Ian and Judy Wintle’s ‘Giving Garden’

You could be forgiven for believing you’re lost in a tropical paradise walking through our garden.

Our one acre labour of love is fondly called ‘The Giving Garden’ providing many years of satisfaction and solace to our family, friends, visitors and the wildlife.

After finishing Uni our eldest son Scott went backpacking in Europe for a year. Only a couple of weeks before he was due to return home we received news from Switzerland that he had broken his back in a motorbike accident and would never walk again.

The months that followed drew on our mental, financial, and physical strength. It was not for a further six months that he could finally return to his home. By that time not only he needed rehabilitation Mum and Dad also did.

Scott has not let his parents down as his strength and determination has let him to become a successful wheelchair athlete representing Australia in both Water Skiing and Basketball. Scott is now married with two young children and works as a graphic designer.

Our garden gave us the ability to heal, it was our rehabilitation and more than a decade on; it has blossomed into a lush sub tropical oasis, featuring some of the world’s most exotic and unusual plants and fruit trees.

The garden was part of ‘Australia’s Open Gardens’ for 11 years and many thousands of visitors came to our garden.

In 2013 we hosted a special ‘Open Garden’ for the ‘Lions Club ‘and raised $5700 for a local boy suffering from Cerebral Palsy who was desperately in need of a special walker.

Overall we have raised well over $37,000 for charities through our ‘Open Gardens’.

We did the same in 2014 for the Lions Club and raised another $3000 for disabled children.

After 47 years of marriage Judy and I know that the time and love we have invested in our garden will continue to give us and our visitor’s joy for many years to come.

We plan to continue opening our garden for as long as we are able to as we enjoy the weekend.

If you have been before, please come again as there’s always something new to see in this garden.

As usual there will be some great plants for sale, refreshments from the Lions Club and a raffle. Some visitors stay for up to four hours and they are welcome to bring their camera.

We give guided bus tours through our garden and have given over 130 power point presentations to gardening clubs throughout South East Queensland.

Ian has his own website www.gardenproductreviews.com and a garden blog at www.ianjudy.blogspot.com  over 150,000 people from over 100 countries around the world have seen our garden this way.

Ian also has a Facebook page devoted to the ‘giving garden’ found at https://www.facebook.com/birkdalegarden which has over 900 followers.

Our son Scott has just returned from the USA where he was competing in the ‘World Disabled Water Ski Championships’. He won GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE medals.

He is a world champion and we are so very proud of his achievements.