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This morning I woke at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mo

This morning I woke at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains where my sister in law and brother in law moved to a large established garden. This garden was planted by previous owners with a collection of trees with little thought to how big they would ultimately grow, and the deep shadows they would cast. With careful editing and plants we’ve painted new pictures and written new stories. Brenda and Brett have breathed new life into their home and garden and the transformation in a few short years has astounded me.
#coolclimategarden #australiangarden #australiangardendesign

I spend a few days out of the studio each week mak

I spend a few days out of the studio each week making house calls. A one hour consultation can’t replace the benefits of a full design but it can inspire, redirect or reassure. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been to this particular garden and how many job lists we’ve made, but over the course of nine years we’ve become friends, the property has been transformed and the Darryl is managing his garden like a professional.

The extraordinary blue Worsleya procera is floweri

The extraordinary blue Worsleya procera is flowering again. It’s been an annual summer occurrence for at least thirty years since it was bequeathed to me by a regular customer way back when I owned Belrose Nursery. It’s rare, and native to Brazil, and it just scrapes through winter here where I grow it outside the kitchen in a large terracotta pot facing north. In all these years I’ve only divided it once and it’s almost time to do so again…#worsleya #worsleyaprocera #blueamaryllis #empressofbrazil

We’ve had wild weather this week but the rain th

We’ve had wild weather this week but the rain that arrived with the wind was joyfully received; the pond is still filling and the paddocks once again looking lush and the birds are happy. There’s a change in the light, I know there’s plenty of hot days to come but it’s also time to take stock of the woodpile.

We’re back in the studio and on the way to compl

We’re back in the studio and on the way to completing our first design for the year, but on the first day the shelves were cleared and Kaiya and I checked the rolled and folded pencil designs. Each design we do begins in the same way, and I believe there’s alchemy to these hand drawings. More than knowledge and experience, it’s intuition that guides us. From humble beginnings these pencil scratches our designs will be refined to create a vision for a beautiful, functional garden that meets the clients needs and exceeds their expectations.

It’s been so hot with no rain and I’ve been ou

It’s been so hot with no rain and I’ve been out watering weary and bedraggled plants. Most of the garden is well mulched, but there are new plantings to care for and I keep a close eye on what will need water before they pass the point of no return. I go back to work tomorrow, and in preparation for a busy start the studio has been spruced up with windows and floor washed, files reordered and book shelves sugar soaped and reorganised, and as I was working my way through the books I read an inscription written by my Yugoslav grandfather for my birthday in a book about trees when I was sixteen. He had grown up in Croatia farming on a rocky hillside and would never buy plants as he could propagate them himself and I recall walking around my nursery with him one day decades ago and he asked me when I was going to get a real job, as he didn’t think people would actually pay for plants. I wonder what he would think if he knew that I now make my living from not from even growing plants but designing gardens? #tigerlily #liliumlancifolium #stipichu #achilleablush #ornamentalgrasses #gaurabellezawhite #justoneofthecreasonsilovebooks

I’m exiting my post Christmas soporific state an

I’m exiting my post Christmas soporific state and preparing to speak to humans and embrace the world. We’re still working on emptying the refrigerator, so this morning it was left over ham with fried eggs and after feeding Harry and watering the new trees out in the paddock I tucked into a bit of Christmas pudding and custard, with my second espresso on the side. It’s going to be a deliciously slow start with the studio opening on 7th January and by that time, I’ll be ready to begin the new year #second espresso #geraniums #pelargonium

In just a few days the fresh green of spring has v

In just a few days the fresh green of spring has vanished, and the paddocks are crispy dry and smell of hay. The nursery is hand watered early morning as the sun comes up and the potted herbs in the courtyard with a glass of wine in my hand at the end of the day; elsewhere the crepe myrtles are revelling in the heat and the old dwarf tree I rescued from an old garden years ago and I suspect may be the cultivar named ‘Zuni’ is looking perfectly happy as are the grasses. #stipaichu #gaurabellezawhite #agaveamericana #achilleablush

A few years back @thestonescentralvictoria went to

A few years back @thestonescentralvictoria went to a lot of effort packaging and posting cactus cuttings to me which I planted in the pebble garden outside the kitchen where ever since they have grown unattended yet much admired. Only a week or so a pair of dark pimply nubs appeared and these grew until last night they flowered spectacularly! Thanks again Jeremy #nightfloweringcactus #echinopsis #echinopsisspachiana

Yesterday our house was scrubbed clean, windows wa

Yesterday our house was scrubbed clean, windows washed and spiderwebs banished in preparation for Christmas guests. Spiders don’t really bother us but we have arachnophobic friends that won’t appreciate it if one dangles from the eaves on the 25th! Chores started early before the heat this morning and began by hand watering the pots and young shade trees in the paddocks, and after half mulching a new garden bed I enjoyed my first swim of the day. Stay cool 😎

Down behind the big pond the racehorse tree is loo

Down behind the big pond the racehorse tree is looking spectacular with a puddle of golden flowers in its shadow. It’s big and one for small gardens, and I imagine the wonderful clash of colour if planted with jacaranda trees. #tipuanatipu

Simple, everyday pleasures

Simple, everyday pleasures

It’s always a delight revisiting gardens we’ve

It’s always a delight revisiting gardens we’ve designed that are loved, lived in and nurtured. It’s a perfect opportunity for me to observe, learn, add to and tweak, and with this garden it’s so good to see a family working in a garden together on a project they love. There is hardly a space left in my own garden, but I’m fortunate that in the gardens of others I can share what I have learnt over a lifetime of gardening and grow both new plants and knowledge.

