This annual breakfast was ably prepared by our Garden Club President, John Lyon and Kathy Lyon, who cleaned the BBQ beforehand.
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*** Leanne sent her Edna Walling report as follows to the August committee meeting.
The Edna
Walling Garden Working Group has met each month, on the third Monday morning,
since February this year. In summer our
group meets at 6am to avoid the heat and in winter at 6.30 am.
The group consists of:
Leanne
Crowe, Mike Kelly, Nev Douglas, Ken Evans, Tom Crerar, Rosemary Simmons, Denise
Topfer
Trevor Bartholdt the Parks and Community Support Officer from the Sunshine Council has been a regular visitor to the Garden. In February he provided an overview of our Volunteer responsibilities and handed each participant induction information and visibility vests. In addition throughout the year he has been very generous with garden equipment and supplies.
Garden Club members have been very generous providing established plant cutting to replenish the garden and from February through to June the garden received a good deal of welcoming rain which helped to establish the plants.
Key access to the Council Garden Shed for garden hoses, signage and visibility cones was not possible for a few months but has now been reinstated.
The last two months have been particularly dry and the arrival of August winds and a scrub turkey has meant that much of the leaf mulch from the heavily treed Garden has been removed. The result is that the Garden is looking a little sad and some of the plants stressed.
Early this year Maxina Williams provided a talk to a group of visitors to the Garden about Edna Walling.
The annual
breakfast in honour of Edna (and to thank the volunteers) was held, as is the
tradition, in August.
Club President John Lyon and his wife Kathy prepared a barbecue breakfast. Guests at the breakfast also included Vonnie
Young, Bev Shouten, Trevor Barhtholdt, Noel Williams and Maxina Williams.
Primarily work has involved sweeping pathways, watering and planting cuttings. The suggestion has been made that planting drought and shade tolerant plants such as native grasses would be more suitable to the garden.
Bickleigh Vale Village - Melbourne
Edna Walling bought a 10 ha parcel of land in the 1920's, in what was then the countryside, but today is better known as the unassuming suburb of Mooroolbark.
The landscape design included her signature stone walls,
steps, ponds, arbours and winding gravel drives.
Walling spent most of her working life in this
idyllic setting but as suburbia encroached she packed up and retired to another
garden paradise, here in Buderim Queensland in 1967.
Her Estate has remained and seems always to be in the hands of people sympathetic to her ideals.
At the March working bee at the Edna Walling Gardens, it was pleasing to see relatively new members giving a hand at pruning, weeding and generally tidying up this area.
Denise Topfer and Rosemary SImmons have now joined the group.
Lindsay Robinson receives an award
Lindsay Robertson made an
Honorary Life Member
The Edna Walling Memorial Garden is located at the entrance to the Buderim Forest Park, at the end of Quorn Ct., Buderim.
Edna Walling tribute, written by Brad Neal in Week end notes website 2018.
Edna Walling's legacy in sub-tropical Queensland
Fortunately, a stone marker with a plaque was able to inform me that after Edna Walling spent most of her career in Melbourne, she retired to the Buderim area on the Sunshine Coast in the 1960s, where she designed several gardens in the local area. Edna Walling passed away in 1973 and as with many artists, the garden didn't formally recognise her contributions to the local area until two decades later in 1995. The garden is only small, but is well maintained and mimics some of the key elements of Walling's style, within a sub-tropical context. To view the garden, you can park at the end of Quorn Close in the Buderim Forest Park.
For those unfamiliar with Edna Walling's landscaping style, she was known for re-creating cottage gardens that captured a sense of warmth and cosiness within the Australian landscape. Often there is something hidden or beyond in her gardens. Her curved, low stone walls and narrow enclosed laneways bordered by vegetation, only allow glimpses of stone cottages up ahead, before opening up like a new discovery. She also utilised many indigenous plants, despite drawing from a European landscaping tradition.
There is a
When visiting the Edna Walling tribute garden in Buderim, take some time to visit the adjacent Buderim Forest Park, which was the main purpose for the car park that houses the garden. There are a few articles on Weekend Notes with personal impressions of visiting Buderim Forest Park and its main feature, Serenity Falls.
Edna Walling Memorial Garden
The garden has to date been beautifully maintained by Lindsay Robertson and his team of volunteers.
However, Lindsay is calling it a day and Ken Evans, Tom Crerar and Leanne Crowe will now maintain this area and would like some new volunteers. They want to meet on the 3rd Monday of each month, and at 6 a.m. during the summer months.
Contact the 2019 co-ordinator, Leanne, if you would like to help Ph 0408 772 893
The Edna Walling Memorial Garden is located at the entrance to the Buderim Forest Park, at the end of Quorn Ct., Buderim.
Lindsay Robinson heads up the dedicated little group which meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 6.30 am in the cooler months. In May we were pleased to welcome new Club member Ken Waugh to the group and we planted some Liriope (a variegated ornamental grass) and carried out general maintenance. We now have access to the Council store room so we can put out some witches hats for our safety and we are also able to store our hose there, which is a considerable improvement on the bucket brigade we’ve had to make do with previously.
Enquiries : Lindsay Robertson 5456 1268
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Edna Walling history and story
The ABC produced a wonderful article on Edna Walling in 2011, her timeline, gardens she designed, quotes from people she knew and other items about this remarkable woman. Click on www.abc.net.au/walling for this great article and information on her.
Thanks to former President, Gwyneth Sadgrove and her husband Robert who approached the council for land to develop this garden memorial, and Mr. Eaton, Rita's husband who did much of the early planting, we now have a lasting memorial to this great lady who designed some of the most wonderful gardens in Australia in the early part of the 20th Century. Gardens for Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Elizabeth Murdoch to name just a couple. She spent the last 6 years of her life in Buderim in Bendles.
The Little Girl Who Loved Donkeys
This sweet little book is available in the BGC library. It is written by Esme Johnstone and is a personal account of Edna Walling's life. It is worth reading this little gem.
