Amarygia ‘Bozandycol’ by Keith Tollis (Boz), Andy Harvie & Colin Hunt
Hoping you’re enjoying some more lovely rain this week…. the March/April garden will be lush. Last Friday week ABC’s Gardening Australia very kindly featured my home studio garden ‘Sea-Changer’ here at Forresters Beach on the Central Coast.
Puya species from David Fripp @ Living Edge Nursery Peats Ridge
For those of you who asked and might have missed it Just click here and kick back for a few pleasant minutes of mid morning relaxation on your busy Friday.
Aloe ‘Early Gold’ against Strobilanthus gossypinus – Pewter Plant
Further to the feature, I’m also giving the Key Note at Collectors Plant Fair Clarendon on the Sunday 29th March (scroll down to the Mirror Deck pic showing details) part of their Speakers Program @ midday. It’ll be about Sydney’s cool subtropical climate and how to understand it’s growing conditions a little more, to make better selections from exceptional points of sale like Plant Fairs.
Aunty ABC 7.30pm tonight 21st February, after the news… Gardening Australia will bring you a feature spot of my ‘Sea-Changer’ here at Forrester Beach of the NSW Central Coast.
Nearly 2 years in the can at the onset of wintertime, I’ll be ‘to camera’ about YOUR cool subtropics garden, some of what grows well in them and a little about fit to growing conditions for year round planting that will make your garden even better !!
LOVE your garden … & hope you can tune in tonight 😮
There are many reasons to apply creative thinking to something so adaptable as a Green-strip panel … right ?
…. but it takes a creative genius like Mark Paul to come up with winning ways that are only as limited as his imagination. Much of the planting in this Green Barrel was repurposed from smaller pots on site, with a few additions to extend foliage colour & textural contrasts. This pic was taken on the day of install, I’ll show you a progress later this year, so you can see for yourself how they’ve expanded into self irrigated ‘barrels of wonder’ alternative to conventional pots.
Green Barrels (foreground) & Green Bales (background), a low maintenance alternative to high maintenance pots
With conventional pots, its just the sky faced planting surface that plants can grow in … With Green Barrels & Green Bales, the planting surface is not only the sky face but also the sides that can be populated with epiphytes (grow on trees) & lithophytes (grow on rock) & others that are adaptable to this growing condition.
Green Bale around 1m wide x 500mm x 500mm terrace, doesn’t compete but frames the harbourside view by bringing mass beneath rail height
Planting all sides AND the sky face, gives each unit an impressively ‘full’ abundant look, without the drudgery of watering cans. No need to be constantly checking moisture levels regardless of exposure, as an irrigation manifold runs through the inorganic medium, for the most efficient use of our precious water. As it’s an inorganic recycled medium, this can’t disintegrate, so what your plants grow in is permanent without having to be ‘potted-up’ to the next size container to avoid root block…sooooo EASY !
Beautiful Hippeastrum psittacinum a Sth American bulb that also grows as an epiphyte on Green Barrels & Bales
So if you have a family member, a long time bestie or twenty years long work colleague who is planning or has pulled the back off the house to do a major reno…. NOW is the time to make contact with the whole year ahead to make the garden changes they want well before Christmas ’20
Thought I would kick off the year with a rather special finishing touch installed just before Xmas, added to a design of mine for very special clients at Greenwich. To my horror I see from the file I’ve been ‘making’ this garden for 20 years. So this Checker Matrix by Master Greenwall supplier Mark Paul, really is the glace cherry that’s been a long time coming 😮
Coloured negative spaces give foil to each planted square, using plants borrowed from indoors that are adaptable in sheltered spaces like columnea, peperomia, nematanthus & callisia
There are many types of greenwalls to be had these days and if you had a masonry recess, a framed Checker Matrix might be just the right feature to bring surprising interest to your garden.
Viewed from across the block looking from an open sided pavilion, this surprise Checker Matrix is conspicuous only as a step out view from the house floor plan
To the left side and to bring lush mass to a void fence space, Grow Baskets of fibre mesh weave with flat backs have been mounted onto an aluminium frame with its own drip tray. In time, I’ll show you how the Elk Horn Ferns, mixed bromeliads and native hoya australis, will expand across their mesh support.
Having its own irrigation ensures efficient water use and the inorganic medium can’t disintegrate, leading to undesirable root block and nothing for them to grow in, as with potting mix. Just trim each each square to shape with hedge shears. It’s a touch of Brazil in Sydney’s cool subtropics growing conditions and a nod to Roberto Burle Marx to come home to every day.
So if a 20 years long work colleague, your family member or your besty since kindergarten needs a garden, NOW is the time refer them early in the year so we have the best chance of completing for them before Xmas ’20 !!
