Garden Club
Meetings are currently held at the Cherry Gardens Memorial Hall at 7.30pm usually on the second Monday of the month February to November.
President; Ray Wise Phone: 0405 273 003 8383 6011
Secretary; Jan Ball Phone: 0432 550 274
NEXT MEETING
Monday 9th November – Mark Smith from Adelaide Vegie Gardens will talk on wicking beds
Sunday 6th December – Christmas Lunch 12noon
LAST MEETING
Our second Garden Club meeting since lockdown, the August meeting being our AGM, on the 14th September 2020, in our larger, Covid safe venue, sported social distancing, well organized by our fully trained, competent Covid Marshall in the Cherry Gardens Memorial hall - our home for the foreseeable future.
Our guest speaker, Richard Heathcote, former director of Carrick Hill is director of benefaction of the planned Australian Museum of Gardening at Carrick Hill, which will hold an exhibition during April to May 2021. At last year’s Carrick Hill open day I was fascinated to view the fantastic collection of 800 garden tools gifted by Richard Bird of Armidale, AKA “The Old Mole”, who acquired them as he travelled around Australia last century, repairing, selling and trading garden tools.
Richard’s presentation,” The Blade”, is also the title of an exhibition and film he prepared for the Garden History Society. It was about a very well-known and most times, beloved feature of gardens: Lawns and Lawn mowing.
There is more lawn grass in the world than any other plant and most people have had to deal with a lawn for some or most of their lives. We followed the development of lawns, but specifically, their methods and tools of maintenance. From early European Royal and Aristocratic great houses, where five men with scythes might be employed five days a week keeping a large lawn clipped to perfection, right through to today when most suburban homes sport a well-maintained lawn. Lawn condition can be a matter of great pride to the person maintaining it, and to the owner of the premises, but as they push what may be an Australian made Victa mower, with its slicing action blades, a mountain of historical development lies between it and the scythes used centuries ago.
We saw the difference between scythe type lawn mower blades and the cylindrical type blade holder of the first push lawnmowers and of lawn mower greats like Edwin Budding who patented the first lawn mowing machine in Oct 1830 and learned among other facts that:
“Shanks Pony” the first horse drawn mower, transcended labor-intensive scythes, Regent Park Zoo used a camel drawn lawn mower, Adelaide Scott Bonnar was making Lawn mowing equipment by the 1930’s 90% of Bowls Greens had helical bladed mowers.
Due to high import duty on the 500 mowers brought into Australia on ships like the Mahout, a lawn mower factory was established in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
At conclusion of the evening our plant auction made a roaring trade but sadly, due to COVID 19 we had to do with a cuppa minus our usual delicious, supper
GEORGE'S GARDENING SUGGESTIONS FOR November 2020
Vegetables and summer-flowering annuals will respond to a side dressing of blood and bone or an all-purpose fertiliser watered in well. Leafy vegetables will benefit from a foliar fertiliser best applied in the late afternoon
Watch out for caterpillars on vegetables and vines.
Codling moth can be a problem on apples and pears at this time of the year. A spray with the hose of an evening will kill off a few but preventing them from hatching should have been done in the spring using a band of corrugated cardboard on the trunk to encourage the eggs to be laid there, which can then be disposed of every couple of weeks.
Lawns should be mowed regularly without cutting them too short.
Plants transpire huge amounts of water at this time of the year, hot winds make it worse so some sort of windbreak will help. It could be a tough hedge, or a trellis covered with creepers, or a row of trees.
The Jacaranda is a beautiful tree around this time of the year, and it is an ideal time to plant one, easy to grow, not subject to pests or disease. In frosty areas it will need protection until it is established.
Roses are in their prime at the moment (have you seen them at the Flemington racecourse when the Melbourne Cup is on?). Now is a good time to make your choices for next year’s planting season when you can see exactly what they look like.
Tomatoes should be in strong growth by now, do not over-fertilise them with nitrogen-rich fertiliser as it will encourage soft leaf growth without setting much fruit. An ideal fertiliser is one rich in phosphorous and potash.
Plant out cucumbers, zucchinis, squash, lettuce, sweet corn, pumpkins and French beans.
Snapdragons, phlox, petunias, lobelia, and portulaca will make a good showing in summer if planted now.
Jacaranda Trees
Portulaca Grandiflora
