By Winston Tattersall

On the night of Wednesday the 27th of April 2005, at approximately 7.20pm, members of the Linnwood Gardening Sub-committee, gathered at the home of Pam and Roland Zopf, for their AGM. The usual meeting preliminaries were quickly taken care of and then all positions were declared vacant, and nominations were sought to fill those vacancies. The outcome resulted in Yvonne becoming the new chairperson, Pam remained treasurer and research officer, and I took over the job of secretary, silly me, it took me four days to write up the minutes. I?m beginning to think that I should have sought some advice from a professional like Helen, it would take me a month to write up the minutes for this show.

When all that was done and out of the way the committee members got down to business. Dates which had been set aside for our working bees, and what we would do on those days were discussed and agreed on.

We also chatted about the newly acquired little hideaway for weary working bee workers, somewhere to put their feet up for a few minutes and enjoy a cuppa when they feel like it, a little amenities and storage room, tucked away under the Pioneers building, we are very excited about it.

A few other aspects of the gardens were talked about, such as the poor state of the timber borders around the sloping gardens at the south side of the house. We also discussed ideas of what we could do with the eyesore presented by all the green waste which is stored there in a rambling heap near Faulds House and how we could hide any future waste well out of site. That just about encapsulates most of the main points discussed.

The meeting closed at 8.35pm, after which a lovely time was had by all, in the good company of our hosts for the evening, Pam and Roland.

Working Bee on the 1st of May 2005

The committee had decided that the day would be dedicated to some weeding and a general tidy up. And also, to try and evict the parasitic woody tenants, like Fig, Cassia and Privet, that had taken up residence in some of the palm trees that line the drive to the south of the fountain.

What a glorious day it was, dry and sunny, but not uncomfortably warm. I arrived at about ten o?clock, to find the usual crew all hard at work, and even Russ was there to lend a hand, with his reformatted knee all trussed up in a tight bandage, and needing additional support from a walking cane to get around.

Sue and Flo were hard at work cleaning out the drain in front of Faulds House and weeding some of the garden beds in that area.

Russ brought along his extendable tree lopper and concentrated his attention on cutting out as many of the dead and dangling fronds as he could, with an occasional helping hand from me, and between us, we managed to evict those plants that had decided to take advantage of the view and were growing there quite happily, their roots firmly embedded in amongst the fronds.

The job of cleaning up the mess that fell from the palms was left to Adriana and her trusty wheelbarrow. She wheeled load after load of very spiky fronds away, and piled them onto the aforementioned heap, and indeed got jabbed a few times, which can be quite painful. By the end of the day there was not a scrap of rubbish left anywhere.

Some weeding was also done in the garden beds at the South Terrace Garden, Yvonne could be seen on hands and knees pulling, tugging and digging, and filling some shopping bags with the results of her labour.

At our committee meeting, Pam had excitedly told us that we may be visited by a descendant of Mr George McCredie, a Mr Fred Appleton and his wife Lesley Saddington. The excitement stems from the fact that they are both horticulturists, skills of enormous value to us here at Linnwood. On the day, they arrived as promised, and after being introduced to us all they were eager beaver to have a good look around. Pam took charge, escorting them wherever they wanted to go. I tagged along for a while, and I could see Lesley taking copious notes as we moved from one clump of vegetation to another. A little later she suggested that she might be able to draw up some plans for us to work with, which is just what we need. I eventually left Pam to go and assist Russ working on the Palms. Yvonne took my place and joined them for a while, but she had to go and do some work with the rest of the crew. At about 3.00pm, we all knocked off for the day, of Pam and the Appletons there was no sign. I understand that when they did get back from their walkabout, and looking forward to a cuppa, they found the place all locked up and everyone gone. Pam rang us later to say that they had all gone back to her place for some further study of the records that Pam has at home. All in all, I think we had a pretty good and productive day.

Linnwood Garden Committee Working Bee - 1/5/2005

Report on visit by Horticulturists, Fred Appleton and Leslie Saddington

(by Pam Zopf)

Fred Appleton and his wife Leslie Saddington, both horticulturists, came along to give advice on the management of the garden at Linnwood. Fred is a great-grandson of George McCredie.

They made an extensive examination of the grounds, identifying plants and trees and agreed to give help with the following:

To provide a list of hardy heritage plants.

To identify the various trees and provide labels.

To assist in drawing up a plan of action. Fred took a copy of the layout of the Linnwood site and will enlarge this for planning purposes.

Lesley will give an estimate of the amount of soil needed for the fountain, and instructions on how to turn contents into good compost for planting.

Fred, who is a teacher at Ryde Horticultural College, will suggest that TAFE students could do work experience in tree lopping at Linnwood.

Lesley suggested an audit of dangerous trees be done as a safety measure.

Commented on the weed problem with the large leafed privet and suggested how they should be poisoned.

Also, the South African olive has become a weed, however they appear to have been originally planted around the time the house was built. Two windrows still exist and a very old specimen is near Pioneers building, on the southern side of the house.

Suggested Linnwood join the Historic Garden Society.

The 1960/70s plantings of prunus on the western side of the house have reverted to root stock and should be removed and new prunus replanted.

The Himalayan Pines at the front of the house should be replaced by planting the same species in between the existing trees and cutting out the old trees when the new trees catch up.

Suggested locals be encouraged to picnic on the lawn to increase awareness and appreciation of the site.

Other issues:

Sheldon Ross has offered to try for assistance with hired equipment from Kennards Hire and to try to arrange voluntary labour through local organizations.

Clean up garden room. Lights are safe but power not. Linnwood committee arranging an electrician to inspect other problem area in the house and will ask him to look at garden room. If OK given by Heritage Office, to empty back room and a skip will be organised for a working bee on 29th May at 1pm to clean out the back room and the garden room.