UPPER LANSDOWNE GARDEN CLUB
Affiliated with Garden Clubs Australia
The Garden Club was the initiative of Dianne Nicholls, who as we all know loved her garden. During this time Di and Kevin Nicholls lived at “Cloud Reach”, Upper Lansdowne. We held our very first meeting in her front garden in January 2007 with approximately 10 people attending and that was the beginning of our little garden club. For the first few months we visited each others gardens.
Our first outing was to Mangrove Mountain “Camellia Nursery”, Central Coast on 15 May 2007 with 14 members car-pooling down. We had a wonderful day, but decided it was too far to travel for a day’s outing.
We did four weekend trips away over the time in the club – 3 on buses and 1 car-pooled. This was because the cost of the bus hire had become very expensive.
1.
Bus Trip to Berry Open Gardens via South Coast from 19 October to 21 October 2007. We travelled via Sydney Harbour Tunnel, sea cliff bridge on Grand Pacific Drive with a stop for lunch at Kiama Blowhole. We visited 8 beautiful gardens in Berry. We also visited Hampden Bridge, Kangaroo Valley and Bowral Historical Buildings and Park.
All the guys with their bags of treats from ‘Treat Factory’ Berry: Bert de Wright, Ted Lewis, John (visitor), Tony Dickson, John Whetton, Norm Crittenden, Kevin Nicholls, Visitor, Bus Driver
2.
Bus Trip to Mount Wilson Open Gardens from 1 May to 3 May 2009. We visited Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens and 5 other open gardens in and around Mt Wilson. We also travelled on the Great Zig Zag Railway, visited Cahill’s lookout Megalong Valley, Three Sisters, Katoomba and the Everglades Gardens, Leura.
Yengo Sculpture Garden, Mt Wilson: Zandria, Di, Leonie, Bert, Peta, Trisch, Sharon, Helen, Glenda, Kevin, Gloria, Carol and Peter
3.
Car-pooled to Urunga Heads Caravan Park from 15 October to 17 October 2010 where we stayed in cabins. While staying here we visited Dorrigo Tallowood Rainforest Centre, Lookout and Dangar Falls, Bellingen Markets, Coffs Harbour Butterfly House, “The Rose Patch”, North Bellingen, Coffs Harbour Botanical Gardens and the Honey Pot.
4.
Bus Trip ‘Our Hunter Experience’ from 19 to 21 October 2012. This trip included a ferry ride from Tea Gardens to Nelsons Bay, a tour of Port Stephens Lighthouse, Tanilba Bay House tour, Hunter Valley Gardens and the Flower Centre Nursery at Maitland.
Shirley Barry, Nancy Lewis, Di Nicholls, Pam Finlay, Leonie de Wright, Dawn Flemming, Kerri Beeton, Helen Coombe, Belinda Dickson, Lee Winn (Marion photographer)
Over the years we also had many day outings:
20/5/2008 Taree’s Bicentennial Gardens
16/9/2008 Hunter Valley Garden visit
17/3/2009 Diamond Beach home of Terry Wright
17/11/2009 Lake Innes House (Ruins), Port Macquarie
9/3/2010 ‘Cut Loose’ Bamboo Nursery, Moorland
20/4/2010 Pembroke Nursery and Hobby farm, Pembroke near Telegraph Point
18/5/2010 ‘Winchelsea’ – George Hoad’s home and garden, Killabakh
20/7/2010 ‘Eagle Rock’ Nursery and Gardens, Bohnock
21/9/2010 Mescels on the Lake, Pampoolah
7/5/2011 Hunter Wetlands Centre, Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae
20/9/2011 Bago Vineyard, Wauchope
21/8/2012 North Brother lookout – Laurieton
20/11/2012 Kempsey area where we visited 2 gardens
16/4/2013 Abundance Nursery and Cowarra Dam, Port Macquarie
16/7/2013 Cattai Wetlands, Coopernook
17/9/2013 Tinonee Orchids Nursery, Tinonee
15/10/2013 Andew Paget’s home, Upper Lansdowne (hippeastrums)
19/11/2013 Christmas Party cruise to Wingham
17/6/2014 Honeycomb Valley Farm, Nabiac
18/11/2014 Koala Hospital, Roto House, Port Macquarie
17/3/2015 Diamond Head, Kylie’s Hut, Diamond Water’s Nursery and St Peter’s Catholic Church gardens, Laurieton
19/5/2015 Burrawan State Forest – big bottlebutt tree
21/7/2015 Bamboo farm, Lorne
20/10/2015 Jenny Glassops’ home and garden, Bobin
8/12/2015 Christmas Party cruise, Myall Lakes Cruises (Free Spirit Cruises)
19/4/2016 Cattai Wetlands, Coopernook
17/5/2016 Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae
16/8/2016 Bev Wills home – son restores old railway carriages, Taree West
20/9/2016 visited 3 gardens at Mondrook, south of Wingham
15/11/2016 Christmas Lunch, River Mark Café, Port Macquarie
15/8/2017 Cactus and Succulent Farm, Hannam Vale, Macadamia Nut Farm, Lorne
17/10/2017 Shirley and Garry Tyrie’s home – succulents, cactuses and bonsai, Upper Lansdowne
Between our away outings we visited our members’ gardens. Our garden club meetings and visits were always very enjoyable. We had a great group of people. Over the years our group grew with people coming far and wide. We had a lot of locals from Upper Lansdowne who invited friends and family members to join us, who came from Lansdowne, Coopernook, Harrington, Taree, Cundletown, Old Bar, Port Macquarie and Wauchope.
Our Garden Club closed at the end of 2017 after almost 11 years. We all missed Di so much after losing her in Feb 2016. She was our inspiration. Our numbers were dropping and we had visited everywhere we could find. Some of us moved onto Killabakh Garden Club and some joined Taree Garden Club, but we have kept in touch.
The 2 bench seats on the front verandah at the Hall were donated by the Garden Club.