Grevillea
It is the year of the Grevillea – everywhere you look they a busting out with colors. Natives have loved our wet winter.
Weigela Rosea ‘Pink’ – Strawberries and Cream – a favorite
Weigela rosea ‘Pink’ is a very hardy, deciduous shrub that produces stunning pink trumpet shaped flowers in the spring through to summer. It is called Strawberries and Cream and along with Granny’s Bonnet, Forget Me Nots, straw flowers are my favorite flower! One of the best all round shrubs for the garden. Pretty pink flowers…
Birch Forest has an upgrade – now there are 21!
We decided that a rabbit proof fence had to be put around the Birch Forest as last year they demolished the Granny’s Bonnets in 1 sitting. See below the “before” picture. So we put the fence up and decided to mass plant Birches – keep viburnum in the middle storey and the azalea at the…
Our Philosophy
Gardens are not simply planted — they are made, slowly and with love.
This garden began in 2012 as little more than an idea: beyond a wish to create a place full of movement, birdsong, winding paths, and quiet corners where a person could sit and rest.
Now here we are at the end of 2025 – so many projects still to do but as we all agree a garden is never finished.
Today the garden includes:
- 20+ garden beds
- Garden rooms inspired by Edna Walling
- Birch Forest
- A secret garden hidden behind hand-made doors
- A waterfall and boardwalk filled with birds
- Roses, native plants, and woodland trees
- Spaces for grandchildren to explore
- A constant sense of becoming
- Respect for native plants
- Bird friendly “houses” and baths!
- Flowers everywhere
- Edna Walling was a big fan of birches so it made sense to start with that and it would form a centre piece for the back garden.
- It also meant we could start clearing the weeds and overgrown plants to see what was really there – and hope for the best.
- We found a gently sloping area and a state of the art irrigation system!
- The Rosa di Pagola also took advantage of existing infrastructure – a cement cricket-pitch right at the front of the garden, followed up with a Rose garden and covered in a grapevine – right next to the orchard and the olive trees.
- It is even more stunning in Autumn as the vine turns red for ages before all the leaves fall off. There is a giant wooden apple just so you know you are in the “fruit” garden along with the blueberry bushes.!
- We built a woodland with a dry stone wall, a waterfall, a Secret Garden – the birds came – as well as the kangaroos!
- Next there was the Wisteria Colonnade where we took advantage of a very old wisteria – planted a couple more and built a Colonnade along with a Mary-lou Pittard tiled panel on the floor.
- We are now at the stage (late 2025) where we can revisit some of our early work and update – such as the Perennial Garden, Birch Forest and the waterfall.
- Also fencing with black square wire to keep the rabbits away. Also the kangaroos are plentiful but they can go where they like and as you know they are usually very relaxed.
Have a look at the post links below so you can really see what the start of the “garden” journey really looked like!
Uccello Lane 