Designing with Camellias Whether it is a swirling curved low hedge to be contrasted with mass planted blocks of low foliage, an evergreen glossy green screen to hide a shaded fence line or neighbour’s house, a low maintenance low allergy shrub with beautiful flowers or a ‘petal confetti’ winter wedding scene Camellias are often on […]
Category Archives: Garden Design Ideas
Low Allergy Gardens
- 25
- Aug
If you want to enjoy the outdoors in the beautiful spring weather then simply getting outside and into the garden or relaxing on the veranda sounds like a terrific idea. For those with Hay fever or Asthma this beautiful time of year is less appealing. Working for clients has led me to read books covering […]
Spice it up with succulents
- 29
- Jun
Succulents are finding a place with other contemporary architectural plants but better than this is the fact that they can work well in a variety of garden styles from the very grand and historic, right up to the ultra-modern and just about everything in between. After years of hovering in the background it is […]
Edible Gardens- time for a revolution!
- 22
- Jun
Food gardens can be both beautiful and useful and are returning as fashionable statements in current landscapes. There is a certain connection with the world through growing edible plants which makes a productive garden quite different from gardens that are only looked at through the windows of a house or windscreen of a car. A […]
Green Walls and Hedges
- 14
- Jun
Making hedges work starts with well thought out design. I love hedges; they are the bones and the backdrop of many classic garden styles and I’m prepared to go out on a limb and say that hedges will never go out of fashion. What is a bit old fashioned is the word hedge. I think […]
How to use silver plants
- 24
- May
There is much more to silver plants than just being good in the heat; there is something of a sense of elegance and sophistication that accompanies silver foliage. Understanding silver plants is to understand that not all plants are green and that there is a big wide world of plants out there. Silver, like white, […]
Getting the best out of Australian Native Plants
- 11
- May
Choose well, prune properly and you are eighty percent of the way to scoring a goal. Can we make beautiful gardens with Australian natives in northern Victoria? Yes we can, but as with all other garden plants it is much better if we know which ones to choose and how to manage them. Times have […]
Trees with autumn colour.
- 04
- May
If you want to paint a picture with landscape plants then the ‘big brush’ on the palette has to be ornamental trees with autumn colour. If you are not sure how big a brush this is then imagine a good sized golden ash and you will be looking at a plant with between 150,000 and […]
How to work with shadows
- 13
- Apr
What a great thing to be asked this week to recommend trees for a project. It might be too early but I’m going to say ‘Trees are back!’ The simplicity of ‘treescapes’ has appeal to owners of gardens who require a low maintenance landscape but what appeals to me is that a simple tree in […]
Gardens for children.
- 30
- Mar
Cones versus kernels. I recently cut a simple noughts and crosses board into one of the landscape rocks in an area for younger children. Marked out with a square and cut with a diamond blade on an angle grinder it is simple and easy and will last forever. Picking up and using natural objects from […]
