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Old October 29th, 2012, 10:21 PM
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Open Gardens

Thought I'd post a few photo's from the weekend. The Open Gardens cost $15 to tour, and bought in $12,000 for what is a rather small town. This first lot of photo's was taken at their Post Office garden, where they grew the biggest rose blooms that I think I've ever seen. The second photo is Double Delight but unfortunately the owner/gardener here couldn't name all of them for me. The rose in the third photo must have been a good 7 or 8 inches across. And all they did was put newspaper down, then weed mat, then the white pebbles, and water with a sprinkler, doing the lawn at the same time. Very sheltered, so surprising they didn't have black spot or powdery mildew.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 10:32 PM
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The next garden to impress me was established mid 1800s. Best to bear in mind that these gardens suffered through 13 years of severe drought and many plants would have been lost. A very tranquil garden and the owner had classical music playing which was a lovely touch. That big bush on the right in the last photo is a yellow Banksia rose, but that wasn't as big as another I'll show you in a minute. Behind this bed was an orchard.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 10:38 PM
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The Banksia rose seen here is HUGE, it would easily fill my kitchen to the ceiling or more, and from wall to wall.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 10:47 PM
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Just over the back fence was where the working dogs live, their accommodation is up off the ground, probably safe from floods and snakes. The third photo here shows the rather impressive long driveway into this property, with tall , ancient gums forming an evenue.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 10:52 PM
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Wow, that place looks amazing! What beautiful gardens. That price for admission isn't bad either really. How long did it take to go through the entire place. It's sort of sad that the people didn't know the names of some of the flowers, they didn't have signage I take it.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:00 PM
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Next garden was nice due to how much work had been put into it and how well blended plants were where colour is concerned.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:10 PM
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I envied them the room they have for those lovely manicured lawns and wide garden beds but then they are on farms and I wouldn't want that, so really, the next garden I'll show you is more my style. A lot in a more easily managed garden.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:19 PM
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Hi DD. Unfortunately no signage at all. I was able to help a couple of women with names of plants but could have done with help myself at times. This last garden I will show you, at least I got the owner to tell me the name of this first rose, which is a 'must have'. Black Prince, with a perfume to die for. This garden had so many lovely plants and features, like this archway formed by the pink Hawthorn.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:28 PM
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This garden did have its lawn areas but the beds were large and chock-a-block with plants.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:36 PM
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This was a pretty garden. Could spend a lot more time there, and could have taken heaps more photo's but had to get back home to look after Silk. These gardens on properties are always like a lush oasis once the surrounding cropping areas dry off.
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Old October 29th, 2012, 11:55 PM
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I want this yellow and white iris. You can see how, in the last photo, it goes from paradise to just open farmland, no wonder gardeners try and hide inside their gardens. LOL. Well, that's it. I didn't take any photo's at the first garden and the second one, while having lots of plants, was so young that it was hardly worth looking at. One other farm garden just did nothing for me. DD, it took me exactly 3 hours to scoot around those gardens. I had to miss the last one because I had to go home to carry Silk outside to toilet, and also, because a trip out to the last garden was another 30 kilometres I was at risk of being very short of petrol. No service stations open in small towns here on the weekends, and as for Silkie, you have to get your priorities right, don't you? Her callous has improved and some sport tape around the leg is allowing her to walk again, but the longer I give her a hand the better off she will be.
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Old October 30th, 2012, 10:21 AM
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Awww, GF, I agree that Silk would have to come first. I was the same when it was Shadow. At the end we didn't go anywhere because she wasn't comfortable in the car, so if anybody wanted to see us, they came to us.

I didn't realize these gardens were so far apart! They are beautiful though. I don't blame you for skipping the last one. Interesting that the gas stations aren't open on the weekends - we'd die here if that was the case!
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Old October 30th, 2012, 10:36 AM
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Great photos and they are all beautiful , I think you got your money worth .
I am looking at all the trees that lost their leaves so it was a treat to see so many beautiful flowers. Thanks for sharing this .
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Old October 30th, 2012, 04:05 PM
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So this was a garden tour of many different gardens? Awesome! And those gardens are spectacular!!
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Old October 30th, 2012, 07:14 PM
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It was 8 gardens in the district, Hazel, to raise money for the Soldiers Memorial Park I think. I didn't see the notice about it till Friday and just didn't think about how much petrol I had in the wagon. DD, if you think that's bad, no gas stations being open, you'd worry if you accompanied me home from the weekend dog shows I used to do in South Australia. Pitch dark and for the majority of the way no house lights or even car lights, if you broke down you wouldn't know which direction to walk for help, as in where would the closest farmhouse be , they are BIG properties over that way. Very doubtful, back then, if you'd get reception on your mobile. Certainly no chance of finding anywhere to buy something to eat. As I said to a guy at the Open Gardens, 'Deadsville'. It was money well spent, Barkingdog, I agree. Lovely weather, beautiful flowers, like minded people to talk to, it doesn't get better.
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Old October 30th, 2012, 08:46 PM
lindapalm lindapalm is offline
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Goldfields, the pictures make me miss summer already, keep sending them. Hurrincane Sandy finished off all the colorful leaves that were left here, and the few flowers that were left. Everything is ugly brown, soon to be white. Does Silk have bad callouses from the walking problem? Mollies got so bad they would bleed. I think Shelties are such tough little dogs. They are also the smartest I've ever seen.
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Old October 31st, 2012, 01:16 AM
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Sounds as if you really need colour badly, lindapalm, I shall therefore see what I can add to this thread, then go back to my Spring one. So, this is a garden I left out, and shouldn't have. There wasn't a lot in it but the display of 'Kiss me Quick' in all the colours was lovely.I only have red and persuaded one of the garden owners to let me have some of the pink annual one. Yay! You'll see that in the next post.
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Old October 31st, 2012, 01:28 AM
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Here is the Centranthus, Valerian, or it is sometimes called "Kiss Me Quick".
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Old October 31st, 2012, 01:43 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lindapalm View Post
Does Silk have bad callouses from the walking problem? Mollies got so bad they would bleed. I think Shelties are such tough little dogs. They are also the smartest I've ever seen.
The callouses are because she's down on her hocks, yes. She can get off them on one side, stand up a bit, the other callous must have got some tiny wound that let an infection in, so I put her on antibiotics and bandaged the leg. She's now off the tablets and just got some sport tape around the leg. I don't know that we will have her that much longer, which is terrible, she's always been my favorite. I agree they are a very stoic breed, they don't appear to be feeling pain, but they could be. Super intelligent little dogs, just so easy to teach things to.
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Old October 31st, 2012, 01:56 AM
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In the Post Office garden, apart from all the beautiful big healthy rose bushes, there was a lovely flowering tree, a Robinia hispida. It looked as if she'd painted her house to colour co-ordinate with the tree but that was just a lucky fluke she told me. The second photo is the flowers on it. I Googled it and unfortunately its seeds are poisonous, so with my animals here I won't be growing it.Final photo is her Foxgloves.
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