Maintenance
Our garden team
- 14 Full-time & Part Time Employees
Plants and lawns
The type of grasses we use are the Canberra blend which can be found in the playground/café & wedding areas, Bent Turf is used in all our display areas.
We like to change our annual plants twice a year, it keeps the beds looking fresh & full and delivers the best floral displays all year round. Plant selection is based on the type of plants that are most likely to flourish in the our very hot summers or in the bitter Canberra winters.
Soil Preparation
We use a lot of compost that we make ourselves from our own garden waste and add mushroom compost and cow manure to it, we turn our heaps weekly.
Common fertilisers such as multi-grow are used for establishing our annuals in bed preparation. We use a variety of liquid fertilisers throughout the year, some fertilisers are specifically chosen for growth and others are specific to flower development. We mulch some beds to keep the roots cooler and moist.
Weeding
For environmental and protection of other plant species we almost exclusively use hand weeding as our primary source of control. We never have enough hours to weed!
Watering
We have a watering system that runs after hours, however, in summer we do hand water in certain areas that sprinklers have trouble reaching.
We use our own bore water at Cockington Green Gardens, it has a high calcium level that leaves deposit buildup on the model buildings.
Our buildings need regular cleaning because of these calcium deposits.
The Azaleas also struggle at times with the high calcium levels and need a more specific fertiliser to help them.
Our Bore water tank holds approximately 86,000 litres. We use up to 10m3 litres per year.
Equipment we use
- Scott Bonnar mower – it rolls and cuts the grass at the same time, and we mow weekly most of the year.
- Edges are done with a specially modified line trimmer, our edges are done weekly.
- Hedges are done with battery clippers or hand shears, and done monthly through the growing seasons.
- Little lawns are cut with battery trimmers and done once a week.