It’s been a busy start to summer in Sale Botanic Gardens! Starting with Carols by Candlelight, we’ve also had Mozart in the Gardens, a Koala Festival and plenty of school programming – so lots to keep on top of while visitation is high!

Maybe because people say I look like Santa (I personally can’t see the resemblance), I have been gifted my own little helper this year. Lucy returns to Council to join TJ and I for two days a week. Accredited with a Cert IV in Horticulture, Lucy knows her stuff and specialises in the presentation of the garden beds. She’s a great asset to have up here and I’m so excited to have her on board –particularly as it’s all hands-on deck to keep getting everything in shape for the holiday break. It’s only a handful of workdays until Christmas!

Recently, it’s been pretty wet up here, which has made it hard to mow. Our grass guys are being kept busy across the Shire with lots of new growth everywhere, which means we can’t mow as much as we’d like to. Hopefully once it dries out a little the team can catch their breath. The irrigation is currently off (lucky for the attendees of some of our night events) but it’ll probably be switched on once we get a dry stretch.

Because of all the rain, weeding is an ongoing priority around the place. You miss a bed for a couple of weeks, you’ll come back to a bed of weeds. The upside is the garden beds are looking very lush – if something’s not just about to finish flowering then it’s just starting to flower. We’re really getting into deadheading what’s gone, to allow new stuff to come through.

Some of my favourites around the gardens in the warmer months are Summer Walk (which unsurprisingly is in its prime this time of year), the Sensory Garden, the Garden for Life and the Catalogue and Climate Matched collections.

There’s also lots of colour this time of year around the Garden for Life. It’s had some recent additions and subtractions in the name of balance – we’ve planted some Cotinus coggygria (Smoke Bush), and we’ve had to remove some out-of-control Echium candicans (Pride of Madeira), but they’re not gone forever – just a lot smaller now.

It’s worth mentioning the Catalogue Garden, which has been overlooked in the past, is fast becoming one of my favourites – the meandering Felicia weaving through the Indian Hawthorn and Cotton Lavender with the backdrop (and the divine smell) of the Philadelphus is a beautiful combination in December.

The newly-planted Camelias and Gardenias in the Sensory Garden have started to fill out a little, and we’ve sulphured to acidify the soil. I know it’s a bit old-fashioned but the scent of the gardenias is unbeatable.

There’s also a bit of movement around the Care for the Rare beds – Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria plan to visit us soon to see where the project is at and work out what plants need to be sourced.

You might have noticed some ID tags sticking out of the ground in several different collections – we’ve put some around the place to give horticulturally-minded people more of an idea of what’s in some of the beds.

I’d like to thank everyone for a great year in the Gardens - in particular, the Friends’ hard work is always appreciated and makes a huge difference. Don’t forget, the Gardens are a great place to bring visiting rellies over the holidays, and the Garden for Life’s zero depth waterplay space is lots of fun on a warm day (when it's not raining of course!)