Category: Hedge

  • Portfolio: Gardening in Wind

    Portfolio: Gardening in Wind

    This is my sisters garden on ‘Windy Hill’ as we like to call it, it gets so windy here the rubbish bins get blown down the street, gates are blown off their hinges and plants find it tough! Her front garden bears the brunt of the Westerlies and southerlies and used to be bare lawn…

  • Portfolio: St Ives Landscape Design

    Portfolio: St Ives Landscape Design

    This garden in the leafy north shore suburb of St Ives was designed last year and built only 7 months ago, by Ash from ‘Living on the Hedge’. Part of the brief for this garden was to have plenty of year round flowers for bees and birds and given these photos have been taken in…

  • Portfolio: Bundeena Tree House

    Portfolio: Bundeena Tree House

    This an amazing house which spills over a sandstone outcrop and is placed underneath a giant fig tree. It is sheltered by a stand of Casuarinas and hidden from the street by its rapidly growing native garden. The garden has been in for a couple of years and benefitted greatly from our recent wet Summer.…

  • Finger Limes loving the shade – Citrus australasica

    Finger Limes loving the shade – Citrus australasica

    My friend has the magic touch when it comes to growing all things edible and so of course her fingers limes are abundant in the Autumn 🤩. She has two varieties one is Citrus australasica ‘Rainforest Pearl’, a grafted form. Which in my humble opinion is the sweetest and juiciest of them all and the…

  • Portfolio: Woolooware Rejuvenation

    Portfolio: Woolooware Rejuvenation

    This native garden in Woolooware has a new owner, someone who is keen to be the new caretaker of the space and is looking forward to maintaining the native plants and learning more about them along the way. Someone who also recognised it was in dire need of renewal to bring it back to its…

  • The very versatile Lomatia myricoides

    The very versatile Lomatia myricoides

    I have been wanting to tell you all about the River Lomatia for some time but have been waiting to find some fully grown shrubs to photograph and I finally found them on my recent Summer trip to  Mount Kosciuszko. And here it is! Lomatia myricoides is a large shrub which grows naturally on a…

  • The pretty prickly Grevillea acanthifolia

    The pretty prickly Grevillea acanthifolia

    There aren’t really enough spikey Grevilleas in my opinion, when it comes to planting for birds and to create habitat especially for small birds Grevilleas are a wonderful lure, if they are spikey they can also provide shelter as well as food. This is Grevillea acanthifolia a large shrub reaching upto to 3 metres high…

  • Emu Bush No. 9: Eremophila bignoniiflora x polyclada

    Emu Bush No. 9: Eremophila bignoniiflora x polyclada

    Three years ago I set myself a challenge to learn 12 Eremophila species in 12 months, it hasn’t been going very well …..yet again I have failed to meet my own deadline 🤣 However, my desire to learn more about the wonderful Eremophila genus has not diminished and I am slowly plodding along. You can…

  • Trialling Banksia ‘Sentinel’

    Trialling Banksia ‘Sentinel’

    This is a favourite coastal hedging plant of mine which I have been including in my planting designs for the past 7 years or so….sorry, I’m finding it difficult to keep track of time 😉 I say it is on trial or has been on trial for a while as it does have a couple…

  • Portfolio: West Wollongong Revisit

    Portfolio: West Wollongong Revisit

    The images in this blog post were taken of a local garden I designed a few years ago which has been filling out beautifully. The requested privacy is beginning to really take shape, the front garden has been reclaimed as a relaxing outdoor space which can be utilised more often by critters and humans alike.…

  • A Favourite Coastal Heathland Plant: Leucopogon parviflorus

    A Favourite Coastal Heathland Plant: Leucopogon parviflorus

    This is a tough medium sized shrub which grows all along the NSW coastline and interstate to Victoria and South Australia. I love this plant for its dense habit, tasty fruit and grey green leaves. I occasionally use it in Designs where the soil is very sandy and the wind howling and have just spent…

  • Drought Hardy Emu Bush

    Drought Hardy Emu Bush

    In this post I am adding to my Eremophila database and also trying to increase awareness of native plants which I believe have proven to be reasonably drought hardy. As a genus Eremophilas are very tough native shrubs, they will grow in a well drained soil in full sun to part shade and although they mainly come…

