Our Garden
Gardening is my passion. In a busy life, it grounds me, takes my mind away from business, is my creative outlet and reminds me that getting my hands in the soil is a really good feeling!
Establishing a garden here has been challenging. We share our property with an assortment of wildlife and have few fences. No matter how lush the native grasses might look, our furry friends always seem to prefer my favourite and often most expensive plants!
Our other potential challenge is that we are reliant on rainwater which is stored in several tanks. Plants have to be tough to survive here! Having previously loved my English-inspired garden of roses, delphiniums and drifts of beautiful cottage flowers and perennials, I was faced with a very different ‘opportunity’ (read ‘challenge’) on this site where we built our home seven years ago.
For a start, I had a fairly steep slope in front of the house which was full of rocks and builders’ rubble. And pockets of sticky clay! We added plenty of natural fertilisers, like sheep and cow manure and blood and bone. We decided to stabilise the soil through planting, for a naturalistic look, and tiered the plants, rather than introducing any formal terracing.
One of the best tips I’ve ever received is to soak plants (still in their pots) in containers of seaweed fertiliser, like Seasol. It really does give them a kick start! Within eighteen months, I had a mature garden that looked like it had been here for years.
If you are gardening with wildlife, or even if you are interested in drought-tolerant plants, here are some that have survived and thrived in my garden.
I love ornamental grasses, which are great for larger spaces, and they need little care; try Stipa Giganteum (Golden Oat Grass); Miscanthus Sinensis (Chinese Silver Grass), which has lovely soft pink feathery plumes; and Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ (Reed Feather Grass),which makes a great hedge or screen.
I also use lots of different Euphorbias; some like Euphorbia ‘Wulfenii’ grow to a metre tall, others like Euphorbia ‘Rigida’ make a beautiful ground cover. Both have blue/grey leaves and fabulous lime green flowers. Another favourite is the versatile Kniphofia family. These include the well-known ‘red hot pokers’, but there are many other colours and some only grow to about 60cms. I particularly like the lime green and yellow variety, and the birds love them as well!
Here are two other tips for new gardeners:
Always plant in groups of odd numbers and if you have a larger garden bed, repeat them to create a drift effect across the whole bed. I usually plant in threes or fives.
Mixing natives and perennials can help achieve the look you want.
Happy gardening!
