There was some nervousness along the way, and some last minute butterflies too, but the day was fantastic. 

Parkes East Public School was the perfect venue. 

The school’s huge covered outdoor area looked a picture once all the stalls were set up. 

With Elsie Mahon’s artistic eye for display, she had organised the layout of the stalls and achieved a real “showpiece marketplace”. 

Stallholders reported brisk business and were happy with the day, both from a financial viewpoint and a PR activity which allowed them to showcase themselves and their goods to a large number of locals and visitors. 

I’m sure these businesses will make future sales because of their efforts in being involved.

The other big change was sourcing speakers who would come to Parkes and share their expertise. 

The day was themed “Gardening from the Ground Up”. 

This was a deliberate move to go away from the usual 8-10 open gardens and provide some expertise and guidance about gardening. 

Good crowds attended all the presentations and there was even consternation amongst some of the audience who wanted to stay and hear more, but were running out of time to visit the gardens. 

Usually the ‘bus drivers’ made the decision, so some of our visitors had to run to catch their departing buses! 

The speakers were all experts in their field and were able to get their messages across in practical, down-to-earth ways that were appreciated by our audiences. 

Much note taking was going on, cameras clicking, and questions asked. 

We owe a huge thanks to Kerry Mitchell from Kurrajong for her presentations on salvias and on raising plants from seed; 

* to Deb Wills from Canberra who shared her wide knowledge about roses; 

* to Allen Gavin and Dianna van Gaal from Vittoria who demonstrated the dividing of irises and shared their tips on growing and transplanting them; 

* Jocelyn Ainsworth who came all the way from Darkes Forest with superb samples of succulents and talked about her collection from all over the world; 

* The Horti Ladies from Narromine who provided garden design advice and consultations; 

* Chris Cuddy from Canowindra whose knowledge about perennials, their origins, and their growth is amazing; 

* and to Nicholas Gerhard from Cowra whose speciality is the biology of soil. 

A class of adult students from Forbes TAFE came over just to hear Nicholas’ presentation, so vital is his research and resulting information.  

Most of the speakers took advantage of the school’s technology and were ably assisted by Tavia Taylor, a teacher from the school. 

Keeping with our theme, “Gardening from the Ground Up”, all presenters were given a product from Ploughman’s Hill olive farm, so that they could take home a sample of something which started ‘growing in the ground’ right here in Parkes. 

One member from each audience received a “spot” prize and these prizes correlated with the type of presention - for example at the Salvias presentation the spot prize was a salvia from Kerry Mitchell’s garden.

The plants which were sold were suitable for our climate and area, as was the advice given by the presenters, so all who attended were able to go home with something significant for their gardens. 

The Parkes SES helped us out by “plant sitting”, ie, they kept bags of plants safe for customers so that they could continue their shopping, browsing, listening, etc, before collecting their plants for the homeward journey.

Another new feature was making succulent posies. 

These are very much in vogue at the moment, even being used as wedding bouquets, so Elsie took advantage of their popularity and demonstrated wiring them together to come up with attractive posies, buttonholes, and table displays.

Wayne Rogers and Elsie Mahon had worked on making a vertical garden from an old pallet, and it was painted in bright colours then partially planted with succulents, so that visitors could see how the structure was made. 

That portable garden attracted considerable interest and has been donated to the school. 

Don’t be surprised if you see this sort of structure in gardens around town soon!

The charter of the Garden Club includes providing some educational and environmental guidance and advice; as well as the wonderful social aspect, the appreciation of nature, and the beauty of plants that bring joy and tranquillity into our lives. 

With ongoing changes to the environment, our climate, the composition of soils and mulches etc, our gardeners need to keep abreast of issues that affect their gardens, so the changes to our ‘open gardens’ format provided that practical advice. 

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Our fundraising is an optional extra which we choose to do and an amazing amount of $4000 will be donated to Currajong Disabilities Services (Parkes) and $1000 to Companions Through Cancer (Parkes). 

The members of Parkes Garden Club Inc are very proud to be able to support these two organisations with donations from our net profit. 

Additionally we will be giving a small donation to the Parkes SES.

What amazing luck we had with perfect weather on the day, as that night the wind picked up and down came the rain followed by a really cold spell.

Crowds of locals and out-of-town visitors spent the day enjoying the four open gardens, presentations and market stalls. 

Around 500 people were either working, supporting, or visiting gardens and all the events at the school. Buses came from Nyngan, Condobolin, Boorowa and individuals visited from Canberra, Orange, Bathurst, Canowindra, Wellington, and Forbes, just to name a few. 

Maps which were designed by Parkes Shire staff easily directed visitors to each venue.

Garden owners were extraordinarily generous in allowing the public to wander through their properties asking questions, taking photos, and just soaking up the beautiful spring colour and all the different garden ideas that were to be found. 

Without these wonderful community-minded owners, there wouldn’t be an “open gardens event” and they deserve a huge thank you for their generosity and hospitality.

Our beautiful raffle attracted a lot of interest and brought in over $1000 in ticket sales, but there could be only two winners and they are Beryl Twardy (of Parkes) who won the beautiful mosaic table created by Elsie Mahon; and Deborah Hunter who won another Elsie Mahon creation – the succulent garden. 

Garden Club members had been potting up succulents for the past few months and there were a huge number of them for sale. 

Almost all of them sold and raised more than $1300. 

Marjorie Styles donated a gorgeous range of bromeliads for sale and offered advice on their care.  They were all sold by lunch time! 

All that money went into the net total.

At the School, our volunteers were busy serving Devonshire teas, cooking and serving BBQ sausage sandwiches to a hungry horde, fuelling them up with enough energy to keep going around the gardens during the afternoon. 

There are too many people and organisations to name individually, but an event of this type doesn’t happen by itself, so a HUGE THANK YOU to all who were involved in any way at all contributing and supporting the event.