Guest Speakers

Sharon Baldwin is the founder of Loose Parts Press – an independent children’s publishing company. She has written and published 13 books for children focusing on permaculture, gardening and sustainability and is now publishing work by other emerging authors. Sharon also runs a weekly story and craft session for young children at Good Earth Bookshop in Wentworth Falls. She will be speaking about how learning about permaculture influenced her gardening, her work with children and her publishing career.

After the meeting we will visit Joyces at Lawson to see what’s available in raised garden beds and then we will have lunch at the Lawson pub

Robin is passionate about gardens and has a practical down to earth approach to the methodology of sowing and harvesting. He will provide a practical workshop showing us how to increase our plants through budding as a form of shrub, rose and tree propagation. Budding is  mostly done during our summer months, November to late January when plants are in their full growth period with sap rising through the stem of the rootstock.

He will be provide pictorial handouts of this specialised plant propagation method.

Afterwards enjoy a ramble in the Railway Garden followed by lunch with your fellow gardeners at the Alexandra Hotel Leura.

Brenda is passionate about growing Daffodils at her cold climate farm “Falkirk” at Oberon.  Many of us have bulbs growing in our gardens bought from Brenda when she last visited LGC. Brenda has sold Falkirk recently and moved closer to Oberon. 

The garden ramble will be at Joan Brown’s garden on Queens Road, Leura, followed by lunch at Café Leura (Old Loaves and dishes) Corner Mall and Megalong Street. 

Robert has had a keen interest in gardening from the beginning. Living in Europe in his early years, he was influenced by his grandparents and worked the ground for productive purposes. In Australia, his mother taught him the practice of gardening, design and the general needs and behaviour of vegetation. He assisted his father who was a home designer and builder while he lived at home. 

He found joy in his garden, endless hedges and perennials, and the reward of the abundance of roses, hydrangeas and liliums. He started building arbours, window boxes, awnings and sheds and enjoyed the thrill of finding the perfect piece to achieve a visual and functional result. 

The office and gardening nexus needed to break, and this became more apparent when he was continually sought out by others to create and guide the design of their outdoor spaces. People would come to take photos from the street, and those who were more persistent wanted tours. Without realising it, his home garden had become a beacon to those who dreamt or sought inspiration to create their own outdoor spaces. His vision is to renew the timeless garden in a modern world. Through his passion for garden, design and construction he has created Hedge & Arbour. 

After our talk in April we will take a driving tour and seek out the beautiful maples in Wentworth Falls. After which we will have a lovely lunch at the Mountain Pie shop.

Geranium’s and Pelargoniums are beloved plants throughout the world. Come to see the amazing variety and beauty of Geraniums and Pelargoniums. Robyn Bible is a collector that knows everything there is to know about geraniums and pelargoniums. She has been a geranium enthusiast and collector for 46 years. Her collection contains scented, miniatures, ivy geraniums. Some are native to Australia and others are from South Africa. The first recording of a flowering pelargonium in Britain was in 1632.  Robyn has one of these called ‘triste’ which has a yellow to tan coloured flower that is night-scented to attract moths.

After the talk we will have lunch at the Chinese Restaurant on Leura Mall.  Then we will drive to Sublime Point for a 10 minute walk to view the spectacular Jamison Valley.

Hollowhog is a tool invented by Matt Stephens out of NSW Australia. It is powered by a typical angle grinder and a portable generator, and in most cases requires an external vacuum to remove debris. It allows an internal cavity to be created through a 50mm or larger opening. This method has been designed to minimise the overall wounding in live trees.

However wound wood formation is an issue that has resulted in most users adding entry modifiers such as spouts to combat wound closure. Treetec have developed the Tec-Spout technique to maintain hole entry – as seen in image. Correct installation of these entry modifiers requires a greater surface area of wounding (~90mm diameter) but does allow control of specific entry sizes smaller than 50mm.

The use of the hollow hog excels where:

• larger tree options are limited,
• site access is good for movement of vehicles & equipment such as generators
• target species requirements are small (entry holes 40mm diameter or less).

We have found that for larger internal hollows with entry requirements 50mm diameter or greater, the Tec-Door / narrow door method is the most efficient and cost effective. Treetec utilise both methods on many projects.

Treetec arborists and ecologists can come and assess your property for a range of potential hollow sites dependant on your property parameters and species present.

Trial gardens are research gardens that road-test plants for their garden worthiness and help develop important cultural knowledge in areas such as pest and disease resistance and the preferred growing conditions for particular plants. A familiar form of garden in other countries, the trial garden as a form is not so well appreciated in Australia despite it playing a role in bringing new cultivars to the general public. facing research garden that runs trials of several hundred species each year that includes ornamentals, edibles, natives, and exotic plants. I will discuss the exciting experimental space of the trial garden as we search for plants that will flourish for the home gardener. I previously managed the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney Trial Garden, a public, in local conditions, with minimal inputs.

I have been practicing horticulture professionally since 2009 working in the public, private, and community sectors including as Senior Horticulturalist at Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah. I have a passion for horticultural science with a particular interest in ecological garden approaches and the sustainable management of soils.

I am also active in the field of social and therapeutic horticulture with a focus on community development through gardens and have served on the committee of a number of community gardens and therapeutic horticulture organisations.

I currently run ‘Firdaus Gardens’ a Blue Mountains horticultural consultancy, garden design, and garden care service.