Nymagee Garden Day
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o The old grindstone was greatly admired by garden club members.
o Eric Harland and Dawn Elder in Harland’s lovely garden.
o Jenny Nicholson and Dawn Elder beside the flower cart.
Last Saturday more than 30 Garden Club enthusiasts ventured out to Nymagee to view several beautiful gardens and to attend the Nymagee Flower Show.
The first garden we visited was the home of Jennifer and Michael Nicholson, ‘Glenwood’.
This property has belonged to the Nicholson family for 104 years and some of its historic artefacts are found artistically
displayed throughout the garden and surrounded by various assortments of
flowering plants and
shrubs.
The large collection of roses, hippeastrums and flowering cedar trees was spectacular.
Considering that the garden’s water supply was greatly diminished when the ‘big’ tank went dry in 2003, seriously affecting the garden, it has made a remarkable recovery.
Most of the roses came from cuttings from the old Bourke convent, given to the family after this drought.
Jenny gave us a very interesting introduction to her garden and detailed some of the special features in it.
These included a stump jump plough, which could plough four acres a day; a grindstone from a family member’s butcher shop at Shuttleton, an old mining town 16 kilometres from the homestead; a pre-1948 hay mower and a single furrow plough used to plough up the vegie garden.
Some of our members well remembered the flower carts that Ted Lonergan used to make and one of these had been given to the Nicholsons by a neighbour and was yet another stunning feature of the garden.
After a leisurely stroll around the garden we were treated to a delicious array of finger food and slices for lunch.
A friend of Jenny’s from Bourke had come down to help, along with a granddaughter from Yanco and two of her friends.
We all felt thoroughly spoilt and marvelled at the tremendous hospitality of the Nicholson family, who had only known one member of our group, Dawn Elder, prior to the day.
After lunch Michael showed some of us through the grand old home, recalling many intriguing tales about the different items on display. The whole home is totally immaculate.
As Jenny shared with us, their garden and home provides them with a retreat from the harshness of the real world and we all felt very privileged to have been able to share part of our day with this incredibly hospitable family.
Before we left, President Norma presented Jenny with a hamper of goodies and thanked them for a wonderful day.
Back into the coach and on to ‘Four Corners’, the property of Yvonne and Eric Harland.
This was a much shorter visit but showcased another beautiful garden.
A feature was the areas devoted to a mixture of red, brown and white stones, brought from a nearby old mine site.
Eric must have been very handy with a welder as there were lots of structures he had made scattered around the garden.
Another oasis in a very harsh environment.
Next stop was the Flower Show at Nymagee and judging from the varied and beautiful display of flowers there must be plenty of other spectacular gardens in this vicinity.
Fay Dewhurst won first prize with her gorgeous light pink hippeastrums. Congratulations Fay!
After staying for the official opening and a cuppa, we made our way home to Nyngan.
A warm thank you to Buttons and Diane Powell who provided our transport and numerous lollies for our trip.
This generous couple also provide a door prize too and this was won by Trish McCleod.
Our appreciation is again extended to Mary Burley who does such a great job of organising our outings, and to Dawn Meldrum for collecting all the money for the trip.
A big thank you to Dawn Elder whose long-time friendship with the Nicholsons resulted in her suggesting we take this day trip to Nymagee.
Another heartfelt thanks to the Nicholson and Harland families for sharing their gardens with us.
We all had a wonderful day.