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Dwarf Eucalyptus for small gardens: Eucalyptus citriodora DWARF
The lemon scented gum is one of my favourite fragrances, that pungent citronella smell released after the rain or at dusk on a summer evening makes me feel all sentimental about our incredible flora.Unfortunately Eucalyptus or Corymbia citriodora doesn’t mix so well with the urban landscape, firstly they get tall, very tall and secondly as…
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Most Memorable Planting Combinations at the National Arboretum
Every time I visit our nations lovely Capital I seem to find myself at the National Arboretum, by default I manage to eke out at least half an hour to check in on some of my favourite plantings. I have posted previously about two of these species but when I was looking over my photos…
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Bird Nerd-ing in a Mallee Birdbath
Our friend Angus Stewart in Tasmania (from Gardening with Angus) recently captured all these wonderful birds making use of his Mallee Dish – including a few that we’ve never seen before since they only occur in Tasmania. In this video you will see: Yellow-throated Honeyeaters (endemic to Tasmania) Eastern Spinebills New Holland Honeyeaters A Black…
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Native Nurseries Across Australia
This is a collection of nurseries I’ve visited, bought from and love. I’ve written about some of my favourite Native Nurseries in blogposts before but it’s handy to have one reference list to come back to isn’t it?! It’s by no means exhaustive and I encourage you to get in touch with local growers when…
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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…
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Health Benefits of Gardening
Stress Relief, Connection to Nature, Connection to Community, Physical Health, Personal Growth ….just to name a few! I am no stranger to “stress weeding” or “stress pruning” for that matter. There is something indescribably satisfying about pulling unwanted weeds out of a garden bed or giving a straggly plant a much needed “hack back” 🙂…
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Potfolio: Ashfield Revisit
I was very excited to be asked back to one of my favourite clients, to do a design for the rear of her property, it also meant I was able to have a proper nosey at the establishment of the front garden. This garden is a very good example of the 3 to 4 year timeframe…
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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…
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The flexible Pennisetum alopecuroides
Pennisetum alopecuroides is a striking native grass that makes a bold statement planted independently, as a border, backdrop or en masse. This is commonly know as Foxtail grass not to be confused with the South African Pennesetum which has become a weed in some parts of Australia. However, in some parts of Australia this native grass…
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Portfolio: Woolooware Garden Design
This residential garden was designed at the beginning of 2017 and built later that year, to complete the property’s brand new modern extension. The owners had acquired some beautiful, large sandstone boulders from offsite to be used in the new landscape and these and the existing Eucalyptus in the rear neighbours garden informed the the…
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Native Plants in Fiona Brockhoff Gardens
I went to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria in January this year to see three gardens designed by one of my favourite Landscape Designers and of course they did not disappoint. In fact  I realise now that I took so many photos and was so inspired that I have been a bit overwhelmed by how…
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Portfolio: Bexley Garden Design
This is a sweet little garden I designed about 4 years ago and it has been lovingly slowly built by the owner’s friend. It is a small rear garden behind a modest brick house in the south western suburbs of Sydney where the mc-mansions are taking over. On my visit today the first thing I…
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Mother appreciation day: 10% discount on Mallee Spun Copper Dishes
As far as I am concerned Mothers Day is a load of consumer hype, mothers should be appreciated everyday not once a year, you can tell that this mother is tired 😉 I dream of having a deep veranda with a comfy couch to sit on where I can read, watch the birds flit around my…
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It’s that time of year again! Banksia ‘Coastal Cushions’
It’s my favourite time of year again Autumn! Hooray! goodbye humidity, I will not miss you and neither will my favourite native plants. Autumn is also wonderful because the Banksias are budding up or out already and everywhere I go lately one particular dwarf Banksia is catching my eye, Banksia spinulosa ‘Coastal Cushions’. This post…
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Expert Grass Tree advice!
My favourite supplier for Grass Trees is located on the Northern NSW coast they are called Bruinsma Grass Trees and stock lovely healthy specimens, however that is not all they do… They also follow up and offer excellent advice through their newsletter and love talking about growing this iconic sometimes mystifying Australian native. Below I…
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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…
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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…
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The arching canes of Old Socks: Grevillea leucopteris
There are a group of Grevilleas which throw their flowers out on tall leggy canes, up into the air far away from their foliage. Grevillea petrophiloides is probably one of the better known and more available ones in NSW, but I would also like to bring attention to Grevillea leucopteris. In the image above you…
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One My Favourite Grafted Grevillea Standards: Grevillea ‘Green Glow’
This post is about one of my favourite grafted grevillea standards, I actually have 2 or 3 favourites and unfortunately they are all a little hard to come by however all worth trying to find a place for in your native garden. Well actually in any garden as I think the semi formal appearance of…
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Portfolio: Garden Design Bulli
Yesterday I spent a sunny winter morning pruning and shaping in this coastal garden in Bulli, I love returning to one of my designs to do a little maintenance and tweaking, and this is one of my favourites 😉 This garden is roughly 4 years old you can see how it has filled out by…
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Portfolio: Garden Design West Wollongong
This front garden in West Wollongong was created to function as a place for peaceful relaxation and observation, it also needed to have careful consideration in regards to levels and access to the front gate and letterbox. Originally the front garden was an awkward, uninteresting space filled with easy to grow green plants, that was…
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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…
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Portfolio: Garden Design Ashfield
Dear Kath, the garden is beautiful and makes me very happy These are the words that I love to hear and is how this client describes her garden, and I can’t ask for anything more from a garden. This garden was built in December 2015 please see this link for details and this is my first…
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Tapestry Gardens 2: MONA
When I was at Mona in Hobart last month as always I had my camera with me, I love the planting design at MONA and I had a few spare minutes between consuming modern art to snap some inspiring pictures. I took these photos because I loved the plant combinations and wanted to sure these…
Tag: Modern Australian Native Garden