Our open garden visit this month was well attended despite the rainy weather. Those who had been to Shaun’s first open garden three years ago were amazed at the transformation. You can read how Shaun considered design concepts for his garden and see some early photos here:
https://urbanwildlifegardens.org.au/2023/04/26/14252-2/
Four years ago Shaun bulldozed most of the existing garden apart from some well established eucalypts, and started from scratch to create his cottage garden using predominantly local native species. He has kept some of the original non-invasive exotic plants as homage to the original garden. An existing spotted gum adds height and filtered light. His aim was to establish a pretty native garden, with a variety of colour and texture, to create a sense of emotion, beauty and romance.
An important landscaping requirement was to plant layers of vegetation from groundcovers and grasses to shrubs and small trees. This has provided effective screening between his garden and the road and neighbouring properties. It also helps to create a range of habitat for local wildlife.
The front garden is formal, with an area of lawn and edging around the garden beds. There is a transition to more informal garden areas around the side of the house and the native rainforest area at the back of the property.
Shaun stressed the importance of pruning to encourage bushy growth of plants and prolong their life. The success of this was evident in the multiple stemmed cordylines , the coppiced homalanthus and the lush growth of banksias and dogwoods. Grasses like carex and lomandra are cut back to ground level each year. His practice of returning all grass clippings and prunings to the garden beds has helped to add organic matter to the clay soil and reduce weed growth.
Shaun has kindly provided a species list which you can access here.
Black Mountain Garden Visit Species List
Vanessa Presling