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Hot Candy!
This is my favourite Brachyscome at the moment, not for its tacky name (where do they get them from???), but for its running habit and thick leaf. Brachsyscome ‘Hot Candy’ is seen here growing in part shade and still flowering its head off.
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Portfolio: Maroubra Garden Design
This is a coastal garden located at Maroubra beach which backs onto the park at the south end. It is the most spectacular location, just a stroll out the back gate to the beach. It is actually two residences with the boundary fence removed and the garden has been amalgamated into one.The garden is approximately…
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I don’t normally like Hibiscus but…Alyogyne huegelii
I don’t normally like hibiscus, native OR exotic BUT Alyogyne huegelii is an exception, plus probably some other hybrids of it…. Check out that colour, you don’t often see that shade of purple on a native plant. The other equally important factor that draws me to this plant is it is super hardy and drought tolerant and…
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Native Plants for Pots and Containers
There are so many native plants that will grow well in a container or pot. This is of course the iconic Sturt Desert Pea, Swansonia formosa, these can now be found grafted, making them a little bit hardier for us east coast gardeners.
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My favourite Acacia cognata dwarfs
I used to be completely devoted to Acacia ‘Mini Cog’, one of the many dwarf shrub forms of Acacia cognata or the River Wattle. This image is of ‘Green Mist’ weeping over the edge of a large stone retaining wall, I couldn’t think of a better use for it. Acacia cognata has very narrow long lime…
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Illawarra dwarf bleeding heart: Homolanthus stillingifolius
This is Homolanthus stillingifolius or dwarf bleeding heart, a reasonably rare shrub growing in the Illawarra area. I was given this as a seedling from a neighbour who was a bush carer and collected the seed. Its leaves look like miniatures of the regular bleeding heart, they are delicate and light up easily in the…
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Portfolio: Engadine Garden Design
I designed this garden in Sydney’s southern suburbs in the spring of 2010, it was built and planted shortly after and has flourished. Every time I visit I am amazed at how quickly the plants are becoming established. I love the garden, it is exactly what I wanted, I am so happy with it …
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Lomandra as a fence screen
When I planted these Lomandra hystrix I had no idea that they would work so well to cover the 1.8m high fence, now when I look at this area I realise how perfect they are.It is a difficult spot, fairly shady and not a great deal of soil but these Lomandras have filled out nicely…
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Westringia spheres
This is a rather striking entrance garden planted in front of a picket fence, right next to the footpath. There is a row of Westringia spheres followed by the contrasting soft weeping habit of Leptospermum ‘Pink Cascade’, it works so well. It give the more private garden behind the fence a sense of intrigue and…
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Groundcover grass: Themeda ‘Mingo’
I am slowly discovering all the different forms of Kangaroo grass, trust me there are more than you think! This is a blue form which is so weeping it is basically like a ground cover. Native ornamental grasses can fulfil so many rolls in the garden, they can be borders, edging, provide habitat, food for…
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Green Bottlebrush: Callistemon pinifolius
I know many people don’t like bottlebrush and consider them totally out of fashion and scraggly, but for me they are so useful within a garden design. This is Callistemon pinifolius, and it is a special in my eyes for the amazing flower colour, which is a subtle lime green (most of the time, sometimes…
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Portfolio: Camden Garden Design
I designed this garden in September 2011 This was a brand new blank canvas of mud when I went to look at it almost two years ago. Since then the client has planted it at break neck speed.
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The benefits of salt bush: Rhagodia spinescens
There are several species of salt bush that I like to put in gardens, this one is one of my favourites Rhagodia spinescens, it comes in varying shapes and forms, some a little more silver leaved some a little more compact. It is growing here as a pathway and garden edge and does a great job…
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The double flowers of the Swamp Banksia: Banksia robur
Whenever there is decent rain Banksia robur puts on a wonderful show of growing new leaves that emerge like the buds of red flowers, deep and furry.
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Low growing shrub: Correa ‘Dusky Bells’
There are not too many low growing shrubs that look lush and green, yet grow in dry shade and flower their heads off regardless the weather, these are the reasons for loving Correas especially this one Correa ‘Dusky Bells’.
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Frogs, ponds and native water plants: Nymphoides crenata
So this is one of our little friends that likes to visit our pond. Pond is probably too grand a name for it really, it is just an old bath set into the ground where I can grow Australian native water plants, with varying degrees of success.
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Soft Screening: Westringia ‘Snow Flurry’
This is Westringia ‘Snow Flurry’ or pretty close to Westringia longifolia, it is the most useful plant to put in a garden. It will grow almost anywhere, including in a reasonable amount of shade!
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Thats what I call an entrance!
I saw this amazing entranceway whilst driving around crook haven heads trying to get a small person to sleep, what a find! I was so surprised to find it in a holiday town, maybe it had been someones holiday project and they built it bit by bit to relax…it is part sculpture part wall.
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Tree on fire: Stenocarpus sinuatus
The Firewheel trees are flowering their heads off this year, I’m not sure what it is, maybe the searing heat? maybe the deluge of rains, whatever, my tree has never had so many flowers on it and its not the only one.
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Eremophilas as ground cover: Eremophila ‘Kalbarri Carpet’
I have been experimenting more and more with Eremophilas, starting off with the easy to grow ones like Eremophila maculata in its many forms, but this one here, that is super hardy even in humidity and clay soils, is by far my favourite.
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Indigenous Eclectic Garden
This is a very, very special garden that I visited last year, from the moment I walked in, the space spoke to me. It is private and secluded and quite small, but jam packed with Illawarra indigenous species.
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Dwarf Dwarf Dwarf Banksia: Banksia ‘Coastal Cushions’
Dwarf, low growing, ground cover, shrub or little Banksias are showing up everywhere, and there isn’t a plant I’m more happy to see coming into ‘fashion’.
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Grass tree spheres
Xanthorrhoea species or Grass Trees are a pretty standard ‘feature plant’ in a native garden, with their showy black trunk and perfect grass head on top they are almost a signature plant for a lot of Australian gardens.
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Acacia cardiophylla
I am always on the look out for small “feature trees”, something that can be planted in front of a hedge and still be walked under. Or to be placed in a garden bed and have enough space to have some underplanting beneath the canopy.
Author: Kath Gadd