April 2018 Meeting

It was a grey old day and only a small turn out this month at Shirley’s place in Windellama. Our president Warren was also unable to join us as he was gallivanting off around the globe, so he passed the duty of meeting chair to Irene for the day. Unfortunately, Irene didn’t have Warren’s bell handy to keep the meeting in order and of course while Warren’s away the Garden Clubbers will play, or rather chat incessantly! Lloyd was feeling a tad outnumbered this month as the only man in attendance, so he had a snooze on the couch while we had a good natter over a delightful array of cheeses and dips about almost everything except Gardens.

We did eventually get our heads to the topic at hand and found out what was happening in everyone’s gardens. Anna told us how she had been planting out a new raised vegetable bed and was having success with garlic, leek and parsnip all grown from seed! Anna said she believed some of her success was thanks to her use of “Curly’s Compost” which is made from an array of excrement’s and worm castings. Irene reminded us that it is ideal to check your soil PH levels to get an idea of which compost may best suit your soil and to remember that PH levels can vary greatly from garden bed to garden bed, so it is important to test them all individually.

Katie’s butternut pumpkins have done almost as well as the weeds despite being planted fairly late in the season and her tomatoes have gone rogue but due to problems with ‘bottom rot’ on all but the cherry tomatoes, Irene advised her to try and locate them in a different bed next season to avoid a reoccurrence of the condition.

Irene and Lloyd have zucchinis coming out of their ears at the moment, Irene rotates what she plants in her vegetable beds regularly and again, use of quality compost and having a securely fenced area has been very helpful in consistently giving them abundance of vegetables – their greatest pest in fact being Lloyd himself who has a penchant for beans and is known to eat more off the vine than he brings inside.

Joy continues to fight the battle of the weeds in the mulched gardens around her dry creek bed and has been busy drawing up plans for a new shed.

Anne is delighted to have her first lemon on the “lemon tree” she bought years back that turned out to be grafted and has only ever produced limes. Anne has also been busy with the back-breaking task of splitting and transplanting agapanthus plants.

Margaret has been enjoying golden beans and has been busy planting her sweet peas ready for winter and potted up an array of succulents in her green house.

After the formalities we set off for a tour around Shirley’s garden. As we headed out along the back verandah we were impressed by the gorgeous potted gardens in which Shirley has planted a variety of beautiful flowering succulents into large individual pots, undercover and safely away from the hungry wildlife; the effect is wonderful! We headed up the back of the house yard and all immediately turned green with envy at the sight of Shirley’s impressive and very well kitted out shed. After daydreaming what we could do if we each had spaces like that we headed back outside and wandered around the tiered garden pathways and admired the size and beauty of some of her succulents, eagerly snapping up the offer to take some of their rogue babies home with us.

Shirley has always struggled with harsh soil conditions as well as persistent Kangaroos eating and damaging plants, but she has learned over time that the Roo’s don’t particularly like the taste of Iris’s, Geraniums, Lavender or Rosemary and has found that these, along with a range of succulents and cacti to be the most ideal plants for her heavy clay and rocky soil type.

~ article by Katie

Our next meeting will be held at the Wetlands in Eastgrove, Goulburn. It is appropriately located on May Street as the meeting will be held at 10 am on Tuesday May 1^st (which is also Joy D’s birthday!) Please arrive on time as we will be taken on a tour which will leave at 10:30 sharp. Also note that there are no toilet facilities at the Wetlands so we will have our morning tea and meeting elsewhere after the tour.

October 2017 - Mayfield Gardens

What a drive from Mayfield/Windellama (or even further afield for some) to Mayfield/Oberon on a sunny day, leaving very early to arrive by 10am – almost everyone arrived on time - from Mayfield to Mayfield.

Mayfield Garden is a work-in- progress series of gardens, 15 hectares in all, open most days of the year – just bring your strong legs & walking shoes. This garden includes a 2.5 ha water garden, boardwalks, huge bluestone bridge, 'the grotto' (cascading waterfall you can walk behind), copper tree fountain, beautiful trees & gardens and much more.

Before we continued on our voyage of discovery we welcomed Chloe & Kayla, Jude & Wazza’s cute
granddaughters and then shared our gardening woes & wows. Jude & Wazza have been going to Bunnings’ garden club at Goulburn on the last Thursday of the month at 6pm and are learning heaps (as in compost heaps?).
They added liquid sulphate after 'wettasoil' and their blueberries are now growing well in pots. Grow lettuce in semi-shade and they won’t bolt to seed.

