Exploring an extensive volunteer run botanical garden | Discovery | Gardening Australia

Clarence explores the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, which are maintained by a keen, hard-working group of volunteers. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe

The beautiful Hunter Region Botanic Gardens were built by volunteers and continue to be maintained by dedicated locals.

Positioned on around 130 hectares of bushland at Heatherbrae, NSW, there’s 33 hectares of garden space, comprised of 25 different themed gardens.
Clarence takes a look at a selection of these spaces and meets a few of the gardeners as we celebrate Volunteer Week.

Kevin Stokes is one the founders of the garden and one of 200 regular volunteers. He says volunteering is a “two-way street”. “You get as much back as what you put in.”
“They (volunteers) see what they’ve done and see it come to come to fruition,” Kevin says. “It’s a very serene site, you just keep coming back.”

Neil Wilson has worked in the bromeliad garden for the last six years and has even planted bromeliads from his own collection.
“Not many people see them at home,” Neil says. “But the whole community can access them here in the gardens.”
His tips include weekly watering, no full sun between 10am-2pm and growing bromeliads under a canopy. Neil prefers not to use fertiliser and reckons “you can get some some weird formations.”

There are more than 3000 plants at the gardens including rare and endangered plants.
The Gundabooka (place of learning) garden is popular with visitors, who are often guided by Kevin Riley. Kevin shows Clarence the native ginger, native hibiscus, and wombat berry.


Featured Plants:
- Alcantarea cv.
WAX PLANT - Hoya macgillivrayi
NATIVE GINGER - Alpinia caerulea
NATIVE HIBISCUS - Hibiscus heterophyllus
WOMBAT BERRY - Eustrephus latifolius

Filmed on Worimi Country | Heatherbrae, NSW
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