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Stressing Over Seasonal Aridity
I’m set up for the dry. The only water available is from our tanks, and we really only have enough for the house. For this reason, I don’t grow vegetables over the summer, and the ornamental garden...
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A huge few days
It’s a huge few days for The Gardenist in the lead up to the launch of Dream Gardens Season 2, and I thought you might like to keep up with what’s going on in case you have the chance to catch any of...
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Inspiring design for small spaces
When designing a garden, the most fundamental and influential decisions you’ll make are around the shaping, the moulding, and manipulation of space. This isn’t just designer-speak. Whether you like...
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Summer Bulbs
I need more summer bulbs. My steppe garden is suffering it’s mid-summer fade, as happens with natural steppe ecosystems and gardens that are inspired by them. Most mediterranean gardens suffer the...
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Brassicas. Don’t hold ’em back.
It was a light-bulb moment for me when I realised that the brassicas (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi) are biennials. Now stick with me. This is more than just a revelation of botanical...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #1: Allium carinatum subsp. pulchellum
I’m into maximum seasonal change in my garden. One of the hardest times to achieve that, given that I can’t water the garden at all, is mid to late summer. Nearly everything is in a drought-induced...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #2: Verbena rigida
I can’t tell you how grateful I am, right now, to Verbena rigida. And what I used to find most annoying about it is now the very thing I’m most grateful for. It has been described as a miniature...
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The aesthetics of austerity
Last week I spent a few days in and around Adelaide. There were some gardens there that I needed to see. I’d been aware of Kurt Wilkinson’s garden, Brenton Robert’s garden and Sarah Budarick’s...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #3: Beschorneria septentrionalis
What a great plant. Despite being stuck with a tongue-twister of a Latin name – Beschorneria septentrionalis is year-round one of the neatest, most reliable foliage plants in my garden. Its mid-green...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #4: Clematis maximowicziana
You’ve really got to love a shrub or climber that waits until now to do something really big, blousy and generous. There’s not that many of them. Most that flower now have been doing their thing for...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #5: Pachystegia insignis
Whenever people visit my garden, without fail the most asked-after plant is the Marlborough rock daisy (Pachystegia insignis). The Marlborough rock daisy is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #6: Cotinus ‘Grace’
It takes a lot to make me love a shrub. I fully acknowledge and am grateful for the critical role shrubs play in the anatomy of a good garden, but I rarely really love them. Cotinus ‘Grace’, however,...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #7: Epilobium (Zauschneria) ‘Catalina’
The context for this choice is that I’ve become a bit obsessed about gardens that don’t need irrigation – ‘Rainfed’ gardens, if I can borrow a term from broad-acre cropping. Up here in Kyneton, the...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #8: Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’
Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ may not win the prize as my favourite grass, but it certainly wins the prize for being the grass with the most distinct form, and, therefore, possibly the most useful of...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #9: Eschscholzia californica
One of my favourite games to play in surveying a sumptuously planted border or naturalistic-style garden is ‘spot the annual’. Long ago in gardening lore, annual and perennial borders were very much...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #10: Tetrapanax papyrifer
I really love this plant. It is at the top of The List (with half a dozen others – not that they know, of course). I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember. It grew in Mum and Dad’s private garden...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #11: Rosa ‘Mutabilis’
At least part of the appeal, for me, of Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’ is its name. I don’t understand why some words resonate more than others – who does? – but there’s something about that word...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #12: Bupleurum fruticosum
In my previous contribution to Plant of the Week, I wrote about Pachystegia insignis, the Marlborough rock daisy. I opined the fact that, although it is a first class garden plant, it is a rather...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #13: Miscanthus transmorrisonensis
Yep, it’s a bit of a mouthful of a name, but it’s very satisfying (and invariably impressive) to say once you’ve nailed it. In singing the praises of Miscanthus transmorrisonensis, it’s necessary to...
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PLANT OF THE WEEK #14: Hydrangea quercifolia
I’m wracking my brains, trying to remember my first encounter with Hydrangea quercifolia. Most of us grew up with hydrangeas – the ‘mop-top’ sort – in our Mum’s gardens, or our Nana’s gardens, and...
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