Articles
Kensington Gardens Landscape Design
The owners of a large house in Kensington Gardens wanted to create a pleasant and usable space in their generous and private front garden. They did not use the space at all, other than to open the front door to visitors. Efforts over the years to improve the space had been piece-meal and only partially successful. However, there was a large and beautifully shaped old apple tree, which was definitely worth saving. The ultimate design of the new garden took into account the wide frontage of the old house and its ‘country-like’ feel. A wide expanse of lawn and dry-stone retaining walls, using stone from Carey Gully, were used to create a sense of space and...
Read MoreBamboo
BAMBOO Many people are turning to bamboo in their garden, both for aesthetic reasons and often to screen out neighbours. Bamboo provides a green, lush tropical appearance to gardens. The advantages of bamboo are that they are fast-growing, capable of hiding tall structures quickly and occupy relatively narrow spaces. However, care needs to be taken when choosing bamboo. There are many different kinds with greatly varying habits and growth patterns. The most important thing to remember is to select a clumping bamboo rather than a running bamboo. All bamboo grows from rhizomes (underground stems). Running bamboo sends out long rhizomes far and wide, each rhizome...
Read MorePLANTS SUITABLE FOR DRY SHADE
Just as garden beds exposed to full sun can present a challenge in terms of selecting suitable plants, designing a garden in shade or semi-shade, particularly under big trees, can also be difficult in the hot, dry conditions present in many Adelaide gardens. Fortunately, there are a number of plants that not only grow well in such conditions, but look spectacular, both in terms of foliage, colour and texture. Groundcover plants • Geranium macrorrhizum (Big root geranium) • Kennedia prostrata (This one needs plenty of space to spread) • Plectranthus argentatus • Succulents. Many succulents, such as Echeveria glauca, Echeveria elegans and Kalanchoe pumila to name...
Read MoreThe Pleasures of Spring
The colours, energy and sheer vitality of plants in spring always take me by surprise. Roses flower magnificently, fruit trees and ornamentals are covered in blossom and the birds and the bees are constantly busy. Rose ‘Abraham Darby’ Don’t forget that now is a busy time in the garden for humans too. An application of compost and organic fertiliser will be appreciated in the garden, followed by a layer of mulch, preferably organic. Make sure you wet the soil well before and after adding anything to the garden bed. Also, if you have an automatic irrigation system in place, now is the time to run through each station checking for leaks etc. Both the plants...
Read MoreHedges for all occasions.
Hedges are often a very important part of a garden design, whether your style is contemporary, traditional or native. A tall hedge can form a lush, green screen at the back of a garden border, can hide an unsightly fence and can help to provide a sense of enclosure and privacy. Small hedges, if used selectively, can provide a sense of structure to a garden, without imposing too much formality. In my experience, some of the best medium to tall hedges are as follows: Escallonia iveyi. This tough evergreen hedging plant has dark-green glossy leaves and an abundance of white flowers in spring. It can be grown as a hedge to between 1.5 and 2 metres by about 1 metre wide....
Read MoreDesigning a garden with native Australian plants
Designing a garden with native Australian plants Native plants got a bad name in the minds of many Australians after some spectacular mistakes in suburban gardens in the 1970’s. At that time, little thought was given to the suitability of a particular plant to the chosen site, whether in terms of climate, soil or size. As a result, large ghost gums were planted in small suburban gardens, resulting, some years down the track, in cracking of walls and paving, as well as endless disputes with neighbours. In other cases, native plants were simply planted in the ground and then totally forgotten about, the idea being that they were ‘maintenance free’. A few years later,...
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