I am a very amateur gardener creating a garden. It is a rambling country garden with no designer touches. All mistakes are mine and there have been plenty but I know it’s my own creation and it brings me joy to watch it grow. To put ones hand in the soil and nurture a plant or tree to life is a wonderful experience and quite humbling. My garden is not full of exotic plants,(just those that have survived a drought), or grand designs, but it seems to bring pleasure to those that walk amongst it and for that I am grateful.

 To continue to list trees, shrubs and plants in my garden would become very boring but I hope that this snap shot of a garden that grew over time from a paddock, gives you pleasure and inspiration as other gardens have always given me.

References:
Lord E.  1973  Shrubs & Trees Australian Gardens. Griffin Press Adelaide
Lambley Nursery  2012 catalogue
Ashcombe Maze: www.ashcombemaze.com.au

As my garden had taken over a paddock

 As my garden had taken over a paddock   I am not sure if it was a blessing or not as a water course ran right through the middle. House and garden on one side, and walk, perennial beds, vegetable garden and ‘more’ garden on the other. Undaunted I decided on a bog of sorts. Placed a wall out of site and allowed the rain, paddock drainage and roof run off to fill quite a large area of water. The only planting I did was some water iris, allowing the native grasses to do their thing and they have done so wonderfully. I know my garden is healthy because when this is full of water or just boggy the frogs are so loud and obviously content.

 I have large beds under my claret ashes (Fraxinus ‘Raywoodi’ ) that are full of Hellebores, lilies, clivia’s, euphorbias and a riot of forget-me-nots and aquilegia  in spring. There is a Hornbeam hedge Acer campestre, climbing frames of roses and clematis and a wonderful rose hedge of David Austin’s, Dapple Dawn that seems to forget to stop flowering.  A copse of 15 Silver birch Betula pendula, under planted with agapanthus that the best horticulturist- designer told me was a no-no, and have survived and look great.

I have a vegetable garden, with 12 fruit trees, raised vegetable beds and three rows of vines, for Boyson berries and American Bramble berries.  You enter the vegetable garden through a small rustic farm gate in a hedge of star jasmine on either side. All produce is used in jams, chutneys , sauces , pies, pickles and anything else we can freeze, stew or store.

My borrowed landscape of river red gums standing majestically on the bank of the creek and metres from my garden are a constant reminder of the hundreds of years they have stood guard. The Yorta Yorta people are the traditional owners of this land being part of the Murray Goulburn region, and I feel responsible to care for it and the animals that live in it.

 We have many species of birds and animals. There are a group of King parrots that have grown each year and return to feed. They are so quiet that one will sit on my window ledge and watch me at my computer no more than two feet away.  

Several varieties of lizards, snakes, echidnas and the odd koala are free to roam and last week I even had a Samba deer in my drive, obviously lost.

I had always dreamed of a walled garden

 I had always dreamed of a walled garden, obviously unrealistic from a cost point of view and also that of location. I had visited a number of walled gardens both here and overseas and always loved the feeling of entering a very private and beautiful world stimulating the senses, like being enveloped in Alice’s Wonderland.

 Not to be deterred I embarked on a simple form of design. Starting with a walk of Ioensis, Malus ioensis plena, 10 in number, five each side. At the far end I planted a semicircle of conifers to hedge in and make a back drop for the end of the walk. Now the conifers presented me with a dilemma so off to Ashcombe Maze on the Mornington peninsular to discuss their type of conifer that could take constant trimming and had small soft foliage.  I arrived home with about twelve pots of Cupressus macrocarpa. Being drought tolerant they grew amazingly well but after 13 years of severe drought and at about 18 years of age they died and have now been replaced with Portuguese Laurel, P. lusitanca.

On either side of the walk I drew large semi circles with a hose to mark as perennial beds. Fully exposed to the sun I was able to plant roses , echiums, clematis on frames , lilies , cannas, salvias, cat mint, philadelphus,  buddleia (B. davidi),  iris and a variety of ground covers.  For height and variation of foliage, on the right hand side facing north I planted two Chinese elms of unknown origin as they were given to me in tubes unnamed. Two crab apples and a maple.  On the left hand side I planted two lilacs, a pomegranate, a lemon tree and a climbing rose on a frame. The clematis has been amazingly resilient during the drought.

 And so I have my walled garden, now in spring, a profusion of perfume, blossom and gentle colour.