Port Elliot Garden Walk
Sunday 23rd September 2018, 10am - 4.30pm
Four diverse gardens and a productive communal verge all within walking distance in historic Pt Elliot will welcome visitors for this special one day opening.
A strong sense of community and a love of plants has brought together artists, sculptors and collectors with each of the gardens showcasing the different and varied talents of the owners. Stroll through a historic garden first established in 1853, browse in an artist’s studio, admire pottery, print making, ceramics and collections, listen to live music, enjoy a plant lover’s garden crammed with natives, succulents and productive plants and see what can be achieved on a verge with neighbourly cooperation.
A map which doubles as a ticket to all the gardens can be purchased outside the South Seas Bookshop on North Terrace, Port Elliot. Then in your own time stroll through the township enjoying the gardens and the local sights at your leisure. There will be sales of plants, books and artists’ work at the gardens and the bookshop.
On the Strand, there will be floral window displays at Bargin Barn, Mist, Hana Home and the Books and Record Shop. Mist has 15% off some stock. There will be a Botanica Still Life exhiibition at the Strand Gallery. Thunderbird restaurant and Jelly cafe will be offering 10% off meals for our ticket holders. You may also wish to visit the Currency Creek Arboretum for their Open Day (Crn Alexandrina Road and Adelaide Place, Currency Creek).
Pick up your $15 ticket and map from outside South Seas Books & Trading
53 North Terrace Port Elliot
No tickets will be available at the gardens. Because of the reduced combined entry fee, no concessions will operate for this event
Printmaker & Potters Garden Go to Garden
Principally an artist’s garden, this large coastal block has a unique and charismatic style with decorative objects set amongst Mediterranean plant varieties, Australian natives and water-smart succulents. The garden is home to a pottery and print studio and there are sculptures, ceramics and collected marine ephemera dotted throughout. Several old eucalypts create a shaded area and encourage birds into the garden, succulents are mass planted into carpets and quirky pots are everywhere. A free-style garden where the owners interest in ceramics and sculpture is displayed in numerous one-off pieces. The artists’ studios will be open and there will be ceramics for sale.
Charteris Place Go to Garden
The town-centered garden of a one-hundred-year-old guest house property from a bygone era transformed during the nineties to become an artistic retreat and a show case for an art practice. The formal garden is within a private perimeter wall that is capped with a sculpted ivy hedge and demonstrates the intrinsic inter relationship between the sculptural art works and garden design. The beautiful simplicity of the plant selections and placement of striking and varied sculptures achieves a pleasing balance between restful places and colourful sunny areas with the result being an overall tranquil setting with a creative edge.
Muller Garden Go to Garden
A 600sqm block, full to overflowing and spilling out onto the verge! Natives fill the front with the succulent collection starting near the front door, a rainforest area leads to the back garden where there are ferns and other shade lovers, more native plants, succulent beds and countless plants in pots tucked in amongst herbs and veggie beds. A plant nursery fills the back corner.
It is the garden of a compulsive plant collector and includes inherited 60 year old ferns, numerous potted Australian plants living happily in containers, an impressive range of succulents and many more treasures all attractively displayed in a compact garden setting. Native and succulent plants will be available for sale.
Glengarry Go to Garden
Surrounding this historic Port Elliot cottage built in 1853 is almost a quarter of an acre of rambling garden. In spring, the side verandah is awash with wisteria and scattered through the garden are old fashioned plants - early roses, salvias, clivias, cardoons and many other hardy species. The owners have added their individual style to this very old garden with unusual pots and quirky collected objects – there is a serpentine seat, an enormous clam shell, an old boat float, also a rocky pond and statuary to name a few! Take this opportunity to view a very special collection of colonial country ‘stick’ chairs and ‘handmade’ garden tools.
Simon, the salvia expert will be on hand with a wide variety of potted plants for sale.
The Verge Garden
Major additions to the early 1920s bungalow took much of the original garden. With reduced space and the owners’ fervent enthusiasm for plants the garden soon spread beyond the front fence and onto the then vacant verge. First the lemon tree was planted then geraniums, gerberas and irises all brought from a previous house, the salvias and several roses were added and more recently an avocado tree and a tamarillo. During the following years this ‘verge garden’ has extended up the street as far as the corner with the neighbours across the street also entering into the spirit and utilising their verge space.