Doreen said their weeds are still growing thickly but Bruce has had success growing roses from cuttings in his hothouse using his own potting mix (better than what he bought). He just needs to keep water up – suggestion was to put saucers under pots.

Kevin & Margaret are growing tops not bottoms on carrots (if only I had that body). They say to put pine needles around blueberries. Azaleas, camellias & rhododendrons are also acid lovers and like pine or casuarinas needles.

Caroline & John are picking “branching broccoli” (bought at the big B), carrots & lettuce. Joy has the best crop of yellow thistles! Anne is having problems with her lemons – thick skin & very dry despite plenty of watering.

Prune lemons later in November after risk of frost has passed – clean secateurs with metho. Bridget’s broccoli, cabbage & Chinese cabbage have all bolted – probably getting too much sun – need more shade. These veggies can also bolt if cold weather suddenly turns hot. Wazza said that Yates garden products website has an “app” you can download for gardening problems or what is that plant?

Katie has flowers everywhere and leaves on trees - she’s picking bok choy, kale, snowpeas & lemons so she says she’s happy. Only problem – the roses in her garden are choking with couch grass which she’s poisoned, and while waiting for the grass to die down she’s working out which mattock or sledge hammer she can use to batter it out. Irene’s lemon is still really sick but broadbeans are flowering and peas growing. Liz-Ann & Peter are delighted that the horseradish they planted months ago is surviving despite being completely neglected.

After our marathon garden walk, many of us had lunch at the old, very basic & ordinary looking Tourist Hotel in Oberon – but great $10 pub lunches. One not-very- young woman serves behind the bar, takes orders, cooks all meals and then serves them &clears up (she really is chief cook & bottle washer).
We had a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed their meal.
Our next meeting will be at John & Caroline Engisch’s  Melbourne Cup Day, Tuesday 7 th
November after 11am-ish (later than usual). Please bring something to BBQ as well as a plate of either salad or
sweets to share – don’t forget your crazy hat and gold coins for sweeps!

Veolia Excursion September 2017

This September Garden Club decided to take a field trip to somewhere close to home but a far cry from our traditional beautiful garden excursions. We met up at the Loaded Dog at 10am and boarded the little bus and headed up the winding road around the windmills to the Woodlawn Bio Reactor off the Collector Rd in Tarago.

The huge Bio Reactor facility opened in 2004, very basically, it is a landfill centred in the old Woodlawn Mine site which collects waste (mostly from Sydney & Canberra) which it then processes and turns into green electricity, it can apparently meet the energy needs of up to 30,000 homes!

Excerpt from the Woodlawn Bio Reactor Website:

The Woodlawn facility has prioritised sustainable and innovative waste management practices including:

• 7 landfill gas Bioreactors that recover up to 7 megawatts of clean energy from what would otherwise be gas-emitting waste material.
• Agriculture incorporating a working farm that applies nutrient and grazing rotation to help manage and understand impacts on the site.
• Aquaculture and horticulture capturing waste heat from energy production and using it for fish farming and hydroponic horticulture
• Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT) extracting organic content from the waste to produce compost for environmental rehabilitation.
• Windfarm (operated by Infigen Energy) that harnesses 48.3 megawatts of clean energy per year.
• Solarfarm utilising increased sun exposure from cleared land to produces 2.5 megawatts of clean energy per year.

Our first stop was the information centre where we were told all about the site, what they do and how they do it. We watched some videos about the bio waste management process and the obligatory induction video starring a few of our town's locals.

Next we headed over to the large Aquaponics area, where they use excess heat generated from the bioreactor to warm multiple vats filled with Barramundi, the fish are fed a high protein diet to encourage fast growth, the waste they produce is filtered out through large water troughs filled with little specially designed beads with large surface areas, these house bacteria that helps break down the waste. Plants are then also planted into these troughs using the waste water as nutrient for strong growth and completing the filtration cycle so that the water is returned into the vats containing the fish.

Back on board the Garden Club Express and we headed up the hill to the viewing area where we would able to gaze into the giant hole in the ground which now manages 20% of Sydneys waste! Trains freight shipping containers filled with waste from Sydney to Tarago each day where the containers are off loaded onto trucks and then carted up the hill to the old mine site, the waste is sorted for processing, the hole is ideally filled with bio waste which is then continuously being covered by dirt, the methane produced by this process is harvested and turned into energy and the waste heat from this process goes to the fish farm.

 Unfortunately the unseasonably freezing and windy weather made things a little less pleasant as we huddled at the viewing platform.

It is very important that rocks are not thrown or kicked past the barrier into the hole as it could be dangerous for the people working below.

