Ballarat in Spring 2017

Ballarat GARDENS IN SPRING Event

We are again delighted to present an outstanding program offering an exciting array of activities for garden lovers providing an opportunity to experience the practical and aesthetic principles of gardening and horticulture.

​Our very popular Speakers Luncheon will be held on Friday 10th November in our beautiful Botanical Gardens. For further details and bookings go to our Speakers Luncheon tab.
The Open Gardens on offer on the weekend of Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th will not disappoint and all certainly ‘show off’ Ballarat’s beauty, diversity and resilience. Situated in 2 clusters , why not visit 3 on the Saturday, taking advantage of the refreshments available and the other 3 on the Sunday and take in lunch or afternoon tea . Meet the owners and volunteers, experience the unique ambiance of each garden and glean some local knowledge to take home a few ideas for your garden.

Indulge your senses by taking advantage of the program and associated events and appreciate beautiful Ballarat this Spring - the true garden city.
Download our brochure.

Enjoy !
Wendy Taylor, Helen Todd, Cherry Schultz & Elizabeth Gilfillan
Ballarat Gardens in Spring 2017 Committee​​
 

OPEN GARDENS - SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Visit six open gardens with a local guide. T

$5 per adult each garden (children under 15 free). No public access to home.

Fraser Garden - 218 Talbot Street South, BALLARAT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative and talented couple Tracey – Garden Designer and Stuart – Craftsman share their elegant town garden with perfect scale. This garden is a family garden ticking all the boxes. Featuring beautiful specimen trees, shrubs and clever massed plantings together with well placed potted plants and an abundant kitchen garden.

The alfresco entertaining area complete with open fire, pizza oven and comfortable lounge furniture is utilised year round. This garden complements a beautiful home, with a view from every window, with room to move for teenagers, dogs and chooks! Take home some inspiration and clever ideas. - Steel garden sculpture and local honey sales.

 

Fulton Garden – 73 Gilles Road, MT ROWAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunate to have many beautiful mature trees, namely Cypress, Willow, Spruce and Golden Ash, this stunning garden has been a labour of love for Di and Ian with many projects coming to life over the last 15 years. Softening the architecture of the house, while reflecting the home’s contemporary lines, key elements include obscuring views from the street, creating a sheltered area for entertaining, introducing wind protection and defining areas with hedging. Garden highlights are linked by pathways and include the recently completed perennial walk, vine clad arbour and deck, rose parterre, courtyard and produce garden. Massed plantings strengthen the design by using dramatic foliage plants with contrast in texture and form together with avenues of deciduous trees, native wind breaks and striking sculptures. A delight at every turn.

Coffee & refreshments available.


Weigall Garden - "Amlee" - 2054 Old Melbourne Road, MILBROOK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Amlee”, a 20 acre property of rich volcanic soil was purchased in July 1995 by Mark and Andrea Weigall. The farm house was partially restored and there was no existing garden apart from the majestic Desert Ash, Fraxinus angustifolia at the front of the house and a large, stately Manna gum, Eucalyptus viminalis on the east side of the residence. Over the years, Mark and Andrea have introduced much needed wind breaks, shade trees and native corridors and with appropriate plant selection have created a tranquil and lush garden with various outdoor entertaining areas including a much used tennis court. Renovations over the years have included a just completed studio apartment with many of the garden areas also evolving of time.

Favourite plantings include Silver Birch, French lavender, Camellias, Crab apples and Hydrangeas which complement the more contemporary species of Euphorbia, Lomandra and Correas. Whilst feature trees including a Walnut, Prunus ‘Cerisifera’, Chinese pistachio, Acer ‘Autumn blaze’ and London Plane trees all providing shade, borders and stunning seasonal colour. The picking and produce gardens together with the raspberry cage provide year round organic food as well as fresh eggs from the well cared for chickens.

Bring a picnic or cake stall & refreshments available.


McLeod Garden - "The Ridge" - 694 Yankee Flat Road, BUNINYONG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Our garden, on the slopes of Mt.Buninyong, continues to evolve along lines of sight from the house, into a series of garden rooms and terraces. Reliant on tank water, the plantings have been selected for their structure, colour and form with the ability to survive dry conditions. Clipped hedges of Ceanothus, Lophomyrus and English Box help define space and the impressive border garden, food productive area (including ‘chook’ run), Lavender and Crab Apple walk, Labrynth lawn, Petanque Piste, Oak and Silver Birch Groves have been designed and created over 12 years, providing year round retirement pleasure!” - Ricky McLeod
Refreshments available.

