Gardening enthusiasts, be warned! You have two big days ahead on the 2 and 3 April with the CWA Kandos Gardens Fair. Twelve local gardens, guest speakers including ABC Gardening Australia’s own Costa Georgiadis, Garden Markets, workshops and walking tours, just to name some of the events. As well as a train trip from Lithgow and back. Refreshments and lunch available.
A full program of the activities to help you plan your visit is available here.
We are delighted to be hosting three wonderful gardening personalities as part of CWA Kandos Gardens Fair on 2 and 3 April 2016 – Costa Georgiadis, from ABC’s Gardening Australia, Fiona Ogilvie, gardening journalist from The Land and Diego Bonetto, wild food forager. A line-up that, along with the wonderful open gardens, makes this an essential booking for any garden lover.
Costa Georgiadis is the popular and mercurial host of ABC’s Gardening Australia. A landscape architect by trade, Costa shares his great enthusiasm and passion for gardening with others. He will be at the open gardens over Saturday and Sunday as well as visiting local schools whilst in the area. “Costa believes in embracing and celebrating mother nature’s cycles and seasons and nurturing her balance, beauty and bounty organically. His holistic approach is all about gardening the soil and the soul.” (ABC’s Gardening Australia website)
Fiona Ogilvie is well known to garden enthusiasts through her column in The Land and her book, A Country Garden. As a Central West gardener with an inspiring property near Bathurst, she is well-positioned to share her knowledge on “Gardening in a Harsh Environment”. Fiona will be giving talks at a number of open gardens over Saturday and Sunday.
Diego Bonetto is described as a “wild food forager”. He is an Italian artist, father, forager, speaker, keen naturalist and award winning cultural worker based in Sydney. Diego will be holding workshops and taking visitors on walking tours around Kandos, showing how to identify and use plants that are undervalued and unappreciated. Discover how to forage and feast in nature.
Along with 12 open gardens and a garden-themed market, CWA Kandos Gardens Fair is not to be missed.
On April 2 and 3 2016, Kandos will again showcase its gardens in the CWA Kandos Gardens Fair. And this time around we can promise it will be bigger and better than ever.
Historic country cottages with Winton outside Rylstone
Over the weekend a dozen gardens will be open to the public – all diverse. From “in town” gardens to working properties, artist homes, newly established gardens and even a Convent. In addition, there will be lots to see and do.
We are so excited to announce that Costa Georgiadis, yes, from ABC Gardening, will be coming, as well as gardening writer, Fiona Ogilvie, who writes for The Land and Diego Bonetto, a “wild food forager”. All will be available and at gardens throughout the weekend.
In addition we have a Saturday Market, art trail and so much more for keen gardeners, including workshops and talks. A full program will be available shortly.
Converted community halls offer surprises to every visitor
This time around, Kandos CWA are sponsoring the event and are actively involved in the organisation. The theme is “Gardening in a harsh environment” and the gardens will showcase how wonderful and different gardens can be established and flourish in an area with limited water, bitter frosts and real summers.
Expansive country properties with resilient natives and handmade drystone walls
You’ll hear and find out lots more between now and 2 and 3 April but we would love to see you so put the dates in your calendar. We recommend taking the weekend to explore the full program and see all the gardens – in which case, book in accommodation early. The local Rylstone and Kandos website has lots of accommodation information.
We will see you all on 2 and 3 April 2016!
St Dominic’s, the Good Samaritan Convent
Wombat Gully is a native and rose garden nestled into the countryside at Cox’s Creek Road.
Drive out 17km along scenic Cox’s Creek Road and visit this sustainable house and conservation property. You will find lots to entertain you, including a native plant nursery and native gardens, a formal walled rose garden, vegetable garden and chook house; as well as an artist’s studio and exhibition (with works for sale). Carmel and Jorgen will be conducting workshops on chooks, propagation (from seeds and cuttings) and also tours of their beautiful poured earth home.
At our last Kandos Gardens Fair in 2011 local poet Leanne Wicks invited
visitors to partake of poetry in the garden. She was in Margaret Casley’s
Whimsical Garden at Kandos. Throughout the day Leanne invited visitors to
enjoy poetry as she read poems, wrote poems and sold poems.
This year Leanne has been working with Lue Public School students to create
a “Poet-tree”. In two of the gardens at the Kandos Gardens Fair visitors
will probably discover poems hanging in branches. They are invited to take
home a poem.
Local poet Terry Yates will also be sharing poetry in the gardens. He had
two popular poetry reading sessions in a 2010 garden. The KGF program, now
in the planning, will have details about the time and place to enjoy some
poetry readings.
Not just a pretty garden, it is famous for its strawberries and produce.
I saw this Clandulla Garden in 2010 when we held our first and only “2848
Garden Awards”. It was those awards which gave us the idea of holding the
Kandos Gardens Fair.
In the awards Fay and Colin Burchell took out first prize for a new garden.
And if you visit their garden you will see why.
Each year under Fay’s imagination and green thumbs and Colin’s handyman
skills their garden increases in colour, luxuriance and produce. Even if you
saw it in 2011 you will see many changes this year.
Fay and Colin have taken to the country life-style completely. Their farm,
four kilometres from Kandos, started as a country getaway but it soon turned
into a permanent home.
