A stroll down the garden path

Alexandra & District Open Gardens

Well it’s fourth time lucky for the Alexandra & District Open Gardens. After three years of cancelling, we are very excited to be able to go ahead with our event on the weekend of 28th and 29th October.

Some of the garden owners will be very happy the event has been confirmed as they have kindly been preparing their gardens now for three years!

There will be seven gardens to see this year; we have three town gardens in Alexandra and four country gardens between Molesworth and Taggerty to visit. At each garden, you will find additional attractions to enjoy and maybe even make a purchase. There will be coffee and food at some gardens, other gardens will have sculptures, plants and garden seeds.

Opening for the first time we have “The Old Molesworth School”, which is set on the Molesworth State School grounds. The school operated for 100 years before closing its doors in 1978. Then Jill and Andy Russell purchased the property in 1999.

After cleaning up the grounds, they were left with two fabulous oak trees, a magnificent spotted gum and some fruit trees. Then, with the advice from some family members – “no straight lines and good deep beds” – they started to plot the garden.

Trees were planted for shade and autumn colour, a camellia hedge for privacy, lots of flowers to keep their bees busy, and a vegie garden to grow some silverbeet for the chooks among other things.

“The main problem we have with our garden is the insufficient number of days in a week,” Jill says. “Andy is my best garden implement.”

The pair adds, “for us, the garden is what we make of it – exercise, birdsong, creativity, perfume, solitude, surprise, colour, satisfaction, fresh air, enjoyment and much much more.”

Why not make a weekend of it in our beautiful Murrindindi Shire and enjoy one of our many local restaurants and cafes, and even book yourself into one of the local accommodation venues. Visit www.alexandraopengardens. com.au for a map of all the gardens and descriptions of what you can see at each one. Tickets are available at the Alexandra Information Centre, Alexandra Garden Nursery, Goulburn Valley Nurseries and at each garden gate, $5 per garden or $30 for an allgardens pass, which you can purchase on Trybooking.

Yea Garden Expo

The Rotary Club of Yea is pleased to be hosting two major garden events in spring that are sure to delight garden lovers everywhere. The first is the Yea Garden Expo on the weekend of Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September. This is the time of year when interested gardeners are busy preparing their gardens for spring colour. The Expo provides an opportunity to purchase a host of garden-related products at the Yea Saleyards site (1 Flat Lead Rd) on the Yea – Whittlesea Road just two kilometres on the south side of Yea. The site is flat, sealed and easily accessible for everyone.

Take advantage of the $10 entry fee, which includes free parking, a wide range of goods and services, and a plentiful supply of food and drinks, much of it homemade. Close to 70 vendors will be on site with exhibits ranging from bulbs, seeds, seedlings, flowering plants and trees to garden tools and equipment, garden art and ornaments, compost, fertilisers and more. Opening times are 9am-3pm daily. The popular speaker program will again be a feature of the event. An opportunity for visitors to both rest and learn! Visit the website (www. yeagardenexpo.com.au) or Facebook (Yea Garden Expo). Tickets may be purchased at the gate or prebook at www.trybooking.com/CGUBP

Yea Open Garden weekend

Now jump forward to November and the Yea Open Garden weekend (11 and 12 November) will have eight unique gardens open from 10am to 5pm each day. Three fantastic country gardens in the Strath Creek area and five in the township of Yea and, for something a little different, the opportunity to take a stroll along Strath Creek and experience a totally regenerated natural area.

Yea Rotary will be operating a BBQ at Narangurnung, and Marmalades Café will be offering morning and afternoon teas at Carey Cottage in Killingworth. Multi-garden passes are available to purchase in advance through Trybooking, covering all eight gardens for $40 (saving of $9) at www. trybooking.com/CJTWN or on the weekend at individual gardens (cash only please) and the Yea Wetlands Discovery Centre. The cost is $5 for town gardens and $8 for country gardens

Why not make the most of your visit to Yea by visiting the Yea Wetlands Discovery Centre and experience the Indigenous Garden and nature specific to this area? You might also like to take a break at one of Yea’s cafes, all offering a variety of food to enjoy, or simply walk around this beautiful, historic town.

The Yea Garden Club will again have its annual plant sale selling hundreds of potted treasures at bargain prices

For further information please visit the Rotary Club of Yea website www.yearotary. org.au from September onwards or contact 0407 096 128