Garden Club
Meetings are held in the Cherry Gardens Uniting Church meeting room, at 7.30pm usually on the 2nd Monday of the month from February to November.
President: Ray Wise: raywise@hotmail.com.au or 0405 273 003
Secretary: Shirley Callaghan: shirleyc5159@gmail.com or 0403 801 916
NEXT MEETINGS
Monday 11th November
Kristen Messenger from Bugs'n'Slugs is an enthusiastic and experienced environmental educator. She will bring along a selection of bugs and slugs to talk about their use in the garden.
Sunday 15th December
Christmas lunch at 11.30 - venue available from our Secretary
GEORGE'S GARDENING SUGGESTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2019
Continue to mulch and water - pretty much sums it up for this month!
Liquid fertilizers are a great way to induce vigour into whatever you are growing at this time of the year. Apply on a regular basis at a strength and frequency recommended on the label. It is often stated that healthy plants don't have pests and disease.
Stagger plantings of corn, beans, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, and zucchinis for a continuous harvest.
This month is a good time of the year to shape your lillypilly plants, raise the mower blades to give the lawn a better chance of surviving the hot summer, and dead head flowers from your annuals to prolong flowering. Take cuttings of geranium and salvia about 15cm long, place in potting mix and keep moist - when roots begin to emerge from the base of the pot it is time to plant them out.
Looking for some flowers to grow that love the sun? Try some cleome, celosia, cosmos, zinnia, sunflower and of course petunias.
THE LAST MEETING - September 2019
Those attending Septembers Garden Club found a surprise program change due to the delay of the plane from Sydney, bringing our speaker, Richard Heathcote of Carrick Hill to entertain us with a history of garden tools. Instead of arriving as planned, it was delayed beyond the time of the meeting precluding take off, due to high winds in Sydney.
However, our club is a veritable mine of talented, widely experienced and well-travelled garden club members. Elizabeth Dobson prepared and presented a spontaneous and fascinating collection of pictures of Sydney gardens she had visited.
Barangaroo Reserve
The first was Barangaroo Reserve which is Sydney’s newest Harbour foreshore park, transforming one of the city’s oldest industrial sites into an amazing, six-hectare space.
It is named after Barangaroo, a Cammeraygal woman who was a powerful voice in the early days of colonial Sydney, and the second wife of Bennelong. The reserve is rich in Aboriginal history and is an area of great significance for Australians across all cultures. For example, the vegetation replicates what was there before European settlement.
Using innovative technology, a concrete container terminal has been imaginatively reborn as a naturalistic rocky outcrop, landscaped with more than 75,000 native trees and shrubs. As well as providing never-seen-before views of Sydney Harbour, Barangaroo Reserve features extensive walking and cycling trails, picnic spots and places for quiet contemplation.
Wendy’s secret garden
The second garden we enjoyed learning about was Wendy’s secret garden, created by Wendy Whitely, wife of well-known artist Brett Whitely, in her period of mourning after his death. She, along with many friends and volunteers, transformed a derelict defunct piece of once functioning railroad ground, belonging to the government, into a beautiful fairyland garden. Dense plantings of some hardy and some not so hardy, trees, shrubs bulbs and flowers, have been used to sometimes surprising sometimes exciting, but always pleasing effect to frame spectacular views of Sydney Opera House and the bridge. There are many secluded nooks and crannies and lovely walks. The garden has been thoughtfully and lovingly fashioned in such a way, that although quite heavily used, one feels alone most of the time and certainly never exposed to the many visitors present, in any way.
Chinese garden of Friendship
We also saw pictures of the 21yr old Chinese garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour. We enjoyed having our attention drawn to the history, symbolism and formality contrasting to the other gardens Elizabeth showed us.
members donations
The members donations of plants for auction was, as always, a fountain of surprises treasures, some of which were for once, given a reserve price and set aside for sale at the plant stall at the upcoming open garden of member Jan Ball, El Kadera, 395 Ironbank Road, scheduled for 6th and 7th of October. Members have volunteered to assist on the day.
