Winners of the garden competition announced

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• (Left) Dawn O’Connor a resident of Viewhaven said, “It is great to be able to look out my window and see a lovely garden every day.” Dawn is accepting the prize for second place in the Upper Lachlan Shire Garden Competition (Town category) on behalf of all the residents at Viewhaven and for their voluntary gardener Ian McFaul. Lorna Vallely from ‘Ground Designs’ and Karin Schaffer also from Viewhaven

• Marg Anderson and Jan Pont accepting the first prize for the (Rural category) in the Upper Lachlan Shire Garden Competition presented by Lorna Vallely of ‘Ground Designs’

THE Upper Lachlan
Shire Garden competition winners have been announced.

Congratulations
go to Marg Anderson and Jan Pont who have their exceptional garden on the
Diamond Road, north of Crookwell.

Jan and Marg are
delighted to have won the Upper Lachlan Shire garden competition (rural
category), but say they can’t take all the credit for the beauty of their
garden.

“Two years ago we
bought the property from Mary and Tony Bartley,” Jan explained.

“These two
visionary people were responsible for the landscaping, most of the trees and
100 or more roses, not to mention the wonderful stonework.”

Robert Selwyn
from Binda did much of the construction of the garden design, while Anthony
Yatras now helps maintain and further develop the garden.

Their desire is
to share this special place with more people and they plan to find ways to open
it to the public in the future.

The garden is a
mixture of rare plants and perennials. Sheltered from the west and east, the
garden has beautiful views to the North towards the Abercrombie National Park.
Their dogs enjoy the freedom of the garden and at every corner there is another
pocket of delight to discover. Truly, a special garden for this cooler climate
area. The kladies have taken photos of their garden throughout the seasons and
have presented them in a calendar which are available now at the information Centre
and Santa’s Hideaway retailing for $22.

The winner of the
Town Garden category of the competition was the garden at Viewhaven Lodge.
Everyone who has visited the lodge will vouch for the many hours of work that
Ian McFaul puts into the garden for the benefit of residents.

Ian works
tirelessly in the garden on a voluntary basis. He has the occasional helper but
says his time is well rewarded by the pleasure the residents derive from lovely
views of plants, trees and flowers from their home.

Each of the
gardens at ‘Viewhaven’ are different so that there are varying aspects from
every window. This is what makes the garden here so appealing.

Lorna Vallely of
Ground Designs, along with the other judges, has enjoyed visiting the gardens
entered in the competition.

“The Crookwell
district has a very high standard of gardening and gardeners, reflected in the
wonderful presentation of the gardens we judged this year,” said Lorna.

“We have had a
great experience this year running the competition and I wish to thank all
those gardeners who entered,” Lorna commented.

“Many thanks also
to our very generous sponsors for their continuing support for the
competition.”

The sponsors this
year were: JD’s Hardware and Rural, Mayfield Gardens at Oberon, Ground Designs,
Yarralumla Heritage Nursery in Canberra, Gehl Garden Centre in Goulburn and the
Crookwell Gazette.