My garden in the chilly Blue Mountains has acid soil, which is why I grow azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas…..and daphnes. At last count I had nine…..sorry, ten. What could be better than a shrub that flowers in mid winter and has one of the most heavenly
Read more →
You can never have too many paths within a garden, either. I love to have them winding everywhere. If my husband says I should get rid of one for some pragmatic reason I say ….. definitely not! Edna Walling, the Australian garden designer, once said that if your paths are
Read more →
CRIMSON ROSELLAS Crimson rosellas are a joy to behold. Many of the trees and shrubs in my Blue Mountains garden have been planted with these beautiful birds in mind. Top of the list? The native correas. The photo below shows that my efforts are
Read more →
‘…in spring, the most delicate feathery yellow of plumes and plumes and plumes and trees and bushes of wattle, as if angels had flown right down out of the softest gold regions of heaven to settle here, in the Australian bush. D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo
Read more →
Remember British artist and designer William Morris and his famous Strawberry Thief design? Those thrushes ended up in homes around the world. I’m sure Mr Morris forgave them for raiding his garden by the stripling Thames. I don’t grow strawberries, but I do have lots of
Read more →
Most of my garden seats are made from ‘found materials’; concrete blocks, stumps, slabs of stone and bits of timber I deem wide enough to sit on. My impatience when I have a notion to create a new one knows no bounds. Fortunately my aging muscles seem
Read more →
Tulip bulbs just do not thrive in my garden. However, I can enjoy similar blooms in spring thanks to the Liriodendron trees, which are actually related to the magnolias. Their cup shaped flowers have led to the common name of Tulip Tree. Liriodendrons are notoriously slow to
Read more →
I’ve always loved lavender. When I was a child in Tasmania we used to buy quaint cardboard dolls with muslin aprons full of dried English lavender. My mother didn’t grow it as far as I remember, but the island state is home to the remarkable Bridestowe
Read more →
SPRING AT SISSINGHURST House hunting in the spring of 1930, the English poet Vita Sackville-West viewed a crumbling castle in the Kentish countryside. Standing in the middle of a cabbage patch she looked up at its romantic, Elizabethan tower, turned to her son Nigel and said;
Read more →
HOW THE DRAMA BEGAN Well one day I was sitting in a planter pot talking to Pauline’s little goose when we heard a funny noise. Goose peered down at something, so I did too. Whoops, nearly over-balanced and ended up on my head! And do you
Read more →