Plants from the ashes

By Monique Ebrington
STEELS Creek Garden Club is calling on green thumbs, and anyone with a garden, to donate plant cuttings and pots.
Steels Creek Garden Club used to share clipping with other community garden clubs and decided to bring back the practice for residents who have lost their gardens in the February fires.
Garden club president Maggie Lloyd-Smith said that the collection was a way for people, who have lost their gardens, to restock on plants with no charge to themselves and that it was also a way to bring a bit of colour back into the fire affected communities.
Steels Creek Garden Club are taking plant and pot donations on Thursday 30 April and Friday 1 May and the club asks that plants be labelled and that people are selective in what they leave.
Drop-off points for donations are at 27A Forest Street, Yarra Glen and 375 Pinnacle Lane, Steels Creek.
Anyone who has lost their garden due to recent bushfires can pick-up the cuttings and pots on Saturday 2 May at the above addresses from 9.30am onwards.
The Steels Creek Garden Club is open to anyone in the valley and new members are welcome and for more information please phone Mrs Lloyd-Smith on 9730 2521.
Yarra Junction’s Sue Hoffman and Amanda Parry are also taking collections of plants until the end of April for gardens affected by the recent bushfire.
A member of the Yarra Valley Bonsai Club Mrs Hoffman said the plant collection was their way of helping the fire-affected communities.
“We figured it was something we could do. Anyone with a garden knows how much it costs,” Mrs Hoffman said.
Their plants are being distributed by Buxton Zoo Nursery and other distribution points in Marysville, Narbathong and Buxton (the triangle).
They have already contacted the Yarra Valley Bonsai and Waverly Garden Club who have shown support.
Home grown and nursery stock are welcome however residents are asked not to donate environmental weeds. A list of environmental weeds can be found on the Shire of Yarra Ranges website at www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au .
Donations can be left at Archery Park at 2085 Don Road, Launching Place and for more information please phone Mrs Hoffman on 0418 372 554.
The garden club meets once a month and has around 50 members, half of whom lost their own gardens to the Black Saturday fires.