{"id":1145,"date":"2012-01-18T11:23:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T11:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chickenfish.cc\/bio\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2013-03-19T08:48:16","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T08:48:16","slug":"hunter-region-nsw-botanic-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chickenfish.cc\/bio\/hunter-region-nsw-botanic-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter region NSW botanic gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0768\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Started in the mid eighties they have developed somewhat randomly over the years based on peoples interests and ability to contribute as volunteers.<\/p>\n

The collection of plants is somewhat esoteric but interesting because of that.\u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0variety of functional features like a small bush chapel obviously setup to cater to weddings and some nice lawns.\u00a0They also have a tiny volunteer run cafe.<\/p>\n

It felt good to see what a community garden could end up like.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

My pics here are of only really the succulent area.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.huntergardens.org.au\/<\/p>\n\n\t\t