Garden Design

The Wrap Up: Hidden Design Festival 2015

24 July 2015 | Robin Powell

Hidden Design Festival offers a look at some of Sydney’s most exciting, professionally designed gardens. Here’s a look at a bit of what caught our eye this year.

Sunday’s garden: Growing Heide

06 March 2015 | Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan

A new book tells the story of one of Australia’s most culturally significant gardens – that at Heide, the home, for fifty years, of John and Sunday Reed.

3 Ways to Jazz up your Front Garden

18 March 2015 | Linda Ross

‘There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again’ wrote the American poet Margaret Elizabeth Sangster more than a century ago. Here are some great ideas for that perfect welcome home.

7 great ideas from Holland's Floriade

03 March 2015 | Robin Powell

Once a decade the horticultural industry of Holland celebrates with a grand expo called Floriade. Each massive event is held in a different place and in 2012 it was carved out of a forest near Venlo, close to the Dutch border with Germany. Ideas? Well it had a few!

Art in the Garden

21 August 2019 | Robin Powell

Even the driveway is part of the art in Scotland’s inspiring private sculpture park, Jupiter Artland.

Arylies

13 June 2017 | Robin Powell

Over a lifetime Bev McConnell has created one of the world’s great gardens – and it’s just outside Auckland.

Australia's Best Rose Gardens

12 March 2015 | Linda Ross, Robin Powell, Sandra Ross

Need to know where to find the best rose gardens in Australia? We've done the hard yards for you, and here they are.

Autumn in Linda's Garden

18 February 2015 | Linda Ross

My garden on the coast about one and a half hours north of Sydney is a relaxed mix of coastal natives, blue bamboo, succulents and tough exotics.

Berrara

19 February 2015 | Myles Baldwin

Myles Baldwin first saw the shingled walls of this house and its garden of, mixed planting and lawn leading to the beach, when he was holidaying with mates. He liked its style. Five years later one of his clients bought the house, which is at Berrara, on the south coast of NSW, near Sussex Inlet. Myles was asked to tweak the garden ‘a little’.

Better balcony gardens

21 May 2019 | Paul Bangay

In this extract from his new book ‘Small Garden Design’, Paul Bangay shares his tips for that most difficult small garden - the balcony.

Bondi

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

Bondi is known for its beach, babes and bikinis, and not for its gardens. But this is where I find one of Australia’s most imaginative pocket-sized spaces.

Bronte House

03 September 2016 | Carla Petit

Bronte House does not open to the public often. So when the opportunity arises gardeners line up to catch a glimpse of this Sydney treasure. Catch Sandra Ross there at the Spring Open Day, September 18 2016. Carla Petit has been looking after the garden for four years, continuing a tradition of highly skilled gardeners who have cared for this histric house and garden. Here she tell us what's happening.

Chelsea 2015

12 November 2015 | Robin Powell

After her first trip to the Chelsea Flower Show Robin Powell gave us her impressions. It was a show that reminded us of the beauty of nature barely gardened, and of gardens tended intensively.

Chelsea magic

31 August 2018 | Robin Powell

Chelsea is a magical garden world as full of dreams and emotion as it of of sheer hard work and skill. We took three groups on Opening Day this year and asked the tour leaders to tell us what moved them most.

Chinoiserie

13 September 2017 | Robin Powell

Most of us choose to garden where we live; Dominic Wong chose to live where he wanted to garden.

Clever

03 March 2016 | Robin Powell

Robin Powell sifts through her ideas file, drawn from a year of garden visiting, to find garden inspirations, both practical and whimsical. Aren’t some people clever!

Cloudehill

18 March 2015 | Jeremy Francis

Jeremy Francis tells the story of his magnificent garden in ‘Cloudehill: A year in the garden’. In this extract he describes how a garden inspired by the golden days of Edwardian Arts and Crafts Design began to take shape in the rich moist soils of the Dandenong Ranges.

Courtyard Makeover

20 March 2015 | Linda Ross

This courtyard makeover matches the style of a Parisian café with the colours of rural France to create a charming space. Linda Ross tells how the space translated blah to ooh la la!

Creating Inspiring Gardens

03 March 2015 | Michael McCoy

Michael McCoy says a garden shouldn’t just look good, but feel good. Creating it is simple: make a great space, then decorate it. Could it be that easy?

Drummond

13 December 2018 | Robin Powell

Drummond Castle’s formal gardens, based on the flag of Scotland and the family’s own standard, are justly famous and surprisingly fun.

Edibles everywhere

26 August 2019 | Robin Powell

Delicious ideas seen on our travels this year

Eryldene: The Professor and the Camellia

21 May 2020 | Jane Garling

Jane Garling explains why E.G. Waterhouse had such a massive influence on Australian gardens.

Five of the Best: Oudolf gardens

21 May 2020 | Sandra Ross

Piet Oudolf has changed the way we think about gardens. His planting designs of perennials and grasses are romantic, exciting, enriching and inspiring. These are some of our favourites.

Five of the best: wisteria gardens

21 August 2019 | Linda Ross

Here’s our pick of the best places in the world to be thrilled by the fragrance, form and sheer delight of wisteria.

Garden festival planner: Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden Festival

28 March 2018 | Robin Powell

The Loire Valley is renowned as ‘France’s Garden’, and in summer it hosts an international design festival that imagines the future of gardening.

Garden festival planner: Chelsea Flower show

31 August 2018 | Robin Powell

Chelsea is the prize bloom of the world's garden shows, and the reputation is well-deserved. Here Robin Powell shares her observations on what has been another breath-taking Chelsea Flower Show.

Garden Festival Planner: Floriade Holland

20 May 2019 | Sandra Ross

In 2022 this huge, once-in-a-decade festival will focus on inspiring ways for city-dwellers to connect with the beauty of plants and gardens.

Garden Festival Planner: Hampton Court Flower Show

23 October 2017 | Linda Ross

If the Chelsea Flower Show is the sophisticated sister, her younger sibling is bigger, more daring - and definitely friendlier.

Garden festival planner: Japan’s floral festivals

05 September 2018 | Linda Ross

Once the cherry blossoms fall, Japan bursts into colour with azaleas, peonies and wisteria creating a crescendo of colour unknown to most international travellers - and not to be missed!

Garden festival planner: Melbourne

19 December 2016 | Robin Powell

MIFGS blooms in Melbourne in March. Here’s how to turn a day at the show into a real garden festival

Garden festival planner: Nelmac Garden Marlborough

30 May 2018 | Michael McCoy

The gates open on incredible private gardens in this New Zealand festival, which also offers workshops - Great Dixter’s Fergus Garrett is the keynote speaker this year - and a garden party at Wither Hills Winery.

Garden Ideas from Appletern Garden Festival, Holland

26 February 2015 | Robin Powell

Visiting Appletern is like having your favourite garden magazine come to life. Around every corner of this vast garden showcase in Holland is a new page offering great ideas for your own garden: design, plants, planting combinations, paving options, sculpture, furniture and more.

Garden Sculpture

28 May 2015 | Linda Ross

Make your garden indisputably your own realm by the way you choose and use sculpture and ornament within it. Linda has some ideas for expressing humour, passion and personality in your garden.

Great Dixter

13 November 2019 | Robin Powell

Is this old place England’s most exciting contemporary garden?

Great Ideas

08 July 2016 | Robin Powell

Want some great garden ideas. Grab some tips and trends from the professionals who showed gardens in this year’s Hidden Design Festival.

Great ideas from Country Victoria

13 June 2017 | Robin Powell

We found plenty of inspiration on our Ross Garden Tour of country Victoria last spring. Here are a few of our favourite ideas – all worth including in your own garden.

Green Escape

29 January 2018 | Jason Busch

Michael Bates reckons that while a plumber might live with leaky taps, and a painter with chipped walls, a gardener never lives in weeds. To prove it he introduces his own garden in this extract from his new book, The New Australian Garden.

Hanging Around

10 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Cool green curtains dripping delicate leaves from fine stems are mesmerising. Reversing the trend of growing upward to the light, plants that grow down, and hang around are jewels for gardeners.

Hedges: out of the box

18 February 2015 | Robin Powell

Got your shears sharpened and ready to go? Here are a few inspirations for hedges that show a straight line is not always the best way to get from A to B in the garden.

Highfields

28 February 2019 | David Kennedy

In November 2014 David Kennedy and Andrew Dunshea, creators of Katoomba’s wonderful Clover Hill, embarked on a new garden over the mountain in Little Hartley. In this extract from Claire Takacs’ new book, ‘Australian Dreamscapes’, David tells what happened next

Holiday at Home

25 April 2015 | Linda Ross

When summer temperatures soar, I get a little thrill out of heading out to my back yard. That's because I've a gorgeous subtropical garden that boasts cooling foliage, running water and bright colour. Instantly, I'm on holiday – my spirit is refreshed and I'm thinking: why travel abroad when I can have my island paradise at home?

How to: clip balls

05 September 2018 | Linda Ross

Plants clipped into balls add form and structure to the garden, and beautifully balance wilder, looser planting. The repetition of shapes develops rhythm which holds the garden together, while the contrast with other shrub shapes adds variety and interest.

How to: create a shell garden

28 February 2019 | Joanne Aquilina

Succulents don’t need a lot of root space as they store most of their water and nutrients in their leaves. This means gardeners can get creative about where they create succulent gardens.

How to: grow an edible hedge

04 October 2017 | Linda Ross

Trade up from murraya and lillypilly to a hedge you can eat! These four flavoursome options tick the boxes for pretty, practical and productive.

How to: prune a camellia

28 February 2019 | Robin Powell

Ken Lamb, Australia's master of Japanese pruning techniques, took to a historic, mature camellia at Retford Park as part of a three-day, hands-on workshop on creative pruning, held at the Southern Highlands National Trust property last winter. The camellia, an old japonica with a pendulous habit and flowers in both solid and variegated pink, had only ever been pruned to stop it intruding onto the driveway, and it now formed a solid wall of dark green, shutting off views to the house.

How to: set up a hen house

09 August 2016 | Claire Bickle

Thinking about keeping chooks? Good plan. But before you put in an order for fluffy little chickens, get the henhouse right. Whether you are choosing a ready-made option, or building your own from new or recycled materials, here’s what you need to know to create a happy home for your hens.

How to: style an ikebana

05 September 2018 | Linda Ross

The key difference between an ikebana approach to flower arranging and a Western style is that in ikebana the focus is on line and space rather than mass. Instead of adding more flowers to make it look better, ikebana is about what can be taken away. The space between the elements is as important as the elements themselves.

How to: style balcony pots

26 August 2019 | Robin Powell

To make a balcony feel like a garden it needs to surround you with plants. Somehow you have to get some plants up at eye level, and even above it. A small tree would be just the thing, but on most balconies a pot big enough to support a large plant is just too heavy once it’s filled with moist soil - and a tree! A more pragmatic approach is to arrange smaller pots at different levels. You need to get those pots up off the ground to really appreciate your balcony garden. Here are a few ideas.

How to: understand humates

31 January 2018 | Arno King

Humates are prehistoric (20-50 million year old) decomposed organic matter, which is why they are sometimes referred to as ‘dinosaur compost’. They are increasingly being used by gardeners as a soil additive - with impressive results. In fact you may already be using humates on your garden as they are a component in many high-quality fertilisers.

Hummelo

31 January 2018 | Words and pictures: Claire Takacs

Claire Takacs is one of the world’s leading garden photographers. Piet Oudolf is the world's most famous garden designer. Here’s what happened when Claire visited Piet’s garden, Hummelo.

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