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Happy 10th Eucalyptus Day: Eucalyptus paniculata
I live among the gum trees, literally … as John Williams sang “Give me a home among the gum trees” this is the best I could hope for in suburbia to be living under the canopy of three magnificent indigenous Grey Ironbarks or Eucalyptus paniculata. I rejoice in their beauty every day. Our bedroom window…
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Merry NSW Christmas Bush: Ceratopetalum gummiferum
I am a bit of a Grinch when it comes to Christmas and often one of the things which pulls me our of my un-festive slump is our Ceratopetalum gummiferum or native Christmas Bush. This year I was a little late, as many have finished thier show by the time Christmas actually arrives. However, I…
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A tough and useful Bushfood: Lomandra longifolia
Lomandra longifolia, or Common Mat Rush, is abundant along the NSW coast growing and in SA, Victoria and Tasmania in a range of environments from coastal dunes to dry Sclerophyll forest. It can also be seen growing in median strips and petrol station garden beds 😉 Little do most people know it is also a tasty…
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Pittosporum revolutum: Ornamental shade for the senses
This is Pittosporum revolutum, a medium shrub with jasmine-scented blossoms that is flowering beautifully in my garden at the moment. When flowering the scent permeates the whole garden and is often commented on by visitors. In the bush it grows as an understory plant and often gets quite leggy, but pruning it to keep the…
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Walks for winter-spring flowering plants on Dharawal Country
In our temperate climate the winter wildflower season is magnificent making it one of the best times for walking in and around the escarpment – or at least when it’s not too muddy! – and many of the winter flowerers continue to bloom through spring. Fingers crossed La Niña doesn’t hit too us too hard…
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How to Regenerate Bushland in your Backyard
Does your garden look a little like the one in the image above? It has so much potential but you don’t know where to start? Regenerating your own patch of bushland is exciting and rewarding. You get to see first-hand the return of native birds, bees and other wildlife that follow when native vegetation re-establishes…
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Help! What’s wrong with my Plants?
By Kath Gadd and Hannah Preston Well it would seem La Niña is here with a vengence along the NSW and QLD east coast, resulting in way too much rain and very uncomfortable humidity. It has been a tough summer for many plants. Not only have the weeds enjoyed an extreme growth spurt but the…
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Native Nurseries Across Australia
This is a collection of nurseries I’ve visited, bought from and love. I’ve written about some of my favourite Native Nurseries in blogposts before but it’s handy to have one reference list to come back to isn’t it?! It’s by no means exhaustive and I encourage you to get in touch with local growers when…
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Wildflowers of the Illawarra
This wildflower season I have stayed local due to travel restrictions, which has meant I have walked the Illawarra escarpment a lot more than I normally would. Usually in the winter wildflower season we would travel to the Blue mountains or further west or even north for outdoor adventuring and bush exploring. So it has…
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The little purple pea that could: Indigofera australis
This is a common medium sized shrub that really can do anything…..it can fill a dark boring corner, it can flower profusely, it can provide lots pf nectar rich flowers for bees and butterflies, it can grow extremely quickly and it can look amazing! Indigofera australis or Native Indigo is a common 2 metre shrub…
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Growing Natives Indoors
I love indoor plants, which are known to improve our sense of wellbeing, the quality of the air inside, and give us a connection to nature. Most of us aren’t aware of the array of Australian natives that could be used indoors and replace the bucketloads of exotics commonly marketed at nurseries. Inside, plants generally…
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Portfolio: Jamberoo Consults
I have been visiting this rural property on and off for the last 3 years, each time providing the client with onsite sketch designs for different areas of the expansive garden. Working on this garden has been an absolute pleasure and I look forward to each new stage. The client has a knack for collecting…
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Screening with Hardenbergia violacea
This climber always surprises me every year with how aptly it lives up to its common name of Happy Wanderer. The little pea flower spikes really do have tiny smiling faces with bright green eyes. Hardenbergia violacea is a local native climber or scrambler to most of the east coast of Australia, growing naturally on…
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Camera Trap Basics for Bird-Spotters
Recently, we’ve been using camera traps to capture videos of birds using our birdbaths. One of my favourites is the video of these wonderful silvereyes flocking around a dish in some coastal habitat below! Silvereyes migrate in large groups, feed and drink together and that’s why you can see so many together. In this post…
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Luscious green screen: Myoporum acuminatum
Some native plants are just so useful and practical I really don’t understand why we don’t see them being utilised everywhere…. and Myoporum acuminatum is one of them. It is a mystery to me why this very fast growing , dense small tree or large shrub is not used more often in our residential streetscape…
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An under-utilised native tree: Glochidion ferdinandi
This is the ever adaptable Cheese tree Glochidion ferdinandi, I would love to see these used more widely in our streetscape as street trees but also as shade trees in gardens or parks. They have the same glossy luscious look as a Lilly Pilly or Waterhousia but with the added benefit of being semi-deciduous in…
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Portfolio: Mount Keira Garden Design Revisit
My, my look how things have grown 🙂 this garden has completely filled out and become the luscious, illawarra escarpment semi-rainforest garden it was always meant to be! In the image above you can see the turf paver area is now a native lawn of Dichondra repens and Basket Grass, the Gum Vine is spilled…
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The Iconic Illawarra Flame Tree: Brachychiton acerifolius
Wow it has been a dry, windy, horrible winter here on the east coast of NSW, in the last week the rain has finally reached us. However it seems to me that this is exactly the sort of weather the flame trees enjoy…so many of them are in full early bloom and what a show they…
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Illawarra Festival of Wood: Friday 6th to Saturday 7th October 2017 @ Bulli Showground
We will be at the Illawarra Festival of Wood next weekend selling our spun copper water bowls and birdbaths. The festival will be showcasing local & regional wood artisans as well as celebrating a variety of wood related crafts & forest industries. The Festival runs from Friday 6th to Saturday 7th October 10am to 5pm I…
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Soft and Elegant Ornamental Grass: Stipa ramosissima
I adore this native grass (Stipa ramosissima), it is a local Illawarra species and I have found it hard to source but whenever I find it somewhere I grab a few as I can find a home for them in no time! I do apologise for the glut of photos in this post but I would…
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Enjoying Pig Face: Carpobrotus glaucescens
Carpobrotus or ‘Pig Face’ is one of my favourite bush foods to eat, it tastes like an over-ripe Kiwi fruit with a salty edge, delicious! This morning as we were rambling through our local sand dune and beach my son found a pig face fruit and what do you know I had my camera handy…
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Portfolio: Coledale Consults
I have been consulting on this coastal garden for about 3 years now maybe a bit more, and it has really begun to settle in, some of the growth especially in the rear garden is amazing. The client has installed a beautiful mosaic letterbox made by his sister, it is large and bright and a…
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Portfolio: Garden Design Mount Keira
Last Friday I completed the first stage of planting for this local project I have been working on in Mt Keira this year. I have written about this garden already as it is a very interesting brief, using only local indigenous species https://dev.malleedesign.com.au/mt-kiera-site-specific-local-indigenous-species/ . I have been chaffing at the bit since the landscaping began to be…
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Why don’t Flame trees flower more often?
Brachychiton acerifolius is an amazing medium sized tree, when it flowers!!! Unfortunately I think I can safely put it in the same flowering category as Gymea Lilys, which is difficult… Doryanthes excelsa flowers on average after 7 years, Brachychiton acerifolius is often more like 8, thats a long time to wait for a tree to…
Category: Illawarra natives