, but also to ensure the growth of strong root systems to anchor plants firmly in the ground and guard against them blowing over.

• Weed Management: The sporadic rain received so far has encouraged weed growth, so staying on top of this now will save effort later.

• Watering Regime: During the spring, a watering regime was adopted that entailed watering thoroughly, but infrequently, so the water soaked down deep into the soil to encourage the roots of plants to grow deep down into the soil.

Looking Ahead

The absence of the monsoon and cyclones is both a relief and a concern. Without these defining weather patterns, the wet season feels incomplete, and it’s uncertain how this will impact the garden in the months ahead. For now, I’ll remain vigilant and adaptable, taking each day as it comes while planning for the dry season.

It’s a strange and fascinating start to the gardening year—one that promises to be full of challenges and lessons.

New Garden Projects

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Courtyard Garden

The area on one side of the steps under the pergola has undergone a significant transformation.

Previously dominated by Nephrolepis biserrata (Giant Sword Fern), Russelia and Neomarica longifolia (Yellow Walking Iris) for the past 20 years, it has been cleared entirely. 

Over the last months of last year, I slowly worked to improve this space by adding enriched soil, small rocks, and stones to create tiers and edging. With these changes came the introduction of many new plants.

This garden now has two distinct sections:

• An Upper Section which has:

• Coleus

• Begonia semperflorens

• Impatiens

• Cyathea cooperi (Australian Tree Fern)

• Blechnum (Silver Lady Fern)

• Alyssum

• A Lower Section which has:

• Dwarf  Tabernaemontana corymbosa (Dwarf Pinwheel)

• Viola hederacea (Native Violet)

• Torenia

The goal for the lower section is to encourage a wildflower-meadow-like appearance.  My hope is that the Violets will spread more, and the Torenias will self-seed everywhere, eventually creating a dense, natural-looking, vibrant and colourful patch of flowers.

---

Shade House Garden

This garden space had also become overrun with Giant Sword Fern and Yellow Walking Iris.

Both were removed from the garden beds flanking the pathway and small patio.  The Giant Sword Fern, however, has been left to thrive on the rock wall that borders one side of the shade house garden.

My vision for this space is a rainforest-like ambiance, achieved by incorporating plants at varying heights, including ground plants, potted plants, and hanging baskets.

So far,

• The In-Ground Plants include:

• Dracaena reflexa (Song of India)

• Begonia semperflorens

• Dracaena marginata 'Bicolour' 

• Colocasia (Elephant Ear)

• Impatiens

• Schefflera (Dwarf Variegated Umbrella Tree)

• Evolvulus 'Blue Eyes'

• Microsorum scolopendria, synonym Phymatosorus scolopendria (Monarch Fern)

• Caladiums

• The Potted Plants include:

• Coleus

• Costus productus (Orange Spiral Ginger)

• Syngoniums (Arrowheads)

• Rex Begonia

• Alocasia amazonica

• Strobilanthes

• Davallia (Rabbits Foot Fern)

• Phyllotaenium or Xanthosoma lindenii - Caladium lindenii

• Microsorum musifolium (Crocodile Fern)

• Crossandra infundibuliformis (Firecracker Plant)

• The Hanging Baskets presently have:

• Calibrachoa

• Dianthus

The addition of colourful hanging baskets should enhance the space, introducing pops of colour to complement the lush greenery.   Over time, I'll be changing the plants in these hanging baskets to things like:  Acalypha herzogiana (Dwarf Cat's Tails), Fittonias, Streptocarpus and Dragonwing Begonias.

Hanging Baskets, set at differing heights, are part of the layered approach that I hope will gradually transform the Shade House Garden from the impenetrable jungle it had become into the serene, multi-dimensional rainforest retreat I envision.

Until next time,

🌸 Happy gardening from the northern dry tropics!

PlantingTime ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Week 10, 2012.

Date:  March 3, 2012

Season:  Beginning of Autumn and 'wet' season



March is the beginning of our Autumn here, and it's the beginning of my favourite time of the year in the garden.  Whilst the hot, steamy weather will continue for a little longer yet, at least the end is in sight now.  We've had a very mild 'wet' season this year compared to last year's fiasco.  We've had no significant weather events at all really which has been most appreciated by this gardener.

Actually, our place is finally starting to look good once more.  The repairs are now all completed, the debris from all the repair work has been completely removed now, and we're finally feeling like we've got our old place back again.

