Green thumbs or those with a hankering to learn more about gardening are invited to the Ararat Gardening Club's Sustainable Gardening Expo in October.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Gardening gurus Millie Ross and Melissa King will be guest speakers at the Sustainable Gardening Expo, which will be held on Saturday October 25, from 9.30am - 4 pm, at the Ararat Anglican Church Hall.
Ararat Gardening Club member Anne Sanders said this will be a massive project and a first for the club, and a great way of celebrating the 10th year of the Ararat Gardening Club.
"We are doing everything we can do to make this work for us. Not as such, as a fundraiser, but a way of bringing such talented and quite inspiring ladies, with a huge wealth of knowledge and such passion for their professions to our city of Ararat," Ms Sanders said.
Since discovering her passion for gardening, Millie Ross has spent the last 15 years living, working, teaching and taking up the shovel.
While living on a rural block in Gippsland, she studied horticulture, began to experiment, make mistakes and discover new things as a result. As a lover of home made beer, she even planted her first hop garden. But, it was a move back to inner-city Melbourne that fuelled a fever for growing.
Ms Ross wears many hats. As a horticulturalist, garden designer, TV researcher and radio broadcaster, she has an enthusiasm for all garden paths and those who walk them.
"Our cities need gardens; big, small, flowery, flavoursome, forbidden, fragrant, flawed or just a bit of fun!" she said.
Committed to non-commitment, Ms Ross gardens in rented digs and inflicts her projects, plants and passion on the gardens of others. She currently 'digs' in Melbourne's inner-west alongside a mixed bunch of chooks, mongrel dogs and plenty of self-seeded plants. As comfortable at the tip shop as she is at the nursery, this 'bowerbird' looks forward to a lifetime of collecting plants, hard waste, ideas and conversations with inspiring gardeners.
"Millie shows us how real gardeners can make something out of nothing and leave the world around them in better shape than they found it." (Josh Byrne - ABC Gardening Australia).
Melissa King is fast becoming one of Australia's most popular and respected garden experts and television presenters. Ms King's passion for gardening led her to complete a horticultural degree where she was dux of her class. Moving into radio she was spotted and channelled into a successful career as a TV presenter.
After four years on the ABC's Gardening Australia alongside Peter Cundall, she moved to Channel 7 to host the gardening segment on Melbourne Weekender. Since then she has combined her love of gardens, food and travel as one of the hosts of the travel series Gurus Explore, transformed front yards in Chanel 9's make over series Battlefronts, appeared in What's Good For You lifestyle special, hosted the gardening segment on Chanel 10's fun morning show 'The Circle', and inspired people of all ages to get out into the garden on Foxtels Garden Angels. These days Ms King stars in the established TV series The Garden Gurus on Channel 9.
Ms King's public speaking skills have seen her host a range of events and she is a regular presenter at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, Ellerslie and Chelsea to name a few.
Her flair for writing has seen her release her first book entitled Garden Feast focusing on the delights of cooking and growing your own heirloom vegetables, with the help of recipes from the famous Heronswood kitchen. She has written articles for top magazines and newspapers including Gardening Australia, Burke's Backyard, The Age and much more.
She has launched her own range of tough beautiful plants under the banner 'King in the Garden'.
Ms King has also, along with Rankins Roses, launched her 'Mother and Daughter Rose', which raises funds for Motor Neurone Disesase Research.
"With our town now having been 'put on the map', so to speak, with a hugely successful Biggest Loser show, with the aim to get everybody out there, and to lead more physical, healthy and active lifestyle, what better way to get the people of our community more committed to the outdoors and enjoying the fresh air, exercise and activities associated with gardening, for the young to the elderly," Ms Sanders said.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact Anne - 53525210 or mobile 0408339318 or Gwen - 53543206.