March Working Bees – guest gardeners and two new members

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Saturday Working Bee:  We had big plans for our Saturday Working Bee – to bring some colour into the Garden with the installation of new flower beds – and our members answered in big numbers bolstered by four guest gardeners and a new member.

Our guest gardeners – Michael, Kasey, Sam and Callan from Community Bank Freshwater/Bendigo Bank – were inducted in Garden safety by Tony, alongside our new member, Emma. 

Ian, our council gardener for the day, unloaded the plants – three different colours of New Guinea Impatiens – soil, and mulch.  The troops gathered for assignments:  one team would work in the lower garden while the second team would take care of building and planting three garden beds along the pathway leading to the stone bridge.

 The garden beds were assembled.  All-important measuring and positioning was taken care of.  Wheelbarrow loads of soil were wheeled in and tipped into the beds ready for planting.  Then it was all hands on deck to plant, mulch and water.

Meanwhile, other parts of the Garden received some love from our second team:  cleaning up and weeding around the large fig tree; weeding along the pathway adjacent to the bowling club and in the perennial garden.  Didn’t they do well!

Another important task – removing a very old and unfortunately dead hibiscus and preparing the area in order to replant the Jane McGrath Rose that we removed from the Sensory Garden prior to all the work being done there.  And of course, there was a little extra planting done – Coleus planted in several other beds alongside pathways and some additional New Guinea Impatiens planted in the beds below Sydney Road.

The Bee ended with a relaxing and well deserved cuppa, chat, lamingtons and biscuits for our amazing team:  Ishbel, Tania, Emma, Tony, David, Anne M, Carrie, Chris W-S, Jane M, Lee, Lloyd, Liz, Ian from NBC, and of course our very generous guest gardeners!

Wednesday Working Bee:  We had a couple of very hot days so attendance was expected to be small, but Max, Ron, Tony and Ishbel rocked up to take care of a few tasks.

Max tackled the weeds in the native garden, while Ron watered the new garden beds as well as the rosemary around the Anzac Memorial.  Tony continued weeding and clearing the bed along the pathway adjacent to the bowling club –  this is an ongoing project for us.

Ishbel manned the table outside the storage room chatting to passers-by and taking care of our necessary paperwork and inventory.  One such passer-by was Brandon, a new arrival in Manly and enthusiastic about volunteering with us.  He became a new member then and there so Tony inducted him in Garden safety and we look forward to him and his partner, Jess, at the next Bee or Get-together.