It’s going to be a tough week for Bendigo’s public gardens.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As if putting up with the shenanigans of vandals, dogs and Thursday night drunks isn’t enough of a threat, on Thursday there’ll be an officially sanctioned assault on the Conservatory gardens next to the old law courts.
The public has been invited to take up gardening weapons, err, tools and dig up about 30,000 tulips which were planted just a couple of months back.
You can buy a bag for $5 and fill it with the blooms past their best.
But there is a bag limit if you’ll excuse the pun.
It happens every year after the City of Greater Bendigo’s famous annual tulip planting begins to wane.
But you have to be quick.
They started turning up around 7am last year and they were just about cactus within two hours.
+++
Actually, The Addy can take some credit for the tulip dig.
It goes back to the days when The Addy was in that charming (!) cream brick block of a building in Pall Mall.
The late afternoon news conference was going on and someone (obviously fully engaged in the meeting) gazed out the top storey window, across the road and noted a scorched earth policy appeared to have been imposed in the serene Conservatory gardens.
A reporter asked the City what was going on.
The reporter was told that due to a lack of funds, there’s to be no spring/early summer planting, and the beds would be bare until the following year.
A person should never underestimate self-interest as a motivation and a campaign was launched to reverse the decision.
We even had people offering to supply plants free of charge.
Ultimately, a new policy was quickly brought in – along with tens of thousands of tulips.
And the Bendigo Advertiser enjoyed the outlook for years.
+++
The second assault on our gardens this week will take place on Wednesday when work begins re-making the roundabout at the intersection of Lyttleton Terrace, Mundy Street and Hopetoun Street.
The City says it’s all to do with works on drainage and pedestrian crossings.
We fear for the future of the brilliant roundabout dry-climate planting which has been there for the past couple of years.
You may just have buzzed about the roundabout without taking too much notice, but the planting has turned an otherwise bit of boring roadway into a very pleasant – and creative – part of the city.
It’s one of a range of roundabouts which have had this treatment.
The other is at the intersection of Hargreaves and Edwards Streets.
The Bendigo Advertiser may have to stand ready to call on people to take up tools again.
Who knows?