Celebrating the 2024 QLD Garden Expo
Time to go to the Expo
The Queensland Garden Expo is bigger and better than ever this year
IT’S the 40th anniversary for the Queensland Garden Expo this year and the ‘must see’ gardening event is promising to be bigger, better and ‘plantier’ than ever.
Held at the Nambour Showgrounds over four full days (July 4 – 7), this extravaganza is Queensland’s premier gardening event and every gardener’s dream come true.
The expected 40,000plus visitors will be able to explore more than 7 hectares of gardening inspiration, checking out the 360-plus exhibitors and displays and nurseries, listening to the more than 150 free talks and demonstrations and choosing from the over 50,000 plants for sale each day.
Some of Australia’s leading gardening experts – such as Costa Georgiadis, Jerry Coleby-Williams, Millie Ross, Arno King, Claire Bickle,
along with some of our home-grown local celebrities Kurt Ison, Anne Ross, Jade King, Ginger McPherson, Karen Martin, Martin Duncan (aka the Sunshine Coast
talented bunch.
Immerse yourself in a sea of green, as dozens of nurseries showcase a wide
Then there’s the Giant Organic Kitchen Garden, the Cooks Garden Stage, the Poultry Display, the Garden Club Displays, the Floral Design Competition, the Plant Clinic, the Living Backyard and an area just for the kids, … plus hundred of exhibitors and displayers showcasing all sorts of gardening, landscape, health and wellbeing, and lifestyle products and services.
Some of the local
map are Action Termite Solutions, Barung Landcare, Bassett Barks, GD GeoDrill Australia, Glasshouse Country Chamber of
with Brownie
Screening, Hive Haven, Hum Honey, Mellum Creek Nursery, Mountain View Daylily Nursery, Pomodoras Fine Foods, Queensland Country Bank, Red Fox Orchids, Sculpture on the Edge, and Suncoast Water Day tickets cost $22.50 if bought online or $25 if bought at the gate for adults; children 15 years and under are free; 2-Day ‘Weekend’ Pass $40; 3-Day Pass $60; 4-Day Pass: $75. Gates open 8.00am to 4.00pm each day. There is car parking on-site for $10 with the monies raised going to local community groups. Or if you take the train to Nambour, there are free regular shuttle buses. To find out more about the Expo or to book your tickets, go to their website www. qldgardenexpo.com.au
I’ll see you there!
Know when to plant and when to prune
GOOD gardening and good financial management both involve nurturing, patience, proactive care and resilience. Knowing when to plant and when to prune is vital for both! Nurturing a garden and managing finances share so many principles, here’s 10 from Queensland Country Bank -
1. Planning is Essential
• Gardening: Requires a plan for what and when to plant, and where. It’s no use planting Winter seedlings in Summer right!
• Finances: Setting budgets and financial goals and planning investments to achieve financial stability starts with a good plan to set the way forward.
2. Consistency Yields Results
• Gardening: Regular watering, weeding and fertilising is necessary for plants to thrive.
• Finances: Consistent
saving, budgeting, and monitoring of expenses translates to informed spending and saving, to allow your plan to also thrive.
3. Patience is Key
• Gardening: Plants take time to grow and bear fruit, and it’s worth it!
• Finances: Building financial security is very much the same. Also worth it!
4. Regular Monitoring is Crucial
• Gardening: Knowing when to prune can make or break a garden, as can pests. Know your garden!
• Finances: Your finances need regular reviews. Know your bank accounts and your bank manager!
5. Adaptation to Change
• Gardening: Plants are great adaptors to changes in climate, soil types, or disaster, and as a gardener, you need to be
disaster or major events. Remember, change is constant!
6. Diversification Minimises Losses
• Gardening: Planting different varieties reduces the risk of garden failure due to climate, disease or pests. Great gardens have a strong range of seasonal and perennial plants.
• Finances: Likewise, diversifying investments mitigates risks and can provide a safety net.
7. Knowledge Enhances Outcomes
• Gardening: Understanding different plants, soil types, and care techniques improves garden yields, and make your garden bloom brightly.
BRINGING GREEN CLOSER
• Finances: Knowing your bank manager is vital, to source information when needed.
8. Small Efforts Accumulate Over Time
• Gardening: Small, regular tasks like watering, pruning and weeding contribute significantly to a healthy, gorgeous garden. Bit by bit it grows.
• Finances: Small financial habits, like saving a portion of income and reducing unnecessary expenses, accumulate into substantial savings over time. It all adds up!
9. Long-Term Vision is Required
• Gardening: A long-term vision helps in planning perennials, trees, and
seasonal cycles. What you plant in the first year, is very different to what you water 10 years later!
• Finances: A long-term financial vision aids in retirement planning, education funding, and achieving life goals. See the forest AND the trees!
10. Dealing with Uncertainties
• Gardening: Unpredictable weather, pests and external conditions require flexibility and resilience.
• Finances: Unexpected expenses or economic downturns or world events require contingency plans and emergency funds and yes, resilience!
Sun shines with Circuit Alert shines
CIRCUIT Alert Electrical and Solar are one of the most reputable and popular solar companies on the Sunshine Coast. We provide the latest technology solar panels and inverters; and because we buy in bulk, we can pass the savings onto our clients which makes our prices very competitive.
A Sunshine Coast family business established in 2009, Circuit Alert Solar has gained a reputation
Celebrating the 2024 QLD Garden Expo Australian plants online
What will your next garden project look like?
YOU know that garden project you’ve had planned since forever?
Are you tired of wasting every free weekend driving round the shops looking for the plants you need, only to come home hot, confused, empty handed, and low on fuel?
There’s an easy fix.
Grab a cuppa, hit the lounge room, open up your phone.
You can order over 1800 plants through the year, delivered to your door, using just your thumbs. If you want to save some cash by picking up your order
from the nursery, you can do that too.
Native flowering groundcovers, evergreen privacy hedges, rare indoor plants – Australian Plants Online has it all; and they’re all tested by Aussie gardeners for our climate. There’s heaps of info, advice, and options, to help you make the right choice in a couple of clicks.
Their tubestock plants start at $4, so you can afford to try something new, add something colourful, or get a couple extra to make sure you’ve got enough to finish your project.
What’s a tubestock plant? It’s what the professionals use, and it’s what Australian Plants Online’s nursery grows, supplying Sunshine Coast landscapers and garden centres for forty years.
Thanks to Australian Plants Online, home gardeners can now garden like the professionals. Best of all, with tubestock plants, there’s no big holes to dig. When it’s time to plant, you just scoop some earth away and pop them in. Easy as! australianplantsonline. com.au
for fantastic service and unrivalled aftercare.
With the ever increasing cost of electricity, we have never been busier helping clients reduce or even eliminate their energy bills.
For many clients, Solar panels have been a great option to get their cost of living to be more manageable; and now with the decrease in the cost of batteries, many are making the jump to more
independence from grid power and storing their own power for night time use.
If you would like to explore the options for solar on your property see us at the Garden Expo at Site 184 for some great show specials on solar and batteries, you could even win yourself a 6.6kw system. Or feel free to call Lisa on 5477 0610 or visit our website www. circuitalert.com.au
