Portfolio: Heathcote Garden Design
Some gardens are more like Bush Regeneration projects, and this is one of them! This is in Heathcote and it is truly a Sydney Sandstone cliff face garden, it is made up almost entirely of rock shelves, with large scribbly gums growing out of the crevices, it is home to many native birds and wildlife and is dearly loved by the owners. Unfortunately as it is such a steep garden it has become difficult to maintain. A large part of the brief for this garden was to make it more accessible and level.
My trusty landscaper has begun building timber steps, small bridges and decking to help the owner get around. There was much weed and contaminated soil to be removed before I could plant some indigenous species. Below is a before shot.
And here is the after shot, it was great fun to uncover the beautiful sandstone rock forms again, and discovering the tiny native seedlings coming up on their own, like Certopetalum gummiferum and Persoonia pinifolia which were carefully protected and marked out with stones.
This is just one small corner of the garden and it will be an ongoing project for the next few months.
The water feature and pond has been cleared up and planted with native grasses and water plants, and the bank where the pardalotes nest is has been planted out with habitat shrubs.
Below is an area planted out for screening and privacy with Bursaria spinosa, Hakea sericea and Ozothamnus diozmifolius, all local to the area.
I am looking forward to seeing this garden at its full potential, weed free and accessible to the owner, more updates soon.
I REALLY like this last photo, looking up the hill. The rocks, the dry stream (?), the hint of a path through the low trees and the leaf and twig litter, the soft light and shade (not too bright, not too dark). Lovely feeling. Makes me want to be there.
Best
Gil
Thanks Gil, this is a very special garden that I continue to work on off and on. It is an exciting project as the plant and bird life is already very much there, I feel like I am just getting it back into shape for their benefit 😉