Moss green at Cowra Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden at Cowra

Subdued, subtle and elegant would be appropriate words to describe the Japanese garden of Cowra in New South Wales. On a fine bright day it is the gleaming white sand of "the beach" which first draws your eye as you enter the garden. The Japanese word ikedori is used to describe this "capturing alive" of a scene from "real life" nature.

cowragarden.com.au - Welcome

Scarecrows

There is a long tradition of scarecrow making across the world and it was interesting to see some in the Wollongong Botanic Gardens yesterday. Not only do they help scare birds away from edible crops, they are are also very decorative and are a great way to get children involved in gardening.

'Our Backyard Festival'

Wollongong Botanic Garden played host today to the second annual 'Our Backyard Festival' on what was a perfect sunny warm day. It was a terrific event with lots of fun stuff aimed at young visitors and stalls promoting everything for developing a sustainable productive organic garden.

Illawarra Rhododendron Gardens

 Large spreading arms of a magnificent Paperbark

 Emerging from the Camellia garden to Lake Patrick Lahiff

 Banks of Azaleas with Melianthus major (foreground right) at 'American Hill'

 White Magnolia with treeline summit of Mt Keira in background

 Lakeside snowdrops and daffodils

Exotic deciduous trees merging with rainforest evergreens

Big dome shaped shrub Rhododendron just starting to flower 

  

Early flowering Rhododendron

Terrible thing to admit that I have never visited this garden even though it is right on my doorstep, a mere five minute drive away for me or a very stiff walk up Mt Pleasant. This 13 hectare (32 acre) garden was established in the late 1960's from land originally owned by BHP (Australian Iron and Steel) but later transferred to the stewardship of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in 1986. The garden is managed by volunteers who have transformed this site into a magnificent garden of grand proportions from what was once a weed infested area of lantana and blackberry. The exotic plantings merge seamlessly with nature trails through regenerated rainforest, which I hope to explore at a later date. (Have heaps more photos from today to post of course!)

Details for visitors:  
Address: Parrish Avenue, Mt Pleasant, Wollongong.
From Sydney take left turn Balgownie exit on Mt Ousley Road Freeway,  then sharp right onto New Mt Pleasant Road. follow signs to garden.
Open all year but only on Saturdays ,Sundays and Public Holidays from 10am to 4pm

Also Open Tuesday from 8am to 12noon. (admission gold coin donation)
 Bookings for weddings and functions phone 02 42843041 or 0411 155 125

Tulipomania

Across the country, and in particular in the nation's capital Canberra, there have been outbreaks of Tulipomania bought on by the sight of thousands of simultaneously flowering tulips in all colours of the rainbow. Last week I went to the local event of 'Tulip Time' held in Corbett Gardens in Bowral in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. It was a great morning out and as always I ended up to talking to nursery folk on the trials and tribulation of growing plants commercially and working in the horticultural industry. 
More tulip photos to come as soon as I get a chance to pick out my favourites.

Le Jardin Serge Gainsbourg, Paris

Australia is at the forefront in developing gardens, parks and open spaces which are conceived and managed as ecological green spaces. Some have that additional role of  garden as memorial, such as my local park which records the history of the coal industry, thus allowing for the value of exchange of inter-generational memory. "I remember when this was just a horse paddock" is what was told to me about this park by an octogenarian.

One of the interesting international examples of this is the garden dedicated to the singer Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) at Porte des Lilas (Paris XIXe). The garden which was opened two years ago covers some 1.4 hectares and was developed on top of a section of the Paris Ring Road (Peripherique Motorway). A gently sloping pathway links the various sections of the garden which includes water features, sport's courts, shade structures and spaces for seating. Planting is largely naturalistic using grasses, native trees and wild meadow style planting as well as small intimate spaces featuring brightly coloured flowers. It is interesting that the flowery sections feature in videos uploaded to YouTube as this style of planting is still perceived as what a garden should be all about, despite it being the least sustainable. The garden site was chosen because of its connection to the first hit song by Gainsbourg, Le Poinconneur des Lilas, a fun song from 1958 about a ticket puncher from the local railway station. This is where memory comes into play as elderly visitors to the garden may have to explain to youngsters that people actually once had jobs like tram conductors who punched a hole in your ticket to indicate your destination.Though with songs from the past often so firmly imprinted in the mind, many visitors here may get nostalgic about les amour perdues (lost loves) or les oubliettes (the forgotten).

What I like about this garden is that no attempt has been made to hide the fact