Thursday 23 April 2015

Shaping a garden with Australian plants

Jan has spent busy years creating and re-creating her Aussie garden. She’s chosen great specimen plants including an eucalyptus erythrocorys which wins on so many points: stunning yellow flowers which first shed brilliant red caps, huge brown gum nuts with a tinge of red in the centre, smooth trunk with barking shedding in strips, and shady mallee form.  There is also an acacia salicina whose white blooms are about to bloom.  The weeping form adds grace and movement to the garden.

As mentioned in the previous post Jan has used a prostrate form of Goodenia as a ground cover. It’s under a shady eucalypt and is spreading well.

Eremophilas and melaleucas have been used to great effect as hedges. Several melaleucas have been pruned as they’ve grown to make an effective edging at one corner of the house and an eremophila hedge runs along the entire front of the property.  Can you identify the eremophila by it’s peach coloured flower?

Members of our PLANTS group were happy to join in the remaking of one garden bed which will feature several low growing species; crysocephalum apiculatum, erodiophyllum elderi and various paper daisies including rhodanthes and xerochrysums. All these plants grow well in sandy soil so Jan added lots of it to the new raised bed.  Sure looking forward to the colours the plants will produce over spring and summer. The plants should last several years with minimal tending and the paper daisies should set seed and re-emerge each autumn.

It was a treat to visit Jan’s garden and learn how she’s created it. And it was a further treat to enjoy the delicious morning tea she made for us. One very clever and untiring lady.

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