We took some photos, some naughtier members tried to push the giant display boulder over the edge but luckily for the crew working below they aren't getting any younger and the several ton rock proved un movable.

We then thanked our hosts, boarded our little bus and headed down the hills and back to the Loaded Dog for a nice hot lunch by their open fires.

August Meeting 2017 Truffle Hunting!

We were all very excited about our local Willowglen Gardeners’ invitation to visit Tarago Truffles and the day dawned with bright sunshine after 24 hours of (well-needed) non-stop rain – a big relief, especially for our hosts Denzil & Anne Sturgiss. Denzil led us to their Trufferie & asked for volunteers to sizzle but no takers so he turned off the electric fence after we took turns to swish through the foot bath – no dirt, mud or alien germs allowed.

Denzil planted the Trufferie in 3 stages from 2002 to 2009. Acorns & sterilised truffle spores are planted into a pot & form a symbiotic relationship – then the small trees are planted into the ground after 18 months. First truffles are expected in 4 years after planting out. Holly Oak & Old English Robur Oak are used & hazelnut trees planted between each oak tree. Tree roots need sun & frost – open canopy between trees, sprinkler for each tree – 13 million litres of water used per year.

On to the hunt! After Dusty the dog has indicated a truffle, Denzil digs carefully with a spoon so as not to damage the truffle. The truffle smells earthy but surprisingly also sweet. Wazza, John, Carolyn, Jude & Irene all took a turn of lying on the ground sniffing the truffles after Dusty indicated. (What photos, hehehe.)

We returned for morning tea & our usual chat about members’ garden experiences this month. Wazza has a common birthday shared with all horses, and today was the day – happy birthday Wazza & all the other horses!

Wazza’s lemonade tree suffered badly from our recent -10 o C temperatures. Jude said a wombat ate all their broadbeans despite being grown in a mesh covered garden and now they have about 40 roses to prune – a mammoth task – we’ll call her Rosie in future.

Best wishes go to Jackie as she recovers from even more hospitalisation & treatment and to Doug who still drove daily to hospital although suffering a very painful knee injury. Joy said a chainsaw took to John’s leg but he’ll survive. Her limes are perfect but yellow skin (only green inside) and her lemons have no juice.

Bridget’s lemon tree not producing despite following all suggestions. Wazza suggested keeping the
pots of citrus trees on large saucers full of water. Joy introduced Anne (our new Canberra member) who needs to move 2 large tall standard roses growing across the driveway. Wazza said to cut 2/3rds of roots and also 2/3 of tops, soak in seaweed solution 2 weeks before & after the move.

Carolyn said John chainsawed the old gnarly roots of the old rose bush they moved – it’s in clay & gravel and now doing well. She is picking bok choy but “the roos are growing fast”.
Tony & Sandra have a small problem – a wombat goes under the fence & the dog goes out through the hole but at least their garlic is growing well.

Irene’s broadbeans look good, Lloyd sold 3 wethers – and one has just given birth to a
brown lamb (strange but true). Kevin & Margaret’s lemon was burnt by frost but carrots & parsnips growing well (need fresh seed, keep it moist, don’t plant too deeply).

David’s MG garden is going well & the VW garden is nearly done but the Holden FX frame needs to be replanted (we’ll be able to see all this at our Christmas party). He’s reduced their rose pruning because he reduced the roses from 30 to 4.

Liz-Ann & Peter grew ginger successfully in the Blue Mountains this year and are happily cooking with it.

After our lunch (Anne’s delicious cauliflower soup, which Denzil topped with fresh truffles) Anne talked to us in the Truffle Shed about how she cleans, grades & packs the truffles. Our heads were full of the delicious aroma of the black truffles – much sweeter than the truffle farm we had been to in Provence a couple of years ago.

We then toured Anne & Denzil’s gardens – their citrus & other fruit trees are heavily covered with shade cloth to protect from frost. Anne said that Denzil is reorganising her veggie gardens, with garlic growing well.

Denzil has made very high raised veggie beds which gave us all ideas of how to save our backs. Wazza invited Anne & Denzil to our Christmas party, where they can sit back, eat & drink and chat with everyone about gardening or the world (just not politics), whichever appeals more.

Thank you to our friendly hosts, Anne & Denzil, for your warmth, hospitality & generosity. We really appreciated this opportunity and highly recommend the experience to you all www.taragotruffles.com.au

The Truffle Festival is still on around the Canberra region until the end of August www.trufflefestival.com.au . Our next meeting is on
Tuesday 5 th September at 10am at Ni &Alan’s place.

