AusBonsai

This has been an effort and a half to set up all the grow area's around the yard to enable me to water the entire collection of collected] and ground grown material in under 1 hour . The use of shade sails and shade cloth is varied but simple .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 end up under sail's , igloo's and wind breaks.The benches are all made from recycled materials , waste not want not or for a better term one man's trash is another man's treasure .I sell quite a lot of material , however i seem to collect more and more every year As the grow beds and grow area's 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 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

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.

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!

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

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?

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

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

Great work as always Alp.

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.

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.

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

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

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 !!!

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

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

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