Randwick NSW community gardens
I called in to see the Randwick community organic garden on 19 Jan to see what they were doing with their space.
They are funded by the Randwick City Council and the garden is organised along the lines of a structured Council garden space. The area is surrounded by a large storm wire fence and the gates are locked to casual visitors.
I could only get in for a few minutes as someone was going in to water their plants and let me wander for 5 minutes before they had to leave.
They have a small enclosure for chickens, a large water tank and a small building and covered area. It is all very compact and is a mixture apparently of single personal plots with a few communal planting areas – although this was hard to tell by what was growing in the limited time I had to look around.
Hunter region NSW botanic gardens
Quickly dropped in to visit the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens [basically Newcastle NSW and surrounds] while passing on 13 Jan [2012]. They are located at Hexham on the north side of the Newcastle river beside the highway as you drive north or south on the pacific highway.
They are particularly interesting in that they are essentially of community gardens origin and have developed over time to be a more widely supported botanic gardens structure. Started in the mid eighties they have developed somewhat randomly over the years based on peoples interests and ability to contribute as volunteers.
The collection of plants is somewhat esoteric but interesting because of that. The succulent and cactus collection is really quite nicely laid out and holds a lot of interesting plants. They have a nice passive solar tropical orchid house of some size and a number of glass and shade houses.
There are a lot of really nice fundamental structural features and ideas that are still in development. They have some really nice parkland spaces and a variety of functional features like a small bush chapel obviously setup to cater to weddings and some nice lawns. They also have a tiny volunteer run cafe.
It felt good to see what a community garden could end up like.
note – The mosquitoes were severe and savage – they have a free spray yourself down area at the entrance with natural oil repellents – make sure you use it before walking anywhere in summer especially.
My pics here are of only really the succulent area.
http://www.huntergardens.org.au/
Forster NSW community gardens
On Jan 11 [2012] I visited the Forster community gardens while staying in the area to the north of Sydney on the mid NSW coast. They are in a small park like gardening area next to the local neighbourhood and tourist information centre on the lake or river side of the central city area.
They seem well set up with mainly free standing growing containers all with their own watering and drip systems and activity areas. This is a smart and interesting design for use in a public area like this. There is a main thoroughfare path running through the area and there was a constant stream of people wandering or cycling through while I was there.
The weather on the coast there is edging into sub-tropical and it showed with some very nice growth on some of the plants I would not even attempt to grow in my cold temperate region.
I was also mildly impressed by their ‘not ready for harvest’ and ‘ready for harvest’ signs which they were using.
http://www.fnc.org.au/community_garden.htm
saracenia at Sydney Botanic gardens
Some nice saracenia pitcher plants out in flower at the Sydney Botanic gardens out behind the Tropical house and Pyramid area.
Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
Went for a long walk around the Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan out near Cambelltown in Sydney. [Sunday 4th September] Last time I was there was about 10 years ago in 2000… there was not a lot there aside from a basic tea room cafe and some early plantings, some plans for the various gardens areas and some woodland walking areas. I remember them advertising for people to join up for a bush care group as the place had a lot of environmental and weed issues like the infestation of African Olives – to name only one.
Things have improved a lot and on sunday the place was packed with people doing picnics and many areas had some spectacular spring displays on.
The thing that immediately impressed me was the bush food section which is located directly near the main service buildings and car park. It is protected and well maintained. The climate is still pretty hostile but they have got some amazing results with some plants.
I nearly fell over when I realised the high hedge next to the main path was just a wall of finger limes - citrus australasica, davidson plums and various other huge healthy natives. There were numerous and various other interesting inter plantings like eugenia’s and a bunch of the native pelargoniums littorale or australe, austromytus etc.
This is where they are planning to build the new australian plant and seed bank - announced on June 2010 due for completion late 2012. This is associated with the Kew Millennium Seed Bank project.
Sydney Botanic Gardens
Went for a wander through the Sydney Botanic Gardens on Saturday 9 July and even though it was mid winter I was impressed by these two displays still going strong despite the cold and wind : The large structure in the middle of the Succulent garden with the fantastic colours and the frisky Bromeliad wall out behind the tropical centre.
chippendale street gardens
Corner of Myrtle and Pine Street, Chippendale, Sydney. Some quick snaps of some of the street plantings … it’s small scale but really does give the place some atmosphere and even some useful urban food sources.
related links:
http://sustainablehouse.com.au/
http://www.abc.net.au/science/planet/house/default.htm
http://life-in-chippendale.blogspot.com/
http://greenstrata.com.au/case/rooftop-food-garden-chippendale-mews
villa carlotta – lake como italy
Villa Carlotta on the edge of lake Como in northern Italy
This would have to be one my favourite gardens for citrus I’ve found so far. It mainly revolves around a planting of various citrus along a walk on a long terrace along the front of the main buildings facing the lake. It is split into 2 sections which are simply metal arches with the trees trained to grow over the walkway. The trees are very old now and heavily pruned and fitted to the space available. Much of the aesthetic interest is the age of the building, location and trees… but it is a simple device that really feels good when you see it and walk through it.
The rest of the garden is interesting in that it is built to fit a very small lake side area with steep mountainous back side and fairly extreme weather variations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Carlotta
