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Forthcoming Events
23 & 24 February 2008
Gayle Otto will be opening her garden to the public in conjunction with Australia’s Open Garden Scheme, a non-profit organisation which helps to assist with funding around 350 community garden projects across Australia.
"A Room with a View" is an example of garden and outdoor lifestyle appropriate to a Mediterranean climate of long hot summers and cool wet winters. Sensible and minimal use of water is a priority, (grouping plants with like water needs) as are the use of mulch, soil improvement and the utilization of shade trees and pergolas. The aim is to demonstrate that with a well thought out design and careful plant selection, a garden can be attractive as well as drought tolerant.
Photos by Gayle Otto
The garden will be open between 10am and 4.30pm. Entry cost will be $5 per person, children free. Tea, Coffee and Lemonade, Plant Sales.
Address: 108 Frederick St, Maylands, South Australia.
Past Events
You should have been there
It was a deliciously warm Sunday afternoon on a wonderful sunny break in the winter gloom n when a sizeable number of us met at Cox Scrub Conservation Park for a guided tour led by Peter Bird. Peter is the author of the very good book 20 Nature Walks in the Mt. Lofty Ranges and was an enormously knowledgeable and generous guide.
Optimistically, Peter suggested that we could do the 8km walk. However, after about 20 minutes we were still within sight of the car park n the diversity of plant life within such a small area was truly astounding and we kept stopping to investigate n so the shorter 3.5km walk looked like a more sensible option. The park of 525 hectares comprises gently undulating sand over ironstone. A short section of the Finniss River runs through it and a steep-sided valley in the south-east corner has a permanent spring-fed creek. A narrow sandy track winds at an easy pace past a swamp alive with frog and bird sounds and up through open scrub of Eucalyptus fasciculosa and E. cosmophylla to afford views north across the valley.
Cox Scrub is easy to find, 5.5km south of Ashbourne on the Ashbourne to Goolwa road. Take the time to go there one day, pack lunch and a drink and take binoculars to look at the bird life. You'll be amazed at the intensity and subtlety of nature's planting schemes.
(from The South Australia Branch newsletter)
For more information on the South Australia Branch, contact Virginia Kennett, PO Box 199, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, vkennett@chariot.net.au.
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