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MacLean’s Spring Garden Twelve years ago Jack and Margaret MacLean purchased half a hectare (1.25 acres) of land at Mittagong in the Southern Highlands of NSW. The property was on sheet rock covered by a thin layer of topsoil and it was overgrown with...
Don’s colour wheel Imagine a stylish, colourful feature as a centrepiece in your front yard. Much as you place a beautiful vase or painting inside the house to create a feature, you can create a living piece of garden jewellery outside. Don showed in easy...
March Happenings We’re sort of between seasons at the moment, the summer flowering plants have just about finished and soon many of the trees will be decked out in their beautiful red, yellow and brown autumn colours. Even so, Don still managed to find plenty of...
Several weeks ago Don created a fantastic wheel of colour using a basic parterre design made of hedging plants which was then filled in with annuals. All the plants have grown and the display looks great, but in another year when the green hedge plants have doubled in...
Moorish Garden Inspired by the colours, shapes and the starkness of Spanish landscaping, the owners of a renovated Edwardian house in St Kilda decided they’d like a Moorish garden in their own yard. Using photographs in a book on Spanish gardens as a starting...
The bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, is a wonderful landscaping plant. It has silvery grey, paddle shaped leaves with a spiky look about them, and beautiful blue and orange flowers which look just like the crests of exotic birds. There can be a bit of a problem...
Cliff Garden John and Beth Craggs have proved beyond any doubt that it’s possible to transform a steep, rocky cliff face into a tropical resort style garden paradise. Twelve years ago they bought a one acre block at Clifton Springs on the Bellarine Peninsula,...
Parisian Rooftop Garden Don visited a unique warehouse apartment with a rambling rooftop garden and an outstanding view of the Sydney CBD. The owner, Robert Rigby, has been in the music business for many years and has recently joined Dainty Consolidated Entertainment...
There have been strange weather patterns all around Australia over the past year. With the end of the El Niño and the beginning of the La Niña period there have been some curious changes in the weather. In Adelaide and most of South Australia it has been extremely...
Billabongs are crescent shaped sections of a river that were once part of the main channel but have been cut off by a shift in the river’s course. Natural billabongs underpin the biodiversity and health of our river systems. They teem with life, and provide...