Past Events 2023
Sunday 19 November
Progressive Lunch
A delightful day was spent with gardening friends at two members' gardens. A big thank you to Elizabeth and Charles and Trish and Stewart for opening their gardens for us.
It was also a special opportunity to present the Gardening Clubs of Australia Ann Williams Clark medallion jointly to Lyn and Robin Austin. Very worthy recipients and a lovely surprise for them.
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National Gardening Week: a club visit to Highcroft Garden in Harrogate
Sunday 15 October
A Mediterranean garden with wide paths meandering through colourful beds full of textural foliage
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Autumn Harvest Festival
Bradbury, Longwood Institute
30 April 2023
The club held a very successful plant sale at the Autumn Harvest Festival at the Longwood Institute.
The stall looked fabulous with many quality plants to choose from. A very appreciative community stocked up for their gardens and connected with the Stirling and Hills Garden Club. Members running the stall shared a wealth of information and camaraderie.
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Our members Julie and Maggie won first and second prize (respectively) in the giant zucchini competition. Julie's enormous winner came in at 6.3kg!
Past Events 2022
Progressive lunch
Sunday 6 November 2022
A delightful day was shared by members in 2 beautiful gardens in Aldgate. We thank our hosts in both locations by providing such inspiring and serene locations for lunch and chatter.
Garden Guardians
June meeting 2022
Following our April talk on organic vegetable growing, we have even more information about the wonderful ‘garden guardians’ or beneficial insects and other invertebrates that will ‘do the gardening for you’ when you garden organically. Local gardener, Jenny Deans showed us what ‘good bugs’ to look for when the weather warms up.
Green Lacewing - image by Jenny Deans
Thursday 20 January 2022
Karkoo Nursery - Twilight visit
Oakbank
Members and some partners enjoyed a delightful evening in gardeners' 'heaven'. Tasty platters, plants to buy and much more to peruse. It was so good to get together on a balmy summer night with our welcoming hosts also giving us the interesting background to this historic venue.
Past Events 2021
Progressive lunch
& SHGC 35 year Birthday
Mylor and Crafers
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Sunday 20 November 2021
Club members enjoyed a perfect day of delicious food and comradery at the annual progressive lunch and 35 year celebration. We first visited Julie and Dennis's garden for lunch and Yvonne and George's garden for afternoon tea. 2 beautiful gardens with their individual characters were a joy to wander in. A huge thank you to our hosts and their preparation to showcase their surrounds.
SHGC 35 year Birthday celebration
Crafers
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Sunday 20 November 2021
At the afternoon tea of the Progressive lunch, members celebrated the 35th Birthday of SHGC. Jan Ball, zone coordinator, presented a certificate from Garden Clubs of Australia and David Weston, our longest serving member, recited his witty poem celebrating the club's resilience and activities over its 35 years. Members then enjoyed the delicious cake baked and decorated most skilfully by Sue Gooding.
Read the news reports in the local Courier and Herald newspapers here
Walk and Picnic
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
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Saturday 20 March 2021
About 20 members enjoyed a leisurely walk & picnic in the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. With the autumn colours emerging and perfect weather, it was a pleasant afternoon.
Past Events 2020
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Progressive Lunch
Members' Gardens
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Sunday 15 November 2020
Members enjoyed lunch and afternoon tea in two very different gardens. Lunch at Gisela and Daniel's new property in Mylor and afternoon tea and desert at Lyn and Bob's shady garden in Aldgate - images click here
Sat 31 October & Sun 1 Nov 2020
SHGC member opened WINDSPIEL her family's Upper Sturt Garden in the SA OPEN GARDEN Scheme. Hundreds of visitors raised funds for assisting refugees. Many plants for sale were donated by the club.
Windspiel
Open Garden
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Thursday 22 October 2020
Speaker Kevin Western, spoke about his obsession for orchids. He operates ​​Western Orchids/ Laboratories from his home in Coromandel East and is a supplier of premium orchid sowing, cloning and replate tissue culture media. Also available, a comprehensive orchid tissue culture course. Visit by appointment.
Orchids
with Kevin Western
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Zoom Meetings during COVID lockdown
Thursday 23 July 2020
Speaker Jenny Deans, a horticulturalist, gave us a 'performance' presentation about Moss. A little history, but mostly a beautiful way to incite our interest in these extraordinarily ancient and resilient plants that are all around us. Jenny inspired us to take the time and to notice.
