Category: Shade tolerant

  • Native Cherry Tree : Exocarpos cupressiformis

    Native Cherry Tree : Exocarpos cupressiformis

    I am spending sometime in Tasmania this month and trying to get out in the bush as much as possible and there are a local few plants that keep popping up wherever I go. The native cherry is one of them, I have never tasted the fruit of Exocarpos cupressiformis before this week and it has…

  • What is it with Waratah’s?

    What is it with Waratah’s?

    There are a handful of Australian native plants that are truly iconic and Waratahs are very high up on this list, possibly in the top 3….whenever I see them in the bush it is easy to see why we are all so captivated by this bold bloom. The beautiful flower heads attract nectar-feeding birds like…

  • The spot flowering habits of Hymenosporum ‘Luscious’

    The spot flowering habits of Hymenosporum ‘Luscious’

    It’s no secret that this is one of my all time favourite small shrubs, I love it for it ability to grow in dry shade and still look green and succulent, I love it for its wonderful shape, sometimes lumpy sometimes perfectly mounded and I love the fact that it flowers when and if it…

  • Tufted Herbs: Patersonia sericea

    Tufted Herbs: Patersonia sericea

    I need to admit I am not very competent when it comes to recognising and utilising Australian tufted perennial herby plants in a garden. For some reason I get the Theliomenas confused with the Thysanotus and the Sowerbaea and with Arthropodium! All are beautiful and all are grass like with wonderful prominent flowers poking their heads…

  • The Beautiful Gardens of Zanthorrea Nursery

    The Beautiful Gardens of Zanthorrea Nursery

    I set aside a morning to visit the Zanthorrea Nursery when I was in Western Australia last August. This was a much anticipated adventure as I have heard much about the nursery and often have recommended it to Western Australians looking for native plants. I was not disappointed, it is a wonderful place, full of…

  • Portfolio: Greenwich Garden Design Update

    Portfolio: Greenwich Garden Design Update

    I have a very special garden that I visit once a year, I usually get a call in early spring asking for help to spruce up the garden in time for overseas visitors. It is always a pleasure to catch up with the clients and replace plants that haven’t worked and admire others that are…

  • Portfolio: Bondi Consult

    Portfolio: Bondi Consult

    This garden was a simple consult and then a couple of weekends of intensive clearing out by the client, then I came in for the fun part 🙂 Two large Frangipani trees shade the west facing front garden in Summer but let the well needed sun through in winter, it is practically illegal to remove…

  • Kings Park Favourites

    Kings Park Favourites

    This post is about one of my visits to Kings Park last month, I went twice and still felt as though I hadn’t seen everything, however the images I took were mainly of plants that I think can be grown on the east coast of NSW. This blog post is about some of my favourites. The…

  • Portfolio: Garden Designs Gordon Update

    Portfolio: Garden Designs Gordon Update

    This is an update about one garden, however within that one garden are 3 very different areas and these areas were approached as stand alone projects and designs and built secretly. I was gaining to blog about them separately but I think it is nice to show how varied one garden can be. You can…

  • Portfolio: Garden Design Hunters Hill Update

    Portfolio: Garden Design Hunters Hill Update

    This garden in Hunters Hill was built in 2013, I went back for a visit largely because I have been asked for images of native gardens that sit well in bushland areas of Sydney and this is one of the first that came to mind. Upon entering the garden from the street you have very…

  • Portfolio: Glebe Re-visit

    Portfolio: Glebe Re-visit

    I have done it again, another sneaky drive by whilst in the area, and another very pleasant discovery. This garden is looking wonderful and full of flower and interest as we enter the dull colder months.   This tiny front garden in Glebe received a little extra attention about 6 months ago where I added…

  • The plant every native garden should have: Lambertia formosa

    The plant every native garden should have: Lambertia formosa

    Every garden should have a specimen of this reliable plant That’s what Wriggly and Fagg have to say about the much loved Mountain Devil and I couldn’t agree more with the authors of the legendary ‘Australian Native Plants’ bible. Lambertia formosa is a common under storey shrub growing 1 to 2 metres high and about…

  • Garden Design: Leichhardt Front Garden

    Garden Design: Leichhardt Front Garden

    I happened to be in the inner west this afternoon and was very nearby one of my gardens, I thought I would do a drive by and see how a Eucalyptus caesia was going after I re-staked and pruned it 12 months ago. This is what I saw, a very happy Eucalyptus Silver Princess with…

  • Bright climber or scrambler for dry shade: Hibbertia dentata

    Bright climber or scrambler for dry shade: Hibbertia dentata

    Hibbertia dentata is one of my favourite climbers or low growing scramblers to use in shady spots, unfortunately I find it quite difficult to source but it is definitely with using if you can get hold of it. One of the reasons I love this plant is the reddish new growth of the tendrils and…

  • My favourite geebung: Persoonia pinifolia

    My favourite geebung: Persoonia pinifolia

    The geebungs are a wonderful family, have you met them yet? it is hard to pick one to be my favourite, Persoonia levis comes in at a close second for its amazing peeling bark with bright red layers, but pinifolia has that weeping habit and I am always a sucker for something that looks soft…

  • Wombat Berry: Pretty Bush Food

    Wombat Berry: Pretty Bush Food

    This is one of those wonderful plants where the fruits are more decorative and showy than the flower, Eustrephus latifolius produces deep golden berries that are edible but not particularly palatable, perhaps the fleshy roots are more tasty, but I haven’t tried then also though I’m told you can eat them. Eustrephus latifolius flowers in spring with…

  • Portfolio: Garden Design Chatswood

    Portfolio: Garden Design Chatswood

    I designed this garden in Chatswood in March 2013, pretty much exactly three years ago. The client has been chipping away at building the garden from my drawings over the years, it is a large garden that backs onto some beautiful bushland, where weeds have been a constant problem. Below you can see an image…

  • Keith’s Garden

    Keith’s Garden

    This is my friend Keith’s native front garden in Bulli, I have wanted to take photos of this garden for a long time and on a recent visit finally remembered my camera. Phew! I had to snap quickly as the sun was setting and the mozzies were out. The garden is located on the escarpment…

  • Hardy Plants for a Pre-school Garden

    Hardy Plants for a Pre-school Garden

    I was given the pleasure of helping to build part of my daughters pre-school garden last year, they had a drawing from a few years back and hadn’t been able to afford to do anything with it. They are a not for profit Pre-school and have a wonderful base of talented teachers and passionate parents.…

  • The Versatile Spider Lily: Crinum pedunculatum

    The Versatile Spider Lily: Crinum pedunculatum

    I have only just realised how very adaptable this plant is after seeing it growing on the beach in Murramarang National Park last week, I had no idea it would grow on sand in a front line coastal position and look so beautiful. In the image below you can see how symmetrical the clumps of the…

  • Bundeena Garden Design: Update

    Bundeena Garden Design: Update

    Last week I made a quick visit to one of my favourite gardens in Bundeena and snapped  some photos before the sun went down. The first is of Anigozanthos ‘Landscape Lilac’. A few months ago I plant 12 each of Angus Stewarts new Kangaroo Paws ‘Landcape Lime’ and ‘Landscape Lilac’ in this garden and they…

  • Portfolio: Garden Design Mount Keira

    Portfolio: Garden Design Mount Keira

    Last Friday I completed the first stage of planting for this local project I have been working on in Mt Keira this year. I have written about this garden already as it is a very interesting brief, using only local indigenous species https://malleedesign.com.au/mt-kiera-site-specific-local-indigenous-species/ . I have been chaffing at the bit since the landscaping began to be…

  • Illawarra native garden full of fresh ideas!

    Illawarra native garden full of fresh ideas!

    I visited the native garden of a passionate native plant lover last week to grab some inspiring photos and ideas; and the garden did not disapoint. This is the 4 th native garden for the owner and she began building it about 8 years ago after moving from a large property in the Snowy Mountains.…

  • Joseph Banks Native Plants Reserve

    Joseph Banks Native Plants Reserve

    Every spring the Sutherland Australian Plants Society Group hold a day of Spring walks in Sir Joseph Banks Native Gardens in Kareela. I have been meaning to visit this native garden for years t is fairly local to me and I had heard wonderful things about it.   The gardens were started by Sutherland Shire…