Don looked at a modern Australian garden featuring a stunning and unusual combination of plants. It was designed by Ted Whitley, who has broken away from the predictable landscaping plants so often used by garden designers these days. Instead, Ted designed a very low maintenance garden planted with a mix of Australian natives, hardy succulents, grasses and flaxes.
Design elements:
The owners of the property wanted a large entertaining area off their new deck. Ted removed the lawn and paved the backyard with Blue Indian limestone. He built raised planter boxes around the perimeter, and installed a water feature with blue paisley tiles as a focal point.
Plants:
The Australian native plants include ferns (Doodia media), orchids, grafted grevilleas (Grevillea candelabroides and G. ilicifolia), stream lilies (Helmholtzia glaberrima), doryanthes (Doryanthes palmeri), lomandra (Lomandra longifolia cv), purple and white flowering hardenbergia (Hardenbergia ‘Happy Duo’), black kennedia (Kennedia nigricans) and kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos ‘Bush Dawn’). They are combined with hardy succulents such as yucca, agaves, aloes, echeverias, kalanchoes, graptoverias, crassulas and haworthias.
Ted planted into a coarse organic mix, which breaks down slowly. He likes to include coir bark in the mix because it is a good, water retentive material. He also uses foliar sprays (usually seaweed emulsion) to give the plants a good start. The garden was mulched with blue metal, which provides a drained surface for succulents to spread. The succulents also like the radiant heat from the coarse material underneath their leaves.
Ted told Don that he thinks Australian plants are under utilised and people don’t take many chances with them. He gets an enormous amount of pleasure and joy out of combining these plants and exploiting them. The result is stylish, modern, flamboyant and colourful, as well as being environmentally friendly.
Contact information
Ted Whitley
Sacred Grove Gardens
Phone: (02) 9315 8282
Mobile: 0417 219 109
Specialist native plant nurseries:
NSW
Annangrove Grevilleas Native Nursery, Kenthurst
Phone: (02) 9654 1380
Cranebrook Native Nursery, Cranebrook
Phone: (02) 4777 4256
Sydney Wildflower Nursery West, Marsden Park
Phone: (02) 9628 4448
Sydney Wildflower Nursery South, Heathcote
Phone: (02) 9548 2818
Palm Land & Sydney Wildflower Nursery, Terrey Hills
Phone: (02) 9450 1555
The Wildflower Place, Erina Heights
Phone (02) 4365 5510
Fax: (02) 4365 5514
VIC
Kuranga Native Nursery
Ringwood
Phone: (03) 9879 4076
Mt Cassell Native Nursery
Pomonal
Phone: (03) 5356 6351
Vaughan’s Australian Plants
1060 Portarlington Road
Curlewis
Phone: (03) 5250 5592
QLD
Fairhill Native Plants
Yandina
Phone: (07) 5446 7088
Nielsen’s Native Nursery
Loganholme
Phone: (07) 3806 1414
WA
Nellie Nursery, Mannum
Phone: (08) 8569 1762
Zanthorrea Nursery
Maida Vale
Phone: (08) 9454 6260