Moss
by Jenny Deans
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Fungi of the Adelaide Hills
by Julia Haska
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Thursday 25 June 2020
Speaker: Julia Haska gave members and visitors an informative overview of Fungi of the Adelaide Hills. Her talk encouraged us to open our eyes to these extraordinary organisms that are have such a vital role for our living environment and appear in such a wide range of forms. (image: example of Fungi with gills). Document with Selected Resources to learn more - click here
Plants, Gardens and Bushfire
by Dr. Danielle Clode
author of 'A Future in Flames'
Thursday 28 May 2020
Speaker: Dr Danielle Clode -
“With our fire risk increasing with our changing climate, the challenges of taking fire seriously and protecting ourselves is more important than ever.” Danielle gave an informative talk about fire resistant plants and garden design to prepare homes for the event of a bushfire.
SHGC Zoom Meetings Makes News!
Adelaide Hills Herald
April 30 2020
The Adelaide Hills Herald newspaper wrote about Stirling and Hills Garden Club Zoom meetings during COVID-19 restrictions. The article appeared in the April 30 edition
Click on article to read
Thursday 27 February
From thinking the process of propagating native plants from seeds was just too complicated, Mary Cahill showed SHGC members that by knowing the right seed preparation and following published guidelines, success is very achievable.
Information about native seeds of South Australia can be found HERE
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Propagating Native Plants from Seed
with Lucy Cahill
Past Events 2019
Garden Club
Country Trip 2019
South East SA
3 - 7 November 2019
A small group of members spent a very enjoyable 5 days in the SE of SA. We were hosted by the Mount Gambier and Naracoorte Garden Clubs who arranged a wide variety of garden visits for us and an opportunity to make new gardening friends. Very interesting to observe various garden features, themes and favoured plants (not least of which were the luxurious explosion of roses, roses and more roses) in a not too dissimilar climate to our own but very different soils and a wide range of challenges inherent in a regional location.
We also managed some sightseeing, nursery visits and dining experiences.
A big thank you to Elizabeth for liaison and organisation of a jam packed gardening itinerary. Much learning, many laughs, new friendships and new plants.
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2019 Progressive Gardens Lunch
17 November 2019
Members shared a three course lunch in three very different members' gardens in Bradbury, Scott Creek and Upper Sturt. SHGC members generously opened their gardens and we moved between them for each course of the meal. It was a glorious day of good food, good company and beautiful gardens.
If you would like to share your garden with like-minded people for about an hour or so for one of the courses - start thinking about it for next year's Progressive Lunch.
Indigenous Food Plants
June Meeting 2019
Neville Bonney from SE SA shared his knowledge about eating and growing native food plants. We got to taste some native foods many had never tried before. His books with recipes and information about the foods and plants were available for sale on the night.
Pruning day with
Shinya and Fumio
July 2019
After a very informative and insightful Garden Club meeting with Shinya Ueda in April 2019, members were generously invited to watch a professional pruning service with master Japanese Gardeners Shinya and his father Fumio in Gisela's Upper Sturt garden. It was a cold but great morning followed by morning tea.
Success with Rhododendrons
September Meeting 2019
Experienced local gardeners Bronwyn and Richard Illman of Aldgate, shared their expertise and practical knowledge for success growing Rhododendrons at our.
Richard shared with the group a comprehensive talk about this topic. Drawing on their personal experience over many many years and thorough scientific knowledge of the field, we all left feeling much better informed and, to some extent, demystified.
The Stirling and Hills Garden Club thanks Bronwyn and Richard for their time and generosity.
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Members' visit to
Cleveland Nursery
20 June 2019
Members and friends enjoyed a twilight visit to Stirling's Cleveland Nursery. The nursery was full of winter stock and looked great. Cleveland's hospitality was enjoyed by all and a special discount on the night for members only was gratefully taken advantage of by many.
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Garden Club Visit
Saturday 1 June 2019
Wittunga Botanic Gardens
Shepherds Hill Rd, Blackwood
18 members enjoyed a beautiful winter walk in Australian and Sth African Plants and around the lake followed by visit to:
Colebrook Reconciliation Park
Shepherds Hill Rd, Eden Hills
Sculpture, Fountain of Tears, mosaic campfire installation and interactive story trail on the site of the Colebrook Aboriginal Children's Home followed by late afternoon coffee at:
Montagna Cafe
Coromandel Parade, Blackwood
Garden Club
Country Visit 2018
Mildura
Stirling and Hills Garden Club members visited Mildura in 2018. Over 3 days members enjoyed a jam packed itinerary of garden visits, The Mildura Show, a feast shared with the Mildura Garden Club and exploring many other places of interest.