George Stevenson (editor) - Horticulture

Horticulture

Though an able man Stevenson was not fortunate as an editor, but he did useful work in horticulture, often lecturing on the subject. His house at North Adelaide stood in about 4 acres (1.6 ha) of land and he planted there every obtainable variety of fruit-tree and vine. When settlers complained about the hardness of the soil, Stevenson demonstrated its suitability for fruit and vegetable growing; confidently prophesying that over time South Australia would boast "orange groves as luxuriant and productive as those of Spain or Italy". With his gardener, George McEwin (1815 – 1885), Stevenson supplied most of the colony with vine cuttings, and set up a nursery for fruit trees.

McEwin was the author of the South Australian Vigneron and Gardeners' Manual: containing plain practical directions for the cultivation of the vine; the propagation of fruit-trees, with catalogue and directions for cultivation; and the management of the kitchen garden, with catalogue of culinary vegetables, &c. &c, and later founded "Glen Ewin" orchard

Stevenson has been dubbed the "Father of Horticulture in South Australia". He was, with John Barton Hack, one of the two first winegrowers in South Australia. Both Stevenson and Hack planted their first grapes at North Adelaide in 1837: Stevenson at "Melbourne Cottage" on his block between Melbourne Street and Finniss Street; Hack on his "Chichester Gardens" between Melbourne Street and Stanley Street. These properties were cut up for housing three or four years later.

Stevenson then rented the "Old Botanic Garden" (on the River Torrens below McKinnon Parade, North Adelaide) 1842-1843. This area was later rented by William Haines then George Francis, who pressed for a properly constituted Botanic Gardens.