Absorbed by garden detailWhen I take time out at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), there are two major options. I can walk…and walk…and walk some more, relishing the big picture. The history of the garden and its inviting design. The great variety of plant species. The way the big old trees interact with newer or smaller ones and set off the sloping expanses of deep green lawns. Continue reading
Small flowering trees for a Melbourne summerThroughout January, our Melbourne weather was not what we’re used to. The temperatures swung wildly – 44 degrees on one day and 20 the next – while rainfall came in three waves. Early on was a little bit (not uniform), then mid-month brought 10mm (not to be sneezed at). And then in the last four days the heavens opened, the sun disappeared, and everywhere got soaked. Avalon recorded more than 100mm and the day temperature dipped, in places, to 19 degrees and even 15. Continue reading
Arrival, wonder, delight & mystery: Australian Landscape Conference in reviewThe 2015 Australian Landscape Conference – held in Melbourne in late September – was a memorable two-day session. More than 600 local and international attendees followed the thought-provoking input of landscape designers drawn from overseas and Australia. Continue reading
Book Review: ‘Lessons from Great Gardeners’‘Lessons from Great Gardeners‘ is an inviting book. First, in terms of content. Forty ‘gardening icons’ – gardeners, garden designers and/or garden owners – are profiled, many with emphasis on one garden to which each has devoted a significant part of his or her life. You absorb their practical skills in terms of knowledge and experience. You respond to their creative ideas and their passion for gardens. You learn from them. Continue reading
A garden tour of Italy (Part 2)Travelling in Italy, I am constantly – and refreshingly – surprised at the green planting that defines the gardens and the landscape. So much so that when colours crop up, they’re a kind of embroidery, something that focuses the eye – as with this wisteria at Villa La Foce – but doesn’t immediately attract it. Continue reading
A garden tour of ItalyIf you’re lucky enough to have experienced a high-quality garden tour in Italy, during the wonderful (mostly) sunny month of May when landscapes and gardens are burgeoning with new growth, how do you best share it with others? Do you document it garden by garden, plant by plant? Or do you convey its broad message, and rely on images as much as words? I’m going for the second option, because after a lot of travel I have hundreds of photographs to work with. And seen as a whole, they speak to me about themes rather than specific places. Continue reading
A plant that’s a moment in timeHow often is a plant ‘a moment in time’? I was reminded of this phrase some weeks back by Michael Morrison, the long-time head gardener for the late great Dame Elisabeth Murdoch at Cruden Farm, outside Melbourne. Continue reading
Last Sunday’s rain and shineLast Sunday was challenging – in different ways. I awoke to thick cloud, lowering skies and welcome rain that had begun falling overnight. By around 10am the gauge showed 27 ml. How lucky is that, in mid-February? And at this time, how unusual for inner Melbourne! Continue reading
Review: a lawn fertiliser with built-in spreaderI came across a bag of lawn fertiliser hiding in my messy garden shed. It was quite small, which perhaps explained why I had missed it when I began feeding my spacious, hungry-looking and partially weed-infested buffalo lawn a few weeks ago, but ran out halfway through. Continue reading
Daffodils among the applesI spotted the daffodil in a vase, at one end of a table where we had stopped for lunch in the Agricultural Society Hall in Batlow, New South Wales. It was sitting amid several other more colourful species, quietly but with great dignity. And it was perfect! Smallish and creamy white, its trumpet and petals exactly matched in hue, the petals each with identical orientation and positioned in two perfect triangles. How often does one see a daffodil like this? Continue reading
A plant sale with a differenceThe weather has turned chilly for the first day of the weekend plant sale at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Rain threatens, dark clouds loom. But by midday the sky is blue and the sun shines bright as plant enthusiasts cruise around white boxes, filled with potted plants, spread in neat rows across an enclosed lawn at the top end of the Gardens. Continue reading
42 degrees C is just too, too hotI hadn’t seen these green, red and gold parrots at ground level in my garden before. Usually they come in flocks to chatter and chomp in the upper branches of our towering Eucalyptus leucadendron. This is almost 40 years old so they’re a long way up. You need binoculars to look at them closely. Continue reading
Apricot best friends – roses not fruit‘Mrs Oakley Fisher’ and ‘Buff Beauty’ are the best of friends. Tough, resilient roses, they’ve been neighbours in our garden for more than 25 years. Mrs Fisher has graceful single petals around long red-orange stamens, ‘Buff Beauty’ has clusters of double and semi-double blooms. Their buds emerge and open in hues of deepest apricot, then gradually become paler as they age, finishing up soft cream. Continue reading