Article by Liz-Ann

A little break from the cold weather...

I was lucky enough to go on a (well deserved) holiday to sunny Brisbane in July, and it could have only been made better if I was able to bring the Willow Glen Gardener's up with me! I had not been to the sunshine state in over 15 years and had never spent any decent time in Brisbane so I was delighted to have the chance to see what a beautiful and clean city it was.

The view from Mt Coot-tha

We were blessed with perfect weather, blue skies and temperatures into the 20's every single day and so we had lots of time to explore the mass of parks and public gardens that are spread throughout the inner city.

One of the public pool areas at Southbank

As well as being an entertainment hub with hundreds of restaurants and cafe's, the gorgeous 'Southbank' has literally kilometers of manicured parklands stretching along the Brisbane river with an array of children's playgrounds and "aquativity" aka incredible lagoon style (free to access) public water park that I am assured is filled to the brim with adults and kids alike throughout the Christmas summer break!
Southbank parklands is also is home of beautiful 3 story high Nepalese Pagoda, a gift to the city from Nepal at the 88' world expo.

"Spectacal Garden" at the Roma Parklands

The Roma Street Parkland and Spring Hill are located in the north of the city and are an absolute must see if you are in Brisbane, perfectly manicured gardens just bursting with flowers and forests of tall leafy trees make it easy to forget that winter even exists.
'Fern Gully' with it's canopy of tree ferns and misty boardwalks lets you experience a sub-tropical rainforest right in the heart of the city and the large open parkland and amphitheater draw crowds of people in for special events throughout the warmer months of the year.

Photo's from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha

We headed over to Mt Coot-tha which is the highest point in Brisbane, After soaking in the  breath taking view from the lookout and having an obligatory ice cream at the cafe, we headed down to the base of the mountain where we found yet another garden spectacular the "Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens".

The 52 hectares is free to visit and showcases the largest collection of Australian rainforests in the world! Much like a more colourful version of the National Botanic Garden in Canberra, there are a variety of 'zones' including a fernary, a steamy tropical greenhouse, tranquil Japanese garden and a bonsai house which is lovely, but still not as good as the one at the Canberra Arboretum!

Place your bets!

I have to admit the highlight of my time at the Botanic Gardens was when we were strolling through the 'arid zone' admiring giant cacti, we stumbled upon two big lizards having an all out territory war right in the middle of the foot path! Completely oblivious to the masses of people and prams surrounding them the lizards tussled and hissed putting on quite a show for their delighted spectators! We finally tore ourselves away after watching (and videoing) for about 10 minutes and they were still going strong!



So all in all, if you feel like escaping the thick frosts and icy winds of  the Windellama region for a while, then I highly recommend a holiday in balmy Brisbane to ward off the winter blues, but I warn you, it is hard to come back again! 

Article by Katie

August 2017 Meeting - TRUFFLES!

Washing our feet

We were all very excited about our local Willowglen Gardeners’ invitation to visit Tarago Truffles and the day dawned with bright sunshine after 24 hours of (well-needed) non-stop rain – a big relief, especially for our hosts Denzil & Anne. Denzil led us to the edge of their well fenced Trufferie & asked for volunteers to "sizzle" but sadly there were no takers so he turned off the electric fence after we took turns to swish through the foot bath – no dirt, mud or alien germs allowed. Denzil planted the Trufferie in 3 stages from 2002 to 2009. 

 Acorns & sterilised truffle spores are planted into a pot & form a symbiotic relationship – then the small trees are planted into the ground after 18 months. First truffles are expected in 4 years after planting. Holly Oak & Old English Robur Oak are used & hazelnut trees planted between each oak tree. Tree roots need sun & frost – open canopy between trees, sprinkler for each tree – 13 million litres of water used per year. 

Denzil & Dusty

On to the hunt! After Dusty the dog has indicated a truffle, Denzil digs carefully with a spoon so as not to damage the truffle. The truffle smells earthy but surprisingly also sweet. Wazza, John, Carolyn, Jude & Irene all took a turn of lying on the ground sniffing the truffles after Dusty indicated. (What photos? hehehe...)

 

We returned for morning tea & our usual chat about members’ garden experiences this month. Wazza has a common birthday shared with all horses, and today was the day – happy birthday Wazza & all the other horses! Wazza’s lemonade tree suffered badly from our recent -10oC temperatures. Jude said a wombat ate all their broadbeans despite being grown in a mesh covered garden and now they have about 40 roses to prune – a mammoth task – we’ll call her Rosie in future.

Heads down, bum's up!

Best wishes go to Jackie as she recovers from even more hospitalisation & treatment and to Doug who still drove daily to hospital although suffering a very painful knee injury. Joy said a chainsaw took to John’s leg but he’ll survive. 

Her limes are perfect but yellow skin (only green inside) and her lemons have no juice. Bridget’s lemon tree not producing despite following all suggestions.  

Katie's lemon's on the other hand are amazing and growing out of control so if anybody would like some, please let her know!

Wazza suggested keeping the pots of citrus trees on large saucers full of water. Joy introduced Anne (our new Canberra member) who needs to move 2 large tall standard roses growing across the driveway. Wazza said to cut 2/3rds of roots and also 2/3 of tops, soak in seaweed solution 2 weeks before & after the move. Carolyn said John chainsawed the old gnarly roots of the old rose bush they moved – it’s in clay & gravel and now doing well. She is picking bok choy but “the roos are growing fast”.

Tony & Sandra have a small problem – a wombat goes under the fence & the dog goes out through the hole but their garlic is growing well. Irene’s broadbeans look good, Lloyd sold 3 wethers – and one has just given birth to a brown lamb (strange but true). Kevin & Margaret’s lemon was burnt by frost but carrots & parsnips growing  well (need fresh seed, keep it moist, don’t plant too deeply). David’s MG garden is going well & the VW garden is nearly done but the Holden FX frame needs to be replanted (we’ll be able to see all this at our Christmas party). He’s reduced their rose pruning because he reduced the roses from 30 to 4. Liz-Ann & Peter grew ginger successfully in the Blue Mountains this year and are happily cooking with it.

After our lunch (Anne’s delicious cauliflower soup, which Denzil topped with fresh truffles) Anne talked to us in the Truffle Shed about how she cleans, grades & packs the truffles. Our heads were full of the delicious aroma of the black truffles – much sweeter than the truffle farm we had been to in Provence a couple of years ago.  We then toured Anne & Denzil’s gardens – their citrus & other fruit trees are heavily covered with shadecloth to protect from frost. Anne said that Denzil is reorganizing her veggie gardens, with garlic growing well. Denzil has made very high raised veggie beds which gave us all ideas of how to save our backs. Wazza invited Anne & Denzil to our Christmas party, where they can sit back, eat & drink and chat with everyone about gardening or the world (just not politics), whichever appeals more.

Thank you to our friendly hosts, Anne & Denzil, for your warmth, hospitality & generosity. We really appreciated this opportunity and highly recommend the experience to you all www.taragotruffles.com.au . The Truffle Festival is still on around the Canberra region until the end of August www.trufflefestival.com.au . 

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 5th September at 10am at Ni & Alan’s place.

Article by Liz-Ann   

June Monthly Meeting

Thank you to John who traveled down from Sydney to open up their gardens for us. Yes he can boil a urn and heat pies in the oven.
After a hot cuppa and some nice morning tea, we gather around John`s fire pit to keep warm and discussed our gardens.
Joy read a letter from Carolyn all about her garden. We found the garden very neat and tidy with flowering hedges and roses.

Joy has Guave plants fruiting will save us some seeds.
Denise catching up with the pruning, has grevillea flowering. She brought some weigelia cutting.
Allen has roses still flowering and been busy planting bulbs.
Maria still planning  the foundation of the garden. Making a green wall on the north wall. She asked if she put blood and bone around her garden would the dogs dig it up. (Yes.)
Sandra still planting trees and digging weeds. Trees are doing fine.
Kevin says parsnips growing well, picked some  small butternuts, had a good supply of beans and tomatoes, also a medium jam melon and a few spuds.

Bruce planning a no work garden, still trying, (using a lot of Roundup.) Planted pumpkin in old chook house, started to run but spilt because of all the rain. Still having trouble with the Gum trees being attacked by the Christmas beetles. He had a glut of Kumquats, made marmalade.
Shirley cactus growing fine, wombat keeping the grass down.

Lloyd erected a garden shed- mounted strawberry pots on the back wall. Irene still replanting roses from the garden to pots.
Cheerio to Jackie who is having a spell in hospital.  
I hope John and Carolyn son is on the mend soon.
Our sincere sympathy to Thoreen & Ron on the passing of their daughter Deb.
Next meeting is at St. Barts church Windellama Tuesday 4th July starting at 10am to do general cleanup. Please bring your garden tools and some morning tea. If we get rained out again, we will meet at Lloyd and Irene's place instead.

Irene