The Autumn Garden

According to the calendar, autumn is from the 1st March to the 31st May but here in the tropics it should be from the 1st May to the 31st August with absolutely no winter!  The remainder of the year would be summer.....

Julatten, where we live, is about 500 metres above sea level and about 7 kilometres from the ocean as the crow flies.  Is it any wonder that we have one of the best climates in the world.  We do not have the stifling humidity that people on the coast complain about and each afternoon we have a lovely cooling sea breeze blow our way.  Our summer temperatures range from 20℃ - 30℃ and winter 16℃ - 26℃.  It can go higher or lower, remembering that climate is what you expect and weather is what you get.  We also experience typical monsoon weather, and this year we measured just over a metre of rain.  

The gardens in this area are spectacular and we can grow almost anything.  Frosts are not unheard of but we have not experienced this in the 10.5 years that we have lived here.  Too much rain can be a problem but we plan for this by encouraging good drainage throughout the garden.  As we live in an elevated position we do have the problem of rain run-off.  We had some very heavy rain at the beginning of this year that caused a lot of damage to our road and garden with huge gullies formed in areas that we would not have expected.  We have since rectified this by creating diversion channels.

As I was wandering around the garden taking these photos I once again had that overwhelming appreciation of where I live.  It is indeed Gods own country.  

Here is a snapshot of the garden at the moment.