U3A Ballarat Gardening Interest Group

  Originally named “Green Hill Farm” on Preston’s Hill at Carngham, the farm was first settled by Graeme’s gggrandfather William Coogan in the 1860’s.    There was originally only a miner’s hut on the site, then a weatherboard home and by 1963 the current brick veneer home with very limited garden or trees.   Graeme and I started establishing the garden after we married and over the following fifty years have added different sections to it.    It is mainly a cottage garden, with a huge variety of plants, which peaks in late spring.    There is something on show all through the seasons though and it gives us a lot of joy in sharing it with others.   

Event No 2 Event report by Peter Treby On the first Tuesday of March and the U3A Gardening Interest Group convoyed to Ascot, north of Ballarat . Twenty-nine garden enthusiasts (and a dog) were greeted by David Glenn, plantsman and creator of Lambley for a fascinating two-hour tour. David and his artist wife Criss Canning have created a diverse collection of separate gardens walled with trees and privet hedges, surrounding Burnside homestead. David is renowned as a dry climate horticulturalist, and his deep knowledge of every plant species in the five acres of garden soon became apparent. Lambley is “ one of the first really considered responses to the challenges of gardening in the Australian climate without resorting to native plantings” (Wikipedia). David proudly showed us plant varieties sourced from around the world, including the US, Turkey, France, Japan and South Africa. David is a fourth-generation professional gardener, originally from Lambley, Not...

Event No 1  By Madelene O'Halloran & Andrew Parker Twenty members of the Gardening Interest Group had their first garden visit on Tuesday 4 th February to the Melton Botanic Gardens.    After gathering at the designated meeting point, Andrew welcomed everyone and then set about organising the carpooling which went off without a hitch. Passengers contributed to travel costs which was ably collected by Bill who then compensated the drivers involved.    The Friends of the Melton Botanic Gardens provided morning tea on our arrival followed by a guided tour of these very interesting gardens.   John Bentley, the President of the Friends of The Melton Botanic Gardens, lead the tour and amazed us with his extensive knowledge.   We were also amazed at how much had been achieved in such a relatively short time and exclusively by volunteer labour . Most of what we saw had been achieved in the past ten years.  ...