Gardening and flower clubs dwindle due to aging members

Laanecoorie farmer and micro-florist Carolyn Watters joined the Bendigo Chrysanthemum Association two years ago, but the 34-year-old wishes she had joined sooner for the abundance of knowledge she can't find online or in a book.

Key points: Australia's Garden Clubs have 52,000 members with an average age of 76, Carolyn Watters, 34, is worried about the loss of vital knowledge in gardening and flower clubs Ms Watters wants more young people to consider joining their local group

"You have local grower groups who understand these climates and have grown in this climate over the past 50 years," Ms Watters said.

"You can learn amazing things from them, they have knowledge of people before them, dating back 150 years.

" So in fact, it makes more sense to find out from the people there and that's how I discovered the club."

Ms Watters says garden clubs are a great way to learn to be self-reliant.(ABC Central Victoria: Sarah Lawrence)

The group has 14 active members, but 25 years ago, there were more than 40.

Community Gardens Disabled and Free Goods As Costs Rise and other growing vegetables, community gardens could be the answer many Australians are looking for.

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But with the rising cost of living, she found the benefits of the hip pouch and the mental health could be huge.

"If you know how to grow basic vegetables, it means that if something happens, you can actually be self-sufficient for your family," said she declared.

"When we had the lettuce shortage last year, I think a lot of garden clubs laughed, in a way, because you can buy a packet of seeds from lettuce for $1.20.

"It contains 100-200 seeds, or 200 heads of iceberg lettuce if you group them together.

"And you don't think about your day job. It gives you an outlet to actually relax...