Garden variety: Highton’s Ron Mole works on the friends’ nursery project.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
GARDENING could be the oldest hobby in the world, considering Adam and Eve frolicked in one.
And if Eden was the first botanic garden, a group of local people is carrying on an ancient tradition.
Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
The group supports the city’s ever-popular focus of foliage, established in 1851 and now Australia’s fourth oldest botanic gardens.
The friends group is a volunteer support organisation working in partnership with Geelong Botanic Gardens.
President Helena Buxton said the group had 500 members, with 140 directly involved in a wide range of activities.
“We do all sorts of things, from running the annual plant sales to operating the tea house in the gardens,” Helena explained.
Friends volunteers take visitors on guided walks, organise botanic art classes, run a library, produce a newsletter and organise a popular Music in the Gardens each February.
Helena said the group was also entrenched in the digital age on Facebook, which was an effective means of reaching youthful members.
A community page on the group’s website was also available for other Geelong organisations with interests in gardening, she said.
Associated groups included the Geelong branch of Australian Plant Society as well as clubs covering hydroponic, organic, herb, orchid and indoor plant enthusiasts.
Helena said Friends of the Botanic Gardens had a sub-group that had produced more than 4000 plants so far this year to help preserve regionally valuable fauna.
The growers propagated a wide range of plants from the botanic gardens and other sources for sale.
Helena said the group also presented opportunities to garden with and learn from members who worked on plantings in the botanic gardens’ renowned perennial border.
The friends’ next guided walk, titled Grand Designs: Victoria’s Regional Gardens, departs from the front steps at 2pm on June 19.
Helena said an Annual Friends Winter Lunch would feature the group’s patron and open garden scheme head Richard Barley, as guest speaker on at Grovedale’s Lyndon Grove reception centre from 12.30pm on July 25.
