Garden's In My Year:
Inside Australian Gardens

Email me at: home@hollyforsyth.com.au

Inspirational and informative, Gardens in my Year: Inside Australian Gardens is an arrangement of Holly's weekly columns from the The Weekend Australian Review.

Organised seasonally, each story tells of how extraordinary garden features and beautiful plants have been used by the owners of many of Australia's finest gardens.

Sharing anecdotes from her visits to various gardens and regions throughout the country, Holly presents her own evocative photography and reveals her love of gardens through her own words. Some of Australia's keenest gardeners share their gardening passions with readers, as well as gardening secrets and helpful tips.

A beautiful gift book for garden enthusiasts of all ages, Gardens in my Year provides a wealth of practical advice and will inspire the novice and expert gardener alike.

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Gardens in my Year:
Inside Australian Gardens

Winter: Dreaming

Winter is the time tiny treasures emerge, all the more precious as colour is so scarce. It takes time and trouble to notice some of this season's special offerings, such as the true snowdrop, Galanthus spp. These delicate and shy bulbs are slow to multiply, and not as economic as the easier Leucojum, the common snowflake. It may be only you who notices them hiding among fallen leaves and winter grasses, but the exquisite markings of the true snowdrop make them very collectable. Photographing them is like reaching into their soul; you understand their integrity and can sympathise with cultures who abhor having their spirit captured on film....

Summer: Aberfoyle

In 1997, the fence separating the old orchard from the garden was moved to create room for more roses. The deep beds here are punctua- ted with tripods of 'Pierre de Ronsard' showing off its coconut ice colours from spring until Easter. In this part of the garden, Barbara's favourite area, special roses include the hybrid teas 'Temptation', the remontant 'Blue Moon', 'Sweet Sonata' and the mauve-to-pink 'Paradise'.
Barbara struggles to name her favourite rose, but when pushed nominates 'Sylvia' for picking and 'Sweet Sonata' (also known as Johann Strauss') for its glorious pale salmon colour, its generous flowering and its willingness to appear in early spring.....

Autumn: Sea change

Sited within the sea scent of the place the locals call 'the back beach', on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, are two gardens that don't impose upon the indigenous bushland but, rather, are part of the integrity of the surrounding environment.
Fiona Brockhoff is a landscape designer who, with Jane Burke, a botanist specialising in coastal revegetation, and two other partners, creates restful gardens that don't battle the elements.
The visitor to their adjoining gardens gets a sense that they are completely at home with the landscape within which they are working. Burke's gravel garden is planted with stipas, with the local grass Poa poiformis var. ramifer, and the cushionbush (Leucophyta brownii).....

Spring: Margaret Magic

The winemakers in Margaret River are moving closer to organic methods. From September to November blue paper daisies edge the roadsides.

In the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park, a guided walk with naturalist Gabriel Magyar will reward you with snail orchids, green orchids, donkey orchids, spider orchids and the Bussell spider orchid.

'The Leucopogon was an important food source for Aborigines,' Magyar points out. 'And the nice thing about the Epacridaceae family is that most produce small edible berries.'.
Eucalyptus pyriformis

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