Re: Beach garden in South Australia

Liz,
Thanks for posting photos of your garden, and I like the way you have massed contrasting foliage in particular.  I see a lot of familiar "go to" plants that I also use, as well as many that I've probably never designed with.  I'd love to do a garden with dozens of Adenanthos as you have, and is that Calocephalus brownii I see in one photo?  Also, which cultivar of blue foliaged Dianella is that with the berries?  I've planted out several of the newer introductions such as D. revoluta 'Baby Bliss' and D. prunina 'Utopia', and been sadly disappointed that they don't really set any berries for me, as compared to D. ensifolia, D. tasmanica or D. intermedia which I absolutely love.  I have a particular fascination with some of the great plants that come from Western Australia, but they aren't always cold hardy enough to do well here with our occasional bad winters.

I would have a hard time keeping the garden colors so tastefully elegant, the garden I showed here was originally going to be all foliage color contrasts riffing on a Morroccan theme and few flowers, and then I kept adding some Linaria reticulata here, some Anigozanthus flavidus there, and Salvia splendens 'Van Houttei', and then thought it should have a lot of palms and cycads,  you catch my drift...  Hard to be a minimalist when Brazil, Bali and Mexico are such big influences on me stylistically.

I hope others will pick up on this thread, and post photos of their gardens, and thanks for yours...

From: LIZ RUNCIMAN <lizr@bigpond.net.au>
To: Medit-Plants listserv <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Sat, March 12, 2011 4:57:40 PM
Subject: Beach garden in South Australia

I've been inspired by David's lovely pictures to post some photos of my beach garden;  we are about 35 degrees South, and a real Mediterranean climate, though this summer we've had an unusual amount of rain!  
We watered the garden through the first two summers to get it established.  It was designed by a friend who is a landscaper.  The soil is extremely rocky 
and alkaline and we had to get in a digger to make the planting holes.  We also improved the soil by adding tons of organic matter.  We have had to contend 
with voracious rabbits so are learning what they don't like!  We give it water in the summer if we have a heatwave, ie more than a couple of days over 35C.  



LIZ RUNCIMAN
Adelaide, South Australia





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