I have been thinking about Sean's recent comments on regional
gardening.
The notion that gardens should reflect the context (cultural,
historical and environmental) in which they are placed can provide
many challenges - but as Sean said when it happens it can be
interesting and wonderful.
In Australia, much soul searching has gone into the question of
whether there really is an 'Australian' style of gardening? I'm
not too sure whether there is - but I would enjoy hearing other
people's opinions.
Most older Australian gardens are certainly heavily influenced by
European, and especially English, gardening traditions. Given that we
are such a relatively 'young' country it is not so surprising that we
have copied directly from overseas traditions rather than creating
something original - it takes time for a sense of place to develop.
Certainly, even with a greater awareness of Australia's unique
environment, the weight of gardening history still rests heavily on
contemporary garden makers shoulders.
I suspect that most people would think of the archetypal Australian
garden as a 'bush' garden with natural styling (gravel or eucamulch
paths, large curving beds, informal groupings of native trees and
understory planting). In fact, native plants are only rarely used
outside this context. But even this style has its roots in a long
international history of 'natural gardening'.
I guess for me the criteria for whether a garden is 'Australian' or not
depends on how well it is related to its site (climate, soil,
surroundings) - not whether one can detect stylistic influences from
other countries or periods - its how well those influences are adapted
to fit the circumstances that is important.
Using native (or more particularly indigenous) plants is another 'hot'
issue here. There was a period during the 60s and 70s when Native Bush
Gardens were extremely popular - unfortunately natives were planted
indiscriminately (with little regard to size, habit, horticultural
requirements or origin) and they were widely regarded as 'low
maintenance' (no need to prune, water or feed!!) - a fatal combination
which inevitably produced ugly uncared for gardens with lots of scrappy
or dead plants. As a result the gardening public has been generally shy
about natives.
One of my interests is identifying natives which have horticultural
potential - but which are not generally used in Australia's mainstream
gardening culture. To this end I have recently designed a garden for a
friend on the slopes of Arthur's Seat using only indigenous plants
from the surrounding locality.
The actual style of the garden is fairly traditional (best described
as Arts and Crafts meets Spain) - in order to suit the house - with
hedges, a pergola, a four quadrant garden with a central axis,
fountain at the intersection of the minor and primary axes and a
simple arbour at the end of the main axis with a bench seat.
It is in the use of plants where I have tried to push the
boundaries and add a regional twist - as I said most people tend to
think of Australian plants in a 'natural setting' - so seeing
native plants clipped, topiarised or in a formal setting is
unusual.
So what have I used? Plants include:
Bursaria spinosa - for the perimeter hedges (it has small dark
green leaves which are Buxus like so it is good
for clipping)
Solanum laciniatum - trained as large balls on sticks for the middle
of each quadrant
Clematis microphylla, Comesperma volubile and Billardiera scandens -
trained over the pergola
Oleria ramulosa - as a short informal hedge on one side of the pergola
Correa reflexa - as a loosely clipped hedging around the quadrant beds
Correa alba - as clipped balls at the garden entrance
Stylidium graminifolium, Pelargonium australe, Arthropodium strictum
and Dianella brevicaulis - as underplanting for the pergola
Allocasurina - planted around the arbour at the end of the garden
Burcharida umbellata, Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Linum marginale, Dianella
revoluta, Lomandra longifolia, Caesia calliantha, Poa labillardieri,
Danthonia setacea, Themeda triandra and Dichelachne crinita - used to
infill the quadrant beds
I will have to see how well this works as a garden over the next few
years as the garden is installed and grows. At the moment we are starting
to grow the plants as a number are not available commercially - and those
that are have no local provenance. It is an exciting project however!!
Does anybody else have another twist on what regional gardening might mean?
Susan George
McCrae, Australia
PS - Thank you to everyone who responded to my query about underplanting
roses - some very innovative suggestions which have given me further
ideas! I thought that it was interesting that many of the suggestions
are plants that would be considered as herbs.
PPS - I have been off the list for a few days so I may have missed
further discussion on regional gardening - if my comments sounds like
somebody who has just walked into a room half way through a
conversation - your right!!
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