{"id":108422,"date":"2025-10-10T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/?p=108422"},"modified":"2025-10-09T21:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:49:38","slug":"free-activities-at-botanic-gardens-to-celebrate-friends-quarter-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/living\/free-activities-at-botanic-gardens-to-celebrate-friends-quarter-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Free activities at Botanic Gardens to celebrate Friends’ quarter century"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE volunteer-operated Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens (FBBG) is celebrating twenty-five years since its establishment this month with a series of free public events at the White Hills grounds.<\/p>\n

Activities include guided walks tomorrow and Saturday 18 October from 10.30am, a two-hour plant propagation and succulent workshop from 2pm tomorrow, and an opportunity to meet and find out about FBBG’s illustrators collective on Saturday 18 October between 10am and midday.<\/p>\n

The group was initially formed in the year 2000 after growing concerns regarding the poor state of the Gardens.<\/p>\n

Since then The Friends have contributed well over $88,000 towards their upkeep, mostly through plant sales, guided walks, contributions from its illustrators group and book sales.<\/p>\n

They meet weekly each Tuesday morning and are rostered on for sales each Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

New FBBG president Mandy Scott said there’s several divisions contained within the Friends.<\/p>\n

“There’s an inside team (for example) – they’re older members who can’t get down and do the weeding,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They do plant propagation and then grow the plants on and we sell them at the Samuel Gadd Centre on a Tuesday and a Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

“Then there’s the outside team, which I run – we help the employed gardeners.<\/p>\n

“We do a lot of the weeding, cutting back and all of that sort of stuff, laying out mulch, things like that.<\/p>\n

“Obviously this saves the council from employing another team member, which saves them a lot of money.<\/p>\n

“That means they can then put it back into other things such as extending the garden and updating plants.”<\/p>\n

FFBG is always looking for new members to join its current band of 76.<\/p>\n

“Anyone, any age can join and we’ll soon find something for them to do,” Ms Scott said.<\/p>\n

Sign up on the Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE volunteer-operated Friends of Bendigo Botanic Gardens (FBBG) is celebrating twenty-five years since its establishment this month with a series of free public events at the White Hills grounds. Activities include guided walks tomorrow and Saturday 18 October from 10.30am, a two-hour plant propagation and succulent workshop from 2pm tomorrow, and an opportunity to meet […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":108427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-108422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFree activities at Botanic Gardens to celebrate Friends' quarter century - Bendigo Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Celebrate the Friends' 25th year with Bendigo Botanic Gardens events! Enjoy free guided walks, plant workshops, and more this month. 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