The garden has been appreciating the rainfall we've been having, and I've been planting in some of the bald spots left behind after Yasi last year.  Planting out in the garden beds is not a regular activity for me as it is with a lot of gardeners.  I've only actually done this a couple of times over the years we've been on this property.  When we arrived here, most of the landscaping had been completed and it was almost impossible to dig anywhere because of the degree of soil compactness and the presence of so much bedrock and rocky outcrops. 

When I starting becoming more interested in gardening around four years ago, nearly all planting involved planting up containers and hanging baskets for both the shadehouse and courtyard garden spaces.  Then around three years ago, my husband and I built a tiered garden bed beside the shadehouse ... you can see the brown block creation in the photo above ... and I finally had a new garden bed to plant in.

It's been an evolving creation and I'm still working on suitable plantings as this area is in full sun, gets flooded during heavy wet seasons, and it's a spot that's very exposed to the winds that whip through the little valleys here in the foothills.  Right now I'm pleased with the way it's shaping up, although it really needs a good clean out once the rains have finished.

When Cyclone Yasi paid us a visit early last year, some more planting opportunities opened up.  First there was the space around the heavily damaged white Bauhinia tree.  When the tree was enormous it covered this area and nothing much grew around it, but when it was knocked over and had to be trimmed back to a stump, there was a huge gaping hole left behind.  With a little bit of work, I managed to create a new rock garden bed.

This new garden bed is still in development but has taken off surprisingly easily.  Creating and planting out this area took up a fair bit of my time during the middle of last year and coincided with the dry season.  I've been very pleased with the progress considering how dry the last dry season actually was.  Of course, most of the plants still have a way to go before they reach maturity and fill in the gaps, but with the recent rain I can see it's going to work out well.

Towards the end of the dry season last year I also spread some Cosmos seeds, sent by a fellow blogger, in a spot left bare by the removal of Melaleuca tree that had been smashed to the ground by the cyclonic winds.  I can't tell you how happy I am to see how well those Cosmos seeds have established themselves and spread to fill in that bare spot.

I think the patch of cheery orange and yellow flowers looks fabulous, and it always brings a smile to my face when I drive in at the end of a long working day.

At the beginning of this year, I started adding a few more new plants to various other bare spots down the driveway.

I did write a post about the plantings in this rocky section of the driveway beds a couple of weeks ago, but since then I've also added a little Ixora and some tiny little 'Captain Cook' Bottlebrushes ... all of which are very hard to spot as they're only wee little things at the moment. 

Two weekends ago, I added a couple of baby Oleanders,

two apricot coloured ones, two cerise pinks and two double white ones, in three locations further along the driveway.  I also added a couple of lovely Abutilons as well in two other spots.

There's a lovely lemony yellow variety,

and a couple of what I thought were going to be pretty pink ones.

It turns out one in rather more peachy in colour.  It's gorgeous, but I'm not sure how they're going to go right beside each other.  There may be a move for one of them in the near future.  I certainly don't want to dig one up and move it right now, as it's hard going enough for little plants to get established during our Summers.

Indeed, Summer may not seem the ideal time to be planting, given how excruciatingly hot and humid it is here, and given how the soil cooks for most of the day.  New plants do get a little singed at this time of year, but at least there's rain for the plants to drink.  Planting during our dry season, which lasts anywhere from early Autumn to mid-Summer, is not really an option as young plants would find it particularly difficult to thrive even though the temperatures are slightly cooler and the ground is not being baked by harsh sunshine.  Lack of rain really precludes any serious attempts at planting during the dry part of the year. 

One of the other spaces where I've been able to do some planting is under the newly re-built pergola area beside the courtyard garden.  It still jars a bit to see this area without the spreading canopy of the Hibiscus schizopetalus and Jasmine officinale, but both are recovering beautifully and I just have to be patient!  I know they will eventually return to their former glory.

Anyway, underneath the re-built pergola I've been building up the beds a little and doing some planting.

It's not quite the barren landscape it had been for months at the end of last year.  The Palms are coming back and the new plants seem to be settling in nicely.  With some special attention and lots of mulching, this area should do well over the coming year.

So far, I've added ...

a couple of Caladiums,

a Dietes grandiflora or Wild Iris,

a Wrightia antidysenterica 'Arctic Snow',

two Spathoglottis plicatas or Ground Orchids.

One is the regular purple flowering variety and the other has these lovely white flowers.

There's a Eucharis grandiflora or Amazon Lily,

some Salvia 'Victoria Blue', a white Spiraea and some Plectranthus 'Cape Angel' which is the new waterwise variety being sold in our nurseries now.

