Koondrook Barham Garden Society, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper

We had a great September meeting with good attendance. We enjoyed a lot of entries in competitions and a good trade table. During our Q. and A. chat, we had lengthy discussion on problems members had in the garden and how to fix them, including petal blight on azaleas and getting a phalaenopsis orchid to re-flower.

We talked about things beginning with the letter B relating to the garden, common names or botanical names and each member who brought along examples gave us information on their plant e.g. bluebells, bay tree, begonia, boab, bromeliad etc.

We had a discussion on our bus trip to Rutherglen with Lakes Coaches organised by the Cohuna club, which is early October. We are looking forward to it.

We planned our visit to Girgarre Open Gardens Festival on Sunday, October 27. We will take numbers next meeting and car pool.

Vice president Garry spoke to us about the Barham Show in late October and how we can participate, both as a volunteer or exhibitor.

We finished our meeting with a kokedama (moss balls) workshop. Sandie, Jackie and Patricia demonstrated three different ways to make Kokedama. Lots of fun and ideas with different plants. Basic ingredients are spagnum moss, peat, propagating mix and string.

The next day, Sandie and Patricia went to the North West Regional meeting in Echuca, where they gave a report on our garden club’s activities for the year. They listened to three very interesting guest speakers and both won raffles.

At our next meeting in early October, we have a plant swap, so bring along a nice plant to swap.

Marion Kerr, a judge from Kerang, is our guest speaker and will talk on presenting cut flowers for showing. Just in time for the Barham Show.

As spring is an exciting time for gardens and gardeners, there are always things to do. Here are a few suggestions:

• Plant: Asparagus crowns, citrus, natives, summer flowering bulbs, annuals for summer colour.
• Prune: Winter-flowering natives, tip prune camellias, citrus.
• Feed: Natives that have finished flowering.
• Watch out for sap-suckers such as aphids, harlequin bug, whitefly and thrips.
• Propagate softwood cuttings.
• Repot indoor plants.
• Aerate, feed and weed lawn.
• Deadhead marguerite daisies for a longer display.
• Ideal time to start to feed most things in your garden perennials, shrubs and trees.

If you are passionate about orchids visit the Orchid Show in Kerang on September 21 and 22.

Happy gardening.

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 19 September 2024.