They built their house on a windy, rocky paddock of poor soil. Not the type
of ground most people would envisage a garden. But Fay and Colin have
performed miracles. It is a cheerful, abundant garden with a profusion of
colour. Roses, geraniums, perennials and vegetables thrive amongst
drought-tolerant plants. Fruit trees and well-chosen specimen trees are
getting established. Archways, trellises, fountains, found objects, old
machinery and ponds provide structural features while Fay makes clever use
of pots and rockeries to showcase her plants.
She also tells me home-made compost is what makes her garden grow.
As usual this year she will be selling plants (strawberry and honeysuckle, I
believe) and jams etc (her strawberry jam is to die for). Pat Tilling who
creates marvellous wall hangings and table tops with mosaics will also have
a stall there. There will be other activities but we are still working on
the program which should be out by the end of the month.
by Colleen O’Sullivan
Wow! I have just visited the ‘Kandos Bellz’ on Facebook. It makes me want to take up belly dancing! They are such an enthusiastic and busy group. So glad we have been able to book them up for the Kandos Gardens Fair. They will do two performances on Saturday afternoon (9th November) one at Trisha’s Cheeky Garden in Rylstone (3pm) and the other at Margaret’s Terraced Garden in Kandos (1pm).
I first saw Kandos Bellz during the Cementa Festival earlier this year, at Henbury Golf Club. Very professional – graceful, beautiful, sensual – a pleasure to watch.
If this encourages you to try belly dancing then join the group on Wednesdays 4pm and 6pm in the Catholic Church Hall Dabee Rd Kandos. For more info call 0418 982 507 or email: bellydancekandos@yahoo.com
by Colleen O’Sullivan
One of our repeat sponsors for the Kandos Gardens Fair is The Diggers Club.
In 2011 they sent us their vegetable gardening book as a raffle prize. This
year they have donated a year’s membership to The Diggers Club.
A few years ago I received membership as a birthday present and I now renew
every year because I think it is worth it. They promote sustainability and
good gardening practices. Membership means four magazines a year, free seeds
and discounts on all purchases. If you are visiting Victoria be sure to
visit their garden shops and cafes at Heronswood and St Erth.
In any case why not check out their website: www.diggers.com.au
by Colleen O’Sullivan
An early photo of the Convent gardens with formal hedges and garden beds.
Built in Spanish Mission style in the 1930s and home for many years to the Good Samaritan nuns, the Convent is a landmark in Kandos. The building was constructed with great care to detail and specifically built as a Convent with nun “cells”, a Chapel and Sacristy. A Grotto was added in the 1950’s. After the departure of the nuns in the 1970s, the building became a Presbytery for local priests until being privately sold in the last year.
A dated low maintenance canvas to build upon
The gardens, which were formal and well-tended by the nuns, became low maintenance over the last few decades and the new owner is now keen that the gardens do justice to the stately building and the Convent continues to play an important role in the community.
Whilst still finding its feet, the Convent gardens intend to balance productivity and industry with a relaxed country atmosphere and a long-standing heritage of roses. Very little of the original gardens are still in place, other than some old rose bushes. At the Kandos Gardens Fair, visitors will be able to view photos of the gardens throughout the Convent’s life. The new owner has inherited a blank canvas to build upon.
Baby steps to redesign the garden
So far, raised vegetable beds have been incorporated to support a keen cook, herbs have been added, which are a passion for the new owner, and the rose garden has been substantially supplemented. The Grotto has also been restored.
All these activities are understandably very new and will take some time to reap rewards. And much more is planned for the future.
The new owner is excited to be part of the community and participate in the Kandos Gardens Fair. Please say “Hi” when you visit and feel free to give feedback on the gardens as they begin to evolve.
The owner has a blog that you are welcome to visit or follow
The new raised veggie beds
So many great prizes for gardeners! And thanks to our generous local sponsors.
September is our raffle month. We will be sitting inside IGA at Kandos on three Fridays in September – 6th , 13th and 20th. Hopefully we will get good warm Spring days because it can be a bit miserable in front of the opening and closing doors. However we can’t complain – the more IGA customers that come through the doors, the more tickets we will sell!
We are lucky to have such a good business like IGA in town who supports local volunteer groups to hold raffles. Just imagine if we had to sit outside! We will also be selling tickets at Rylstone Markets on 14th September so please drop by.
We have found the raffle is a good money-raiser and also an opportunity to promote the Kandos Gardens Fair. Our cork-boards will have a poster, photos of past KGF events, a list of our wonderful sponsors and a list of prizes. And there will be a whole bunch of orange flyers to hand out.
Support from local businesses in supplying raffle prizes has been gratifying. As an example Bruce’s Garden Centre in Dabee Road, Kandos, donated the wine barrel planter and three bags of fertiliser as part of our first prize. Bruce has a wonderful selection of plants, mulches, fertilisers, pots, barrels and garden art, as well as firewood (see below). Prices are good too. A number of his wine barrels and pots have been rehomed at the Convent and many other gardens in the area. It’s worth spending a bit of time at Bruce’s looking around as he has some treasures not readily found in many of the bigger commercial nurseries.
Rylstone Agricultural Supplies donated the four packs of mulch for the first prize. Colleen’s chooks (sadly no longer with us) would highly recommend the chook food from there.
Spend some time investigating Bruce’s Garden Centre and you’re sure to come away with a treasure.
CWA Kandos Gardens Fair 2018 