I also had some other Salvias, started from cuttings sent to me by another wonderful garden blogger (thanks Titania).  Unfortunately I've lost the sheet of paper with all the varietal names on it, so it will be a wonderful voyage of discovery finding out which ones are which.

The next part of re-vamping this area under the pergola is to work on the pond.  I'm not sure what to do with it just yet although, now that there is no shady canopy over the top, I was considering finally adding some pond plants and not worrying too much about re-stocking with fish.  Still thinking!

In the next few weeks it will be time to start planting up containers with annuals like Petunias and Snapdragons, and adding them to the courtyard garden display.  Ooh, I do so love the beginning of our Autumn.

A Tale Of Two Gardens ... My Dry Tropics Garden Journal ... Week 8, 2012.

Date:  February 19, 2012

Season:  end of Summer, and 'wet' season

For this Garden Journal entry, I'm going to look back to the same time last year and compare what my garden was like back then, and what it's like today ... one year later!  Regular readers of my blog will know that this time last year was a time of great change here in my corner of north-eastern Australia.  For others, I will just say that this time last year was about a fortnight after an rather extreme weather event which caused a lot of damage around my place.

(The journal entry from last year can be found here: Autopsy Of A Cyclone Ravaged Garden and I'll be using some of the photos from that post as a point of comparison.)

So, let's have a look at how things have fared since then and why I'm finally wearing a smile on my dial as I wander around the garden.  What a difference a year makes, although the intervening 'dry' season which lasted around seven months last year meant things didn't change overnight!  But with the arrival of the summer rains, I'm happy to say my place is looking decent once more.

Nearly all the trees are now covered in dense foliage once more and looking so much healthier.  The view at the back of the courtyard garden no longer includes our neighbour's cyclone-damaged back yard, nor our fence that runs down the hill driveway.  Now the aspect is one of shrubs and trees and flowers.  Feels much better!

While the courtyard garden itself didn't suffer much last year, there were quite a few areas that were suddenly changed from alright-looking to downright ugly.  But every single one of those spots has turned the corner and are now not so cringe-worthy!

The broken Tabebuia pallida is looking a whole lot better now and back to its usual flowering cycles.

February 2011

February 2012

The enormous Ficus benjamina was looking rather forlorn and broken, but is now looking green and resplendent once more.

February 2011

February 2012

The Citharexylum spinosum or Fiddlewood Tree had its branches literally torn off and they lay about like broken matchsticks.  Now it's healthy and covered in blooms again.

February 2011

February 2012

My beloved white Bauhinia suffered considerably from the cyclonic winds and looked almost at an end.  But Mother Nature can not be under-estimated.  Now my Bauhinia looks like a younger version of itself, full of life and vigour.

February 2011

February 2012

The Tabebuia impetiginosa was an absolute mess.  Its top was not ripped off entirely, but was left dangling down and shredded.  It's now looking magnificent again and I can't wait for bloom time in Winter/Spring.

February 2011

February 2012

All of the Duranta repens along the driveway were left broken or ripped out of the ground.  They were trimmed back to stumps as all the branches were lying in a tangled mess.  Now the bright green new growth looks so fresh and healthy.  Some have even thrown out a few flower sprays.

February 2011

February 2012

Down near the front gates, the Calliandra and Pseudomussaenda flava were torn to shreds.  They're back! ... and looking good!

February 2011

February 2012

At the other end of the driveway near the car shed and entrance to the house, there was quite a bit of destruction, but I rather like the new look now that the shrubs have come back and a patch of Cosmos has taken off.

February 2011

February 2012

It was the driveway where the most obvious damage occurred and spots like the one below were left ugly and exposed after the clean-up.  

February 2011

Now the visual is a little different as I took the opportunity to re-plant after the 'dry' season was over.  It's starting to take off now with the arrival of the rain in the last few weeks.

February 2012














Down the hill driveway, the trees suffered terribly with almost the entire canopy removed.  It's taken a while, but the whole area is looking so much better now.

February 2011

February 2012

So the garden is now doing quite nicely thank you and I've been out there adding some plants to the remaining bald spots.  Whilst it's not yet back to its former glory, at least now I'm happy enough to show photos of spots I've studiously avoided showing since the beginning of last year.  So, to end off, here's a slideshow of shots taken as I wandered around the place this weekend.  It's a homage to the restorative power of Mother Nature and time ... and summer rain!