A new look at my garden

[alpineart]

This has been an effort and a half to set up all the grow area's around the yard

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to enable me to water the entire collection of collected

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] and ground grown material in under 1 hour .

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The use of shade sails and shade cloth is varied but simple

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.Radiant heat is my worst enemy during the Summer so the majority of material that cant be placed under the semi shaded area's of the yard

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end up under sail's , igloo's and wind breaks

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.The benches are all made from recycled materials ,

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waste not want not or for a better term one man's trash is another man's treasure .

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I sell quite a lot of material , however i seem to collect more and more every year

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As the grow beds and grow area's

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show they too are getting bigger every year .Its a healthy obsession bordering on mild insanity but i would change it for any other hobby . Last year it was taking around 2 1/2 hours to water that has been reduced to 1 hour due to the fact extra grow beds have been made to cater for all the larger material in development and training .This is where i spend the majority of my time

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hacking and chopping anything to create trainers or landscape mediums such as the rock's , pots and trays i make for use in my passion at home . Hope you enjoyed the tour and yes i'll keep on collecting and playing havoc in my own backyard .

Cheers Alpineart

[Boics]

Awesome..

I so wish that I had this kind of room.

I just took on a small grow bed at a relatives house so that I can expand my collection and achieve some quicker results!
Living inner city having the kind of space that you enjoy is pretty tough!

Thanks for sharing.

[evenings]

wow! that is quite the vast collection
Prehaps having so much room is a blessing and a curse - would be a full-time job to look after these guys!
Very cool!

[kcpoole]

lovely alpine. I live in a Suburban house and also are jealous of you

do you know how many trees you have in pots all up?

Ken

[Emily Csato]

Really cool, pretty much a nursery. 7th picture from the bottom; that large tree in the back is really nice, can't tell if it's a juniper or a native? I don't suppose it's for sale?

[alpineart]

Hi Guys , the joys of living in the country , mind you they are stacked 10 deep i places .

Hi kc .mate last count over 250 trainers in bonsai pots , all up in mixed pots and planter bags well over 700 plants . The collection has deminished thanks to this leg injury , around 100 were lost within days of being in hospital , and a did sell off quite a few hundred surplus items . I have a good collection of empty smaller bonsai pots they will no doubt be filled with up and coming ground grown trainers . I think the collection is around 1300 plants now but that would be conservative .

Hi Emily , Definitely not a nursery , just an over size collection , yes its a juniper all 3 big tree's are the monster Junipers i collected . They are not for sale i can't be sure they will survive ,by that time i will have hacked and chopped them just a little bit . Material like that only comes around once in a life time , so i would be reluctant to part with any of them , plenty of good offers have been made . If i can keep them alive through Summer they will be on their way to becoming very nice pre Bonsai material . The one in the scoria bed has 16 inarch grafts set onto the 1.5m wide lower trunks , no pot big enough for it so it will remain in the ground for this season .

Cheers All . Alpine

[Andrew F]

Your wife must be very lenient, now to persuade my missus into expanding my collection

Great work as always Alp.

[Emily Csato]

Shame I guess you collected them in VIC, I don't think junipers grow where I am.

PS: I don't get how wives aren't lenient about bonsai collection. It's not like cars or bikes or loud power tools, they're really beautiful trees...crazies.

[Matthew]

Mate i have no idea how you water that MANY. Takes me 10-15 minutes just to do my few 80 or so. Take my hat off to that kind of commitment.

[mal]

Hi,
What a fantastic collection of trees. You have the makings of a nursery in a few years. I would hate to see your water bill however. Do you have tanks to collect water??

Mal

[alpineart]

Hi Andrew F , i had a huge collection before i collected my wife , guess they came with the territory.

Hi Mathew , i makes holidays a real challenge , cant just take off anytime .I have tried timer taps and auto watering systems but the finger on the hose is much more appealing as i get to view every plant each day . Liquid fertilizing is a task and a half around 75 x7 ltr watering cans are used to liquid fert' the collection . Yes they are well and truly looked after most of the time

Hi Mal , i had more than this a couple of years ago , around 2000 plus in the ground . My water usage is around 600lts per day in full flight through summer . No Tanks they cost more than the water used . Sand trays are now converted to scoria trays so most of the water remains close to the bottom of the pots for humidity . The roots penetrate into the scoria and they become self watering over time .

Cheers Guys Alpine

[Meagi]

Hi all
I have seen this collection first hand and was amazed at how well it was laided out and set up .
Some very inspiring work . And the up right (sorry forgot name )Pejing displays were out of this world ....amazing to say the least .....lot of time and detication on alpines part .
His wife makes best coffee I could live in his part of the world forever ....
Only problem is my partner goes crazy if no shopping plazas in sight !!!

[Josh]

THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING. I can show this to my wife and she won't think my collection is so bad
That is an amazing effort. Some awesome trees there.

Josh

[fiveoffive]

you wait till i tell her she was collected !!

you might be able to talk me out of telling her with some of that stock

[Andrew Legg]

New bonsai book please alpine - how to manage your bonsai collection and your wife at the same time. Good on ya mate!