Designed by Nature

We spent the New Year visiting my parents on the South Coast of NSW, and while we were there we went on a walk around a headland at Ulladulla.
I couldn't help noticing something interesting. The only human intervention in this natural coastal environment is to keep the track clear and remove exotic weeds.  And yet all the elements we might expect to find in a well-designed garden are here.  Come with me and see what I mean.

Paths wandering through beds of canopy, understorey and groundcover plants beckon us on to hidden areas of the garden:

Informal flowering hedges create a dramatic skyline.

To extend the season of interest, decorative seedheads are allowed to remain after flowers fade:

Textures are contrasted masterfully.



Through naturally framed "windows", we catch glimpses of a borrowed landscape, or in this case, seascape.

Along the way we suddenly come upon wide vistas

and interesting small details.

The garden is built on different levels,

supported by stone retaining walls.

It contains many water features.  Some are shallow, still pools.

Others provide the refreshing sight and sound of moving water splashing over rocks.

Around one bend we come upon a picturesque ruin;

around another, a naturalistic sculpture.

As we leave the garden, a final long axis leads the eye to a grand architectural focal point.



The garden is open to the public every hour of every day of the year and entry is free.

End of Month View - December 2011 (A bit late)

I've been away on summer holidays since Christmas so this post is late. I didn't want to miss a month, so here goes with a quick End of Month View of the areas I am hopefully improving.

Potted Garden
Not looking much different to last month except that the Lobelias have grown and there is now a Strawberry Pot (a Christmas present).  It's really too hot in this spot for potted Strawberries, so I'll move them into the garden and plant something a bit tougher in the pot.

There are some disappointments here. Most things have grown well, but there are not as many flowers as I hoped.  The daisy bush is hardly flowering and the Mesembryanthemums aren't flowering at all.  The Agapanthus isn't growing or flowering although all the ones in my gardens are doing really well and flowering their heads off. Maybe it doesn't like being in a pot? The Convolvulus isn't flowering much either. And the Oleander still hasn't begun flowering although it is growing. All in all, it's not bad but could be better.

Honeysuckle Bed
This is going well and there are plenty of flowers here, but I am still impatient for it all to fill out more.

I have been disappointed with the Celosias.  The colour is great but the leaves have been eaten almost completely off while I've been away and so the plants haven't grown much.  I think it's snails so I've put down bait.  I like the colours in this garden but it's not a tapestry yet.  Here's a view looking the other way.

The self-sown Gauras I moved here are taking off and the Artemisia "Valerie Finnis" is on its way too. The Convolvulus is reaching out for the stump, so it's all going well.  I'm just impatient, I suppose. Onward.

The Steps
The steps are still the same because I haven't been able to find a Ceanothus to plant in front of them.  I may have to wait for Autumn now. No change behind the steps either as I couldn't get my Chocolate Cosmos, so I'm doing nothing for now.  It's too late to plant summer annuals and I don't want to put in anything permanent until we paint the house.

So that's it for December.  Roll on January!