19th, 20th & 21st October
With the October Open Gardens weekend fast approaching final preparations are being made to the gardens. We would like to thank all the garden owners for allowing the garden club to present their gardens & for all the hard work that goes into preparing their gardens at their very best, even in a drought. We took a peek at five of the gardens last month, so let’s check out the other four now….
Driving up to Glenorie to 10 Venetta Road the current owners are restoring this park like garden, with its impressive tree-lined driveway, beds of azaleas, roses, salvias & perennials, this is the first time the garden has been open.
Not far away is ”L’hirondelle” at 25 Harrison’s Lane Glenore, this long established park-like garden has many different sections, including a Japanese garden, herbaceous & bulb beds, set amongst magnificent mature trees, as well as Australian Native areas. Here you can view the garden, while enjoying Morning & Afternoon Tea. Coming back now towards Dural to “Boulevard” at 20 Wylds Rd Middle Dural, children will love the large number of sculptures of native & exotic animals scattered throughout the garden. This garden is home to a great number of Australian native plants. Do not miss the magnificent shade house & hot house which contain a fascinating collection of unusual plants in pots and baskets.
Finally we come to “Willow Glen” at 2 Marrakesh Pl Arcadia, an informal rustic garden with large rock shelves, old native trees and a watercourse that feeds a large dam with water lilies. Bridges, seats & children’s play area add interest to the garden and of special interest is the fully mesh-enclosed productive garden which is of great interest to food growers. If y ou need a little more, then don’t miss The School of Bonsai’s extensive display & demonstration of techniques used to create and maintain bonsai at 26 Sagars Rd Kenthurst (next door to Garden No 1) entry is free. So mark the 19th, 20th & 21st October into your calendar, make a weekend of it or if you’re short for time, you can get round to all the gardens in a day if you are quick! Tickets are available on the day outside the Galston Club 21 Galston Rd Galston or at any of the garden entrances. Ticket prices are $5 per garden or $20 for entry to all gardens over the 3 day weekend. Gardens are open from 9.30-4.30.
Our September guest speaker was Elizabeth Swane who has been raised in the horticultural & nursery industry. From an early age Elizabeth knew she loved plants & set about learning all aspects of the industry. Elizabeth has been a prolific contributor to magazines, becoming a free-lance writer 20 years ago as well as a radio commentator on the ABC answering all your gardening questions.
It was always her dream to run a magazine and since 2012 Elizabeth has been working for Central West Lifestyle Magazine a quarterly magazine focussing on country gardens & properties in NSW. She loves the fact that she gets paid to visit people’s gardens, to meet the garden owners & see so many beautiful gardens some planned & some that just evolved. Elizabeth spoke of the special challenges they face with the environment, the planting that is practical as well as beautiful & the restoration & preservation of these properties. There are lots of perennial shrubs planted that we don’t see as often now on the coast, yet work well in the country garden. Elizabeth encouraged us to forget about the faults we see in our gardens and to stand back & see the glorious beauty as well as reminding us that if the gardener thinks it’s good, it is!
We hope to see you at our next club meeting and to join us for another happy gardening year. Garden Club meets on the 2nd Weds of the month at the Galston Community Centre 37 Arcadia Rd., Galston 8.00pm. New members are warmly welcomed. For other information, visit our website: www.galstongardenclub.com.au
