Seeding ideas for Gardening Week with Coffs and Woolgoolga gardening groups Coffs Coast Coffs Coast - popup ad Coffs Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - October 13, 2023October 13, 2023 In enjoyment of gardening, Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga Gardening Club members combine to socially connect with like-minded gardeners to gather ideas and admire their efforts. Here ably led by Coffs Garden Club President Esther Koreny (left). GLOVES on, trowels to the ready, National Gardening Week is upon us. From Sunday 15 until Saturday 21 October, gardeners and gardening enthusiasts are putting on events and opening their plots for the community to explore and enjoy. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au “National Gardening Week is for everybody, all ages, as well as organisations, businesses, local communities and schools, and it is a week to celebrate the joys of gardens,” Mary Davis from Coffs and Woolgoolga Garden Clubs told News Of The Area. The motto of Garden Clubs of Australia is ‘Friendship through gardens’ and for this dedicated week the purpose is ‘to extend the culture of gardening into the wider community for the benefit of all citizens’. Mary is keenly promoting the wonderful wider world that emerges from wandering, wending and working in the garden. “All who love gardening as a hobby find joy and fulfilment because they experience its benefits which include being creative and enhancing their own environment,” she said. Inspiration comes in many forms. “It may be from a book or simply a photograph that motivates you to seek a particular plant or herbs for special dishes, natives to attract birds, or to indulge the senses with very fragrant flowers. “When at the end of the day or maybe for a couple of hours in the morning you sit in the garden with a cuppa or a cool drink there comes a sense of peace and achievement. “You may have observed a honeyeater or a family of wrens or native bees ruffling the stamens of flowers, or you might enjoy walking a visitor around your garden to admire any manner of Mother Nature’s workings.” Whether your garden is small, medium or large, Mary says people find methods of maintenance that suit the time they can give to their garden. Even the benefit of weeding outweighs the chore of the job. “Weeds are compost material and there is great satisfaction in viewing neatness when they are gone. “A lovely garden is an asset when you come to sell but it is the gardening friends you farewell that cannot be potted up, so invite them often to see your next new garden delights and surprises.” Aged 94 this year, Mary is a horticulturalist, landscape designer and with her husband was proprietor of Cottage Garden Nursery, the first of its type, in Dural, northwest of Sydney, which they closed in 1999. Coffs and Woolgoolga Garden Clubs suggest the following ways to celebrate National Gardening Week. Take a walk in your local park or in Coffs’ great Botanic Garden where you may ride on the people mover while admiring the native and exotic trees and shrubs. Take time to smell the roses. Pack a picnic to share with family and friends. Throw a garden party or invite friends for happy hour or an alfresco barbeque. Visit your local garden centre and select a tree or shrub for your garden or buy some vegetable or flower seedlings for the children to plant. Join your local garden club to learn more and make new friends. Phone Coffs Harbour Garden Club on 0407 516 102 or Woolgoolga Garden Club 0413 883 831. By Andrea FERRARI Local garden clubs members recently visited different examples of ‘Gardening for Small Spaces’ at the Plantations Over 55’s Lifestyle Village in Woolgoolga as well as a native garden in Safety Beach owned by Woolgoolga member Janet Holmes. Gardeners and gardening lovers enjoy getting together to admire Mother Nature’s magic. Members of local garden clubs attended a talk and tours at Zone Day in 2022 at the Botanic Gardens.
