TALGA August 2018 eNews
NEW TALGA MEMBER
AUGUST 2018
Cate Harper, Glenvalley Lavender, Glengarry, Victoria
TALGA President Gary Young welcomes Cate to TALGA and trusts you enjoy the benefits that we can offer from networking, conferences, workshops, industry knowledge etc.
WARRATINA LAVENDER FARM has just held a most successful Tea Cosy Competition raising over $11,000 in 9 days for cancer research.
The Tea Rooms were flat out with food and there was a cosy atmosphere during 9 very cold, wet and windy days.
Our next exhibition will be the Wood Working Wonders Expo in September. Handcrafted items by local artisans are displayed in the Drying Shed and sold on their behalf. Another great way to get people visiting the farm during the colder months.
The gardens are looking manicured ready for the burst of Spring. Daffodil time is here and the blooms are a picture for all. It looks like Wordsworth country! The gardens and lavender fields have just been fertilised with dynamic lifter. The farm now smells like a poultry farm.
We have also created a new display garden to highlight winter flowering plants and give colour during the dormant months.
Happy gardening.
Annemarie Manders, Warrantina Lavender Farm
YEA ROTARY GARDEN EXPO – 22nd & 23rd September 2018
The outstanding Yea Garden Expo is on again this year in September.
A change of venue this year with the Expo relocating to the surrounds of the Yea Saleyards.. Again there will be top quality vendors with a broad range of plants and garden accessories. This year the Garden Expo is aiming to exceed 2500 visitors. To encourage clubs to visit as a group, they are offering a donation of a bag of local goodies which could be raffled in aid of your group or distributed as you see fit.
Adults $5.00 Children 16 years and under Free Vendors $150 per site.
Sites sizes available 6 x 3m, 6 x 6m, or 9 x 6m
Further details from www.yeagardenexpo.com.au
TALGA 24th Conference and AGM – Port Arthur, Tasmania – Lavender – Past, Present and Future
CUTTINGS FROM MCLAREN VALE LAVENDER
In case you didn’t already know ‘things are crook in Coomandook’. Depending where youlive in this great county, the place name changes, but the meaning, sadly stays the same. Unless there is a drastic change very soon, 2018 will go down as another year of drought and head scratching for those on the land. Coomandook by the way is a small township120km south east of Adelaide in the Murray Mallee. It’s dry at the best of times, but as Iwrite, they have received less than half the average rainfall, and a dust storm is heading out that way.
The original saying was ‘things are crook in Tallarook’ from a song written by Jack O’Haganin 1942. Tallarook being a country town where Melbournians during the Depression headed north to find work on the railways, however when they arrived no work, hence the expression. Not to be outdone, the people of a place called Tungamah added their name to the saying – Things are crook in Tallarook, But worse by far in Tungamah. Jack O’Hagen,must have been delightful company, the sort of bloke you would want to have dinner with. He set the words to a popular song with rural and romantic notions:
The cows wont milk, the chooks won’t layThe bunnies fill their tummies on my grass all dayMe ‘Orse is lame, the dam’s gone dryEvery time I go to laugh I start to cry
Oh! things is crook in Tallarook
Me sheila’s turned me down
Today, by the way, Tallarook is a thriving, beautiful town and Tungamah too, with a population of 355 is shown with a wide sweeping main street, showcasing a beautiful 2 story hotel, situated on the banks of Boosey Creek. Now there’s a name to conjure with. I’m going to check it out on my next trip over the border. I wonder if there will be any waterin that creek.
Regardless, I remain optimistic, trust life, and nature will sort it out. T rolls his eyes when I say this,but there’s been many times over the last 30 years on our little property, I’ve wondered if I will eversee lavender in bloom again. Then the season turns and the rains come and all is well. Just to proveit, I had a good wander around my bush garden the other day and took a few snaps. Although it’sdry and chilly, there was colour everywhere, in fact more in mid-winter than summer in this part ofthe world. Here’s a bunch of mid-winter flowers just for you.
Since writing, we have received plenty of rain and on target to make an average year’s rainfall. Here’s hoping it will reach those dry areas real soon.
Kind regards, Christine Hitchen
