by Mark Evans
One of the advantages of gardening is that very few decisions are permanent. Plants can be moved, divided and rearranged as your garden evolves and your ideas change. That supposedly short plant you tucked in along the edge grows much taller than expected, the one you planted in the shade needs more sun (or vice versa), that climber would be better suited elsewhere, that perennial needs dividing and … Read more »
By Mark Evans
In a formal garden, every hedge is crisply clipped, plant spacing is precise and repeated planting patterns create an immediate sense of calm and intention. The effect is composed and deeply satisfying.
Yet this same symmetry carries a hidden vulnerability. When a plant dies, the gap becomes glaring. Replacing it with a small, inexpensive specimen may leave an obvious void for years, whilst buying a … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Proteus, the Greek sea god who could change shape at will, gave his name to the plant family Proteaceae, via the genus Protea. When Carl Linnaeus encountered plants that varied wildly in flower, leaf and habit, he knew exactly what to call them.
The Proteaceae family now includes around 83 genera and some 1,700 species. Australia is the great stronghold, holding roughly half the genera and the majority of … Read more »
by Mark Evans
Gardening columnists like to hand out rules. Prune here, plant then, wait for this, avoid that. Advice pages tend to work that way because readers like certainty. But too many rules can make gardening sound intimidating, so it may come as a relief, or an annoyance, to hear that many of those rules are really just guidelines.
Of course, … Read more »
Most people assume the best time for planting out and expanding the garden is when spring arrives. It feels logical. Plants come alive again after winter, nurseries fill with colour and renewal is in the air.
We plant enthusiastically and, sure enough, growth follows. But as spring turns to summer and temperatures climb, that flush of new growth often struggles to cope. Despite our best watering efforts, plants wilt because the growth above ground … Read more »
As summer ends, gardeners become very aware of how much water they have used just to keep plants alive. At this time of year, water is usually seen purely as a necessity, applied carefully and often anxiously. Yet water plays another role in gardens that is equally important.
Since people first shaped land into gardens rather than fields, water has been held, channeled and reflected for reasons far beyond … Read more »