  • Level 2 Water Restriction friendly plants: Calothamnus quadrifidus

    Level 2 Water Restriction friendly plants: Calothamnus quadrifidus

    Yesterday NSW moved into level 2 water restrictions, it has been a long time coming, with bushfires still burning up and down the east coast and dam levels at an all time low. The hardest hit are out west where they have been buying in drinking water for most of the year, smoke and dust…

  • The Grevillea screen that could: Grevillea ‘Dorothy Gordon’

    The Grevillea screen that could: Grevillea ‘Dorothy Gordon’

    This is a Grevillea that can…screen out neighbours, fill an empty hole quickly, attract nectar feeding birds, give privacy, flowers profusely and is quite unusual looking. I would say its closest cousin is Grevillea ‘Strawberry Blonde’ another favourite of mine which also has bronze new growth and a large toothbrush flower spike. Grevillea ‘Dorothy Gordon’…

  • Portfolio: Gladesville Front Garden Design

    Portfolio: Gladesville Front Garden Design

    This sweet front garden was built earlier this year after a quite extensive house renovation in Gladesville, it is somewhat of a “treat” for the client and the house to have a fresh start after a year of messing building work. I have been looking for the before photos on my hard drive for half…

  • Last Wattle for the Season: Acacia argyrophylla

    Last Wattle for the Season: Acacia argyrophylla

    OK I promise this is the last Acacia profile for the year, usually I try and mix it up a lot more on my blog. I am well aware the page is now aglow with lovely yellow ball flowers which may look all the same to some people. But I just can’t help it, the Acacias…

  • Pretty in Pink: Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’

    Pretty in Pink: Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’

    There are so many varying coloured Callistemons available now, there isn’t really any reason to only associate them with the traditional red anymore. I am a big fan of the softer coloured bottlebrushes, the greens pale yellows and pinks, the soft pinks in particular are some of my favourites. This is Callistemon ‘Pink Champagne’ a…

  • Another Callistmon for the resurgence: Callistemon subulatus ‘Brogo Overflow’

    Another Callistmon for the resurgence: Callistemon subulatus ‘Brogo Overflow’

    I have written before about my love of bottlebrush and how I wish for a resurgence in their use in garden design and the general landscape. There are many new interesting forms and cultivars that are a far shot from the ratty, sparse unloved street trees we all know. They come in soft pinks, deep…

  • The display gardens of Austplant Nursery

    The display gardens of Austplant Nursery

    I have been away in Victoria for the past few weeks, camping on Wilsons Prom and then visiting native nurseries and gardens on the Mornington Peninsula. It was a wonderful holiday that has left me with a touch of post holiday depression but plenty of photos of native plants to share with you! One of…

  • The exploding Leptospermum ‘Starry Night’

    The exploding Leptospermum ‘Starry Night’

    I have been monitoring these Leptospermum obovatum ‘Starry Night’ shrubs (that   I planted in a neighbours garden) closely, waiting, waiting for them to flower and BOOM! last week they exploded! I love reddish or burgundy foliage and there are several species of Leptospermum with a red tinge to the leaf however ‘Starry Night’ is…

  • Happy little inner city garden: Leichhardt Garden Design

    Happy little inner city garden: Leichhardt Garden Design

    This small garden in the inner west of Sydney is actually quite generous, there is room for lawn, a studio and a seperate outdoor eating area. This means there is also room for lots of different native plants! Hooray! we planted for year round flower, colour, foliage contrast, texture and wildlife habitat. There is something…

  • Another furry leaved beauty: Lasiopetalum baueri

    Another furry leaved beauty: Lasiopetalum baueri

    This is commonly known as Slender Velvet Bush, which is a most apt description of this interesting under-storey shrub. Lasiopetalum baueri has rusty coloured , furry new growth and pretty delicate pink flowers in Winter. The dried flowers are long-lasting and have potential as a cut flower and the attractive foliage lasts for ages in…

  • The resurgence of the Bottlebrush: Callistemon pachyphyllus Green

    The resurgence of the Bottlebrush: Callistemon pachyphyllus Green

    I feel like there needs to be a a resurgence in the planting of Callistemon species in home gardens, they have been given a bad name through thoughtless street planting and gardeners overlooking their pruning needs. There are a handful of Callistemons that I think are worthy of pride of place in a native garden,…

  • The ‘New’ formal Native Garden

    The ‘New’ formal Native Garden

    When most people think of a formal garden the first images that spring to mind are rows of neatly clipped Buxus borders with some Robinia topiary and maybe a screening Camellia hedge. These are some of the easiest plants to use if you are copying the European template for creating a formal style garden, they…