For something a little different this morning I’

For something a little different this morning I’m at the dressage with Cathy. As we drove out the paddock gates the channel billed cuckoos were calling, sounding more like primates than birds and I wish I had recorded their eerie love song. Summer is here

I’m a creature of habit. I look forward to my ev

I’m a creature of habit. I look forward to my everyday routine, tending to the dogs, pony and chickens, and I can’t wait to get up, have my breakfast and sip that first espresso. The grasses in the garden at our front steps have grown so much they’ve almost covered the mulch. I’ve been tough on the purple perilla and bronze fennel this year and weeded most of them out leaving a select few as they had become too dominant, and I’m loving the two new grasses - Pennisetum Tall Tails and Stipa Ichu. Through the week I began clipping the box mounds by the driveway and today I’ll continue with my shears in the front garden. #ornamentalgrasses #grasses #stipaichu #pennisetumtalltails #gaurabellezawhite #springgarden #australiangarden

Our neighbour Jack has been overseas for a while a

Our neighbour Jack has been overseas for a while and from the kitchen I think I hear his tractor in the paddock below so I guess he’s now home. I rushed down with my camera to capture the field of golden coreopsis before they’re slashed (it is fire season so it has to be done) but I was distracted by the sweet nocturnal fragrance of the double white angel’s trumpet waving above the path at the bottom of the orchard. I know it’s poisonous if it’s eaten, but I have better things to eat - and it is seriously gorgeous #brugmansiacandidafloreplena #poisonousplants

I thought I’d sleep in but the birds woke me, th

I thought I’d sleep in but the birds woke me, the dogs and pony were hungry so I figured that I may as well get up, I can’t fight it, I will always be an early riser. The heat has dispensed spring, summer is here and the garden is leaping. Through the week I’ve staked the lilies, and just in time as there are now tight buds appearing. The swimming pool is sparkling clean and after espresso number two, I’m heading down to do some gentle weeding and wait for the morning sun to break through the morning mist. Happy days. #leonotisleonurushammerssmithwhite #cotinusflame #rosaautumnalis #salviasomaliensis #miscanthuscabaret #summergarden #swimmingpoolseasonhasbegun

Yesterday I began oiling the timber decks. There’s one outside the kitchen where I now sit sipping my second espresso writing, and another off the lounge room where we dine with friends outside. I never made the time last year, and the older I get the more I appreciate looking after the things I’m lucky to have. This morning I’ll be doing more of the same with a second coat and then painting the final deck by the swimming pool I’ll contemplate my first swim of the season - and if I do It’ll be very quick. #sunday #sundaymornings #gardendesignersdayoff

Even though it’s still cool most days the garden

Even though it’s still cool most days the garden is opening its arms to summer. If ever there was a scent that screams summer it’s this Magnolia virginiana and when I wheeled the garbage bins along the gravel driveway this afternoon I caught the exquisite fragrance before I saw its perfect white cups. #magnoliavirginiana #fragrantflowers #summerscents

My Sunday morning starts like this - almost every

My Sunday morning starts like this - almost every week, and the ritual of feeding the dogs on the verandah, then Harry over at the stables and taking my first stroll around the garden is comforting. Seeker the Scottish deerhound thinks he is oh so clever when he jumps out from his hiding place to scare me, as he does every week. I never got to last weeks hedging and won’t even attempt it today, but I will make the effort to rake the grass clippings from the lawn before enjoying lunch at the spectacular @stonewall_equestrian and I might even take some pics between the showjumping as the gardens are growing beautifully. #scottishdeerhound #scottishdeerhoundsofinstagram #spring

Each spring I look forward to walking past my bedr

Each spring I look forward to walking past my bedroom and catching the scent of the starry jasmine, (Jasminum multipartitum) it’s undeniably jasmine, yet the underlying clove scent captivates me for the six weeks or so it flowers. Evergreen, vigorous but not terrifyingly so. #jasminummultipartitum #fragrantflowers #fragrance #spring #springflowers #springflowersmakemehappy

It’s been six years since the paddocks have been

It’s been six years since the paddocks have been fed, and as we live in a district where poultry are grown one of the best things we can use on our poor sandy soil is fowl manure. In the early days we bought a load and spread it by hand from the pack of the ute, shovelling it in and then shovelling it back out, now a big hopper loaded with the stuff is driven around the paddocks. The smell on a hot day is deplorable, but it’s so worth it. Now we’re looking to the sky for rain to wash it all in.

With light rain and warm days this past week, gree

With light rain and warm days this past week, green has banished the soberness of winter and I’m contemplating some cloud pruning to tune my eye before I begin the more exacting demands of formal topiary. #spring #springgarden #springgardening #cloudpruning

One day there’s a wonderful story I’ll share o

One day there’s a wonderful story I’ll share of the Fathers of Pantanassa Monastery at Mangrove Mountain, but that will be later when their garden has had time to grow. Today we were there among the Greek Orthodox community, many that had travelled from interstate and abroad when the Patriach of the Eastern Orthodox Church and his entourage paid a special visit for their centenary.

It’s all happening down by the pond where the wi

It’s all happening down by the pond where the wild things grow. The golden bog iris flowers are prolific and the birds, frogs and insects are making the most of this perfect spring day. #irispseudacorus #spring #windyourclocksforward #springgarden

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