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.