After many hours of raking, chopping, sweeping, mowing, vacuuming, etc, the gardens were back to nearly perfect condition for the 350 visitors on Sunday, 23 October.

The sunny and warm weather on Sunday also helped make the gardens sparkle.

The worst hit garden was in Lorking Street, owned by Faye and Kelvie Blackstock, where chainsaws had to be used to clear several trees which had come down during the storm.

Family and friends of the Blackstock’s rallied around to clear the debris and clean up.

Our one country garden (Gary and Christine Somers) was a perfect setting for the all-day Devonshire Teas.

Also enjoyed by visitors were the stalls at the Somers garden and the Mahon garden.

Handbags, hats, garden art, pottery, mosaics and paintings were on view and for sale, bringing an additional dimension to the gardens which was much appreciated.

Visitors from Dubbo, Forbes, Wellington, Gilgandra, Molong and Parkes commented on the condition and the beauty of all the gardens, some even saying that the clean up was so successful there was no evidence of the storm damage.

President, Raelene Rout had the delightful duty of visiting each garden and presenting the owners with a small thank you gift from the Quota members.

George Ward of Alectown won the very popular raffle, which was a bird bath created by Elsie Mahon.

Although there are still a few expenses to be invoiced, we are expecting close to $5000 as our net profit.

We extend a huge thank you to all involved – garden hosts, visitors, sponsors of our double-page spread, the many Quota workers and, for the first time ever, an additional thank you goes to all those who worked so hard on the Saturday to clean up the mess created by Friday’s hail.