Inspired

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.

Winter Fragrance

06 March 2015 | Linda Ross

Linda Ross steps into the winter garden for aromatherapy of the botanical kind.

Postcards from the Garden World

13 November 2019 | Ross Garden Tours

Views, reports, and travel tips from the world of Ross Garden Tours

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.

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.

Blooms and Brushstrokes

26 August 2019 | Penelope Curtin

In their floral history of Australian art, mother and daughter team Penelope and Tansy Curtin uncover the stories behind some of our favourite floral artworks.

Book review: Capturing Flora

24 February 2015 | Linda Ross

The West Australian beauty exploding from the cover of Capturing Flora is Eucalyptus macrocarpa. The illustration is by Walter Fitch for a 1947 edition of Curtis' Botanical Magazine. Fitch used as his model a plant that had been grown from seed by the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, William Hooker.

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.

Cotswold Cottage Style

20 March 2015 | Michael McCoy

Michael McCoy says the charm of its private gardens bolsters Bibury’s reputation as the most beautiful village in all England

Country life

05 February 2016 | Victoria Summerley

A romantically pretty country garden, on the edge of the city. That’s the dream of the owners of The Old Vicarage in London’s Petersham. Find out how they made it a reality in this excerpt from Great Gardens of London.

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?

Cuttings from the Garden World

27 August 2019 | Graham Ross

Welcome to spring. Here's Graham's cuttings from the garden world.

Delicious: Lentil’s summer breakfast bowl

13 December 2018 | Lentil Purbrick

Breakfast eggs get a super-fresh makeover in this dish from ‘The Village’ by Matt and Lentil from Grown and Gathered.

Dreaming of flowers

13 November 2019 | Brdiget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld

Imagine this: you and a friend grow cut flowers on an old Oxfordshire estate and in your spare time restore and design walled gardens. Welcome to the world of Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy, aka The Land Gardeners. Meet them in this extract from their new book The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers.

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: Nambour

08 March 2017 | Robin Powell

Garden lovers flock to Nambour in winter for their fill of new plants, gadgets and ideas. 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 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.

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

How to: arrange flowers

31 May 2018 | Linda Ross

I love the look of flowers picked straight from the garden and casually arranged in a charming jug, jar, urn, vase - even a bucket. But when I pick a posy from my garden and aim for a natural aesthetic with casual grace, my arrangement looks not so much just-picked as just-plonked! So I asked Sonya Gardiner for help and these are her tips - the 5 Fs of Fabulous Flower Arranging.

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: create a water wonderland

19 February 2015 | Isla Barlow

You don’t need a big space to have your own water feature: a sunny spot on a balcony or in a courtyard will do. You can use any container, as long as it hasn’t had chemicals in it that would kill the fish. Isla made her water feature in a half wine barrel. Here’s how:

How to: grow a 'coral reef'

10 February 2015 | Linda Ross

Such a simple idea – a coral reef garden full of dazzling succulents – and so fun! Philip Withers’ imitation of a world seen through water thrilled visitors to the Australian Garden Show Sydney and won him the people’s choice award.

How to: have garden fun with kids

13 November 2019 | Kate Neale

‘Be back by dark’ tends not to be a phrase we associate with childhood these days, but given the chance, children still relish an opportunity to play outside. Kate Neale and her co-author, daughter Leelu, have plenty of ideas to help parents, grandparents and carers have summer fun in the garden with kids.

How to: lift your courtyard

14 May 2015 | Linda Ross

In just one weekend the Garden Clinic team transformed a chilly corner into a welcoming sanctuary, that is simple to pack up and move to a new location when necessary.

How to: make a garden bridge

26 February 2015 | Linda Ross

While most of us don’t have a lake, our gardens may still benefit by a bridge used to link different sections across a ‘stream’ of garden bed, or dry creek of stones.