 

Burnham Garden - "Mt Boninyong" - 6754 Midland Highway, SCOTSBURN

Celia Burnham (nee Scott) and her husband Graeme are the proud custodians of the historic property ‘Mt Boninyong’ which sits on the eastern side of Mt Buninyong. Forebears of the Scott clan, Andrew and Celia Scott, emigrated from Glasgow with their four children in 1838. They took up a ‘run’ of 16000 acres in the district we now call Scotsburn, initially grazing cattle and later sheep. The garden was first laid out in March 1845, making it one of the oldest domestic gardens in Victoria. The original house was replaced by the present house in 1884, but the garden remains relatively unchanged, with some of the early plantings still in the garden, including two Magnolia Grandifloras, grand Camellias and Hollies. Step back in time and enjoy the ambience of times past.
Refreshments available.

 

King Garden - "Back Lake" - 264 Wiggings Road, SCOTSBURN

Designed to reflect its time and place, ‘Back Lake’ was conceived as a complete ‘landscape’ rather than a ‘garden’. Designed and largely constructed by architect owners Anne and Berry King the layout was developed at the house design stage, and detailed landscaping and plant selection decided before any work commenced. The dry-stone walls, ponds, raised vegetable beds, orchard and general planting & mulching were mostly completed in 2010.
Strong winds limit plant selection. Planting includes 4 Prunus ‘Shirotae’ (white flowering cherry) creating an outdoor ‘room’, Pistacia chinensis (Chinese Pistachio), Angophora Costata (Smooth barked apple), together with swathes of euphorbias, echiums, acacias, agapanthus, correas, miscanthus and pennisetum grasses combining for immense effect. Sculpture collection. Bird life is prolific on and around the water and views are magical. Paradise found !
Plant Sales.

For full details, please visit the website Ballarat Open Gardens

Download Brochure (pdf format) here.

 

Speaker's Luncheon

Friday, 10 November 2017, 10am to 3:30pm
Venue: The Robert Clark Centre – Ballarat Botanical Gardens (Next to the Conservatory)
Tickets available now [registration includes a delicious lunch with wine catered by our local food hero, Peter Ford].

Indulge in a 'day out' in our beautiful Ballarat Botanical Gardens. Be inspired, entertained and educated in all things gardening, plants and nature with Guest Speakers:

Steven Wells, Andrew Laidlaw and Natasha Morgan. Registration includes a delicious lunch with wine catered by our local food hero, Peter Ford.

 
Natasha Morgan

Natasha Morgan is a landscape architect by profession. For a decade she worked on some of Australia’s significant landscape architecture and urban design projects - most notably several years spent on the design and construction of The Australian Garden Stage 2, Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. Taking two years out to join the ‘the school of life’, Natasha indulged in that rare opportunity to focus on the things she loved most. This included working with some of Melbourne's most sought after florists and event designers, building on her love for creating special spaces and experiences. A tree change with a purpose in 2014, from urban Melbourne to rural Spargo Creek, near Daylesford with her young family, Natasha set upon designing and building a ‘productive’ focussed garden on their 5-acre property lovingly named Oak and Monkey Puzzle. This evolving hub for landscape architecture, garden design, artisans and craftspeople engenders a warm sense of real community, fosters collaborative connections, cultivates creativity and provides a place for meeting of the minds.
Natasha Morgan website
 

Steven Wells

Steven Wells is a nurse, horticultural therapist, gardener and garden designer. His passion is connecting people with plants for their health and wellbeing and he has successfully blended this passion and his careers to positively impact the lives of those within healthcare settings. Steven was awarded the ABC Gardening Australia ‘Gardener of the Year’ 2012 and more recently has travelled to Singapore, UK and USA receiving a Churchill fellowship to research the development, use and management of therapeutic gardens within healthcare settings.
Steven Wells website

Andrew Laidlaw

Andrew Laidlaw is an award winning and one of Australia’s leading Landscape Architects and Designers with Laidlaw & Laidlaw & Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Andrew’s lifelong passion is to not only work with nature but to help others learn, enjoy and find their own connection with the natural world. Involved in numerous projects around Australia as well as the Global Gardens of Peace project with Moira Kelly, Andrew has been instrumental in the Fernery Redevelopment project here in our Ballarat Botanical Gardens.

Andrew Laidlaw website