Garden St Erth

Yesterday we visited the Garden of St Erth not far from us. Each season I buy all my seeds (both vegetable and flower) from here. They have a fantastic range of seeds and many that are suited to our local area.

Here's a little history about the garden and house.

The Garden of St Erth features an extraordinary range of plants from around the world. Thousands of naturalised daffodils carpet the lawns in September, and through the summer months the herbaceous border features Digger's perennials and grasses. The garden culminates in an extravagant display in March for our Fruit and Flower festival. May marks the end of our gardening year with a blaze of autumn-coloured trees and late perennials.
Cocooned in the Wombat State Forest, the bush garden plays host to a variety of native birds, as well as being a place of restful contemplation. The natural spring of Koban's pool is a cool place to escape the summer heat.

In 1854 Matthew Rogers, a Cornish stonemason, left Sydney in pursuit of gold discovered near Mount Blackwood in Victoria. In the 1860s he built a sandstone cottage, naming it ‘St Erth' after his birthplace in Cornwall.
Rogers attached a wooden building to the western end of his stone cottage which served as a post office and store. Behind it was a boot factory that formed part of a bustling town of 13,000 people. His daughter Elizabeth and her husband Jim Terrill continued at the store, but as gold ran out, the wooden buildings of the town were moved to Trentham. For a time the house lay empty and the bush moved back in. Eventually it was bought by a group of Melbourne businessmen who called themselves the Simmons Reef Shire Council.The Garden of St Erth is also a garden of plenty, with fruit trees and food plants, espaliered heirloom fruit trees and a permaculture-style food forest.

For a few years I have been meaning to join the diggers club. Yesterday I joined us up as a family and now look forward to visiting the garden whenever we want without paying to get in each time to all the different events run throughout the year. The garden changes so much each season. It's a lovely, relaxing place to visit.

http://www.diggers.com.au/

Yesterday I bought a dragon fruit plant, two types of sweet pea seeds, poppy seeds, allysum seeds, coriander, cabbage and cauliflower seeds, pink and blue spring garden mix, two butterfly bushes, ranunculus bulbs and two catmint plants. Hoping they all grow so our garden looks nice and colourful this spring.