Last week I went on a mission to visit as many of my garden design projects as possible, to collect photos and catch up. I love re-visiting these gardens especially when I am doing a little garden maintenance at the same time. This garden in Centennial Park required a well needed shape and prune. The growth of most plants over the last 18 months has been rapid and, since it is supposed to have a somewhat formal feel, a ‘shape up’ was overdue.

In the image above you can see the shaping up of Grevillea curviloba by the client is beginning to show the garden’s overall strucutre. The ‘bones’ are now well in place and over the next few months we will be adding a little extra here and there to ensure that it has year round interest.

The stand out plant was the Grevillea olivacea ‘Red’s, they were in full flower and I gave them a little prune just to thicken them up a bit, without taking off any bud. You can see them in the background of the image below, the one with the up-right grey foliage.

The species that really needed a prune were the dwarf coastal tea trees, Leptospermum ‘Shore Tuff’ they were about 1.5 metres high so it was great fun pulling them back into a nice neat sphere.

I refrained from shaping the Acacia ‘Burgundy Cascade’s as they were budding up for their winter flowers. These have developed a stunning soft weeping habit and do an excellent job of screening the front entrance from the street.

The garden is very low maintenance due to the crushed decomposed granite and hardy species selected. It is full of soft greys and weeping limes and has a gentle welcoming feel. I really enjoyed spending time in this garden helping the clients tidy and shape their natives, can’t wait to add a little more and see what spring will bring to this space.