Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens Annual Garden Blitz
Mount Lofty Botanic Garden’s annual Garden Blitz gives you the chance to help plant up to 7,000 poppies and commemorate Australia’s war dead. Each year, the Blitz offers volunteers of all ages and gardening abilities the chance to contribute to South Australia’s beautiful and historic gardens with a fun morning of gardening and a FREE barbecue lunch.
This year you’ll help transform a section of Mount Lofty Botanic Garden into a sea of red through the planting of around 7,000 Flanders poppies (Papaver rhoeas), which it’s hoped will be in full flower in time for Remembrance Day on 11 November.
Starting at 8:30am sharp (arrive for sign-in at 8:15am), you’ll work alongside friends, family, like-minded green thumbs and Garden staff to plant poppies on the hillside behind the Garden’s Duck Pond, and potentially help with other tasks such as mulching.
Then, at 1pm, it’s tools-down for a free sausage sizzle to celebrate your achievements.
As you’ll be completing physical work, appropriate dress is required.
- Long work pants (jeans and strong cotton materials are best)
- Protective garden or work gloves
- Sturdy enclosed footwear
- A hat and sunscreen
You are encouraged to bring your own hand trowel with you on the day.
BACKGROUND
The number of poppies planned for the Blitz is significant because of the almost 7,000 Australians killed in the French village of Pozières in 1916 – 100 years ago – during the First World War’s Battles of the Somme.
Red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the ravaged battlefields of northern France and Belgium during the First World War and, in soldiers’ folklore, the deep red of the poppy came from the blood of their mates, spilled on the ground.
The poppy has since become widely accepted throughout the allied nations as the flower of remembrance to be worn on Armistice or Remembrance Day.
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For more information and all enquiries please visit the Environment SA website
What: Mount Lofty Botanic Garden Poppy Blitz
When: Saturday 24 Sep 2016 | from 8:30am
Where: Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens – enter via Lower Carpark off Lampert Road
Who: Green Thumbs of all ages and abilities!
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
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