Inspiring Open Garden, & New Pots for Me

G'day gardeners of Hive! I've been sooo terrible about writing about my own garden because no soon do I take a few photos ready to post than I'm onto a new garden project or something changes and the post I'd planned became redundant.

Yesterday we went to an open garden in Anglesea, owned by a guy from a local landscaping company that Jamie used to work for when he first got to Australia and before he got his teaching job. Lovely guy. His garden was lovely - a playful space with various sculptures and mass planting of native Australian plants. It was quite inspiring. I loved the mounds as you walk in covered in kikuyu grass - inviting for children and rather playful.

You can't see from that angle but behind those trees and the mound is a row of compost beds - made out of corten steel, which look great, but must be highly impractical and cost a fortune. Still, they'd be great to store ready made compost, straw and so on - if they didn't cost so much! They blend in so nicely with the environment.

We stopped and had a coffee as they had a barista set up in the garage, surrounded by stone walls and timber seating which I didn't take photos of as there were too many people. This is down the side of the house - they had various succulents about the place in pots which is pretty trendy in Australian gardens as they provide leaf contrast, colour, and are also water wise for our dry climate. I do love the fan aloes - they had some really big ones!

There were quite a few sculptures by local artists as well. We were a bit shocked by the price tag on those wicker/vine basket pod things though - the bottom one was $450 AUD.

What was quite astounding was the washing line, made of large timber posts and big stones which weighted the line and provided a place for pegs. Overkill, maybe, but rather beautiful. I'm also a big fan of moonah trees (local to the area) with their twisted trunks and an understory of grasses for birds and insects. Mum also loved the stone edging - which is also in front of their garage (not pictured) - Mum's going to employ Jamie to do some landsaping at hers soon which will be awesome.

I also loved the tiered stone walls and some of the native groundcovers. My sister and I took lots of photos so we could pick some up at the nurseries.

The grape vine was on the turn being Autumn - I'll be planting one for our deck in a few months as a bare rooted. I was also inspired by these big corten rings which I have in mind for a section of our garden, creating height and interest.

We had a good joke outside that the inspiration my Mum, my sister and I had would provide tons of work for the boys.

That, we argued, was the price for hanging out with amazing woman like us. In other words, tough, get digging.

Meanwhile, back at home, I filled the pots I'd bought in Melbourne last week from a wholesaler - much cheaper and a lot of variety. I don't know if you caught my gardening post from last week where we tidied up the bottom of the stairs and built the bed along the fenceline but the pots were there to soften the corrugated iron that hid the DIY materials under the deck when you are walking up from the garden.

Although we are yet to put in an aggregate to cover the dirt, we did get some really big pavers that I love. I also love the pots - here's a close up! I'm filling them with succulents I picked up from Mum's garden. It's a little frustrating waiting for things to grow but eventually it'll all make sense.

I also got a pot for the red kangaroo paw that was gifted to me when Dad died and seems to survive well there. The yellow paw is still flowering and both are visible from inside the house and provide a bit of winter cheer.

Oh here's the wall against the driveway and fence that Jamie finished - again, it'll look better when the plants grow up and the shed is re-faced with a new door on it and the driveway has new aggregate on it - but we need a bit more cashflow for those things.