Mont Albert Garden

Here's a garden I designed a few years ago in Mont Albert, Victoria...and it's growing up nicely!

Client brief:

• provide a design which we can install ourselves, on a small budget
• do away with the front lawn
• provide utility pathways (for  bins, etc.)
• minimise the use of water
• incorporate native and architectural plants

Before

My clients also saw the importance of providing an element of fun in this garden for their two young children as an alternative play area to the rear garden.

Shade for the front rooms of the house was a major consideration which the clients remedied by using groupings of small deciduous trees in front of the windows.

The result was a blend of native and exotic species of grey, silver and greens, with highlights of foliage and flower colour, such as the burgundy Flax and several Kangaroo paws.

White gravel and pale grey paved paths offset the darker grey walls of house.

A fun, simple maze of lomandra amongst the gravel provides that sense of fun and a challenge for the kids to navigate.

food garden @ Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

Earlier this week I headed south to check out the new Food Garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart...and it didn't disappoint! Officially launched less than a fortnight ago, it was a treat to see it all shiny and new.

The concept behind the garden is to educate people about the role plants play in our lives and in the health of our planet. It demystifies the science behind growing fruit and veggies, including seasonal planting, crop rotation, making compost and caring for our soil. Set up beautifully to host information sessions and practical demonstrations, get along to one or two (or to your local community garden) and get into growing your own! It's soooo satisfying and a great joy when you harvest food that you've grown yourself...even better to then share it with those you love!

The garden itself is a series of terraces, cleverly created and retained by walls of either red brick or huge sandstone blocks. I'm sure these walls provide wonderful microclimates for the cool weather crops...by day, harnessing the heat from the sun, then warming the surrounding air by night. 

Garden beds were also raised using timber sleepers, or simply carved into the earth. Some brimming with fabulous food, while others rested in readiness for the next crop. From cabbage, kale, and corriander, to blueberries and kiwi...a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds!  

Generously wide gravel paths and broad sandstone steps make this garden accessible to all. 

I've returned to our Pipers River property with some great ideas from my southern sojourn. And inspired once again to crack on with the redevelopment of my own food garden...due for relocation when we start our 'build'. Any moment now....no really! 

What will you plant this season?  

How to have a garden with year round interest

Even though summer has well and truly come to an end (and I'm feelin' it in my bones), there's still some wonderful colour in my garden.

Yes, we now have a garden to accompany our little rural 'pod' ie. our current residence and my future studio. It's the first non-productive garden to be developed in our Pipers River paradise, and it's coming along nicely! 

You too could be enjoying a fabulous flowering garden in autumn...just include some of these little beauties, suited to a range of garden styles.

Flowering in my garden now:

Wonderful mauve and white Westringias...

Golden yellow buttons above the silver green clumps of Chrysocephalum foliage...

Delicate purple blooms of the Derwentia are held above foliage reminiscent of some juvenile eucalypts
 (the plant that keeps on giving...after an initial blooming burst in early spring)...

Crowea, with pretty pink flowers displayed practically year-round...

Brachycome, Jumbo tricolour, with lovely flowers of mauve,
fading to pink and almost white...

Bursts of lime-coloured foliage in grasses and cognata add interest,
along with the deep green tones of Dianella, Correa and Kangaroo paw.

And fairy wren's continue to dart amongst it all!

Hard day's work!

On this gorgeous winter's day, deep in the Tamar Valley, I'm reminded of my truly fortunate lot. Not only do I get to live in this beautiful part of the world, but I sit here with this view from my studio!

I contemplate planting designs for my current projects: a couple of coastal gardens here on the NE coast of Tassie, a semi-rural job overlooking the Tamar River and a Melbourne residence, not to mention the early phases of my own country garden on Pipers River...yes, we're finally planning the build, which means I can get cracking!

Each project takes me to a different part of the country (today at least, only in my mind) and I'm considering the local conditions at each site, such as soils, rainfall and naturally occurring plants to include in the mix.

Today...to the coast, and on entering the property, I'm thinking silver-grey and grey-green foliage like Banksia sp., Westringia, and Correa alba...

Banksia

Westringia

Correa

...combined with a backdrop of green Dodonea sp. and small trees: Eucalyptus 'Silver Princes' and Agonis flexuosa 'Burgundy'.

Eucalyptus 'Silver Princess'

Photo: Din San Nursery

Then a blend of Agave sp., Lomandra and the odd Kangaroo paw, along with Common everlasting (AKA Yellow buttons).

Agave

Lomandra 'Tanika'

And on arrival at the front door, an exuberant display of wild flowers and perennials such as Paper daisies, Gaura, Seaside daisies, Brachyscome varieties, Billy buttons, native Clematis and the gorgeous Russian sage.

Paper daisies

Brachyscome

Billy buttons

Russian sage (right)

I can't wait to see this garden planted!

plant of the month - Westringia

Flowering in my garden right now is the wonderful Westringia 'Wynyabbie Gem'. I get such joy from this native rosemary, I can't tell you...but I'll try!

I'm besotted by its lovely grey-green foliage, in fact anything of this hue in the garden is a winner for me...providing a lovely contrast when combined with true greens. But it's the soft appearance of its foliage that grabs me too!

The Westringia's appeared in this column before, but with new varieties in the genus being released, I thought it was worth revisiting.

I've planted this beauty in just about every one of my own gardens, as well as plenty I've designed...and each garden has been very different. From the tiny garden of a Victorian terrace in inner city Melbourne, to a garden softening a 'tin shed' house in the Central Highlands of Victoria, and with a move to Pipers River, Tasmania, it now lines the driveway of my studio pod in this cooler climate. I plan to use it in a couple of coastal gardens I'm currently designing on the north coast of Tassie too.  Such versatility!

Of the Lamiaceae family, it's an endemic genus of about 25 species with prominently lipped blooms from bluish mauve, blue to white. Propagation is fairly easy from cuttings.

Westringia fruticosa is one of the old favourites, and a parent of 'Wynyabbie Gem', the other being W. eremicila. It grows to about 1.5 metres, bearing gorgeous little mauve flowers throughout the year.  If clipped regularly (once a year), a smaller, lovely tight habit can be maintained.

More compact cultivars include Smokie, Jervis Gem, Blue Gem (pictured below), Mundi, Aussie Box and Grey Box.

The species W. longifolia is also lovely, extremely hardy and bears white, sometimes blue flowers in spring. Occurring in NSW, but worth a try here I think.

W. glabra, from NSW and Victoria, is about 1 metre high and across, with green foliage and wonderful bluish-mauve flowers.

Endemic to Tasmania and rather widespread, is W. rubiaefolia, the Sticky Westringia. It reaches 1.5 metres, has deep green leaves and white or pale pink, spotted flowers.

W. rigida, the Stiff Westringia, is naturally found in this state's foredunes and rocky outcrops on the east coast. It grows to 3m and produces mauve-white flowers for a long period, it's main flush from August to December.

A sunny aspect and well-drained soil is required, most are drought hardy and frost tolerant...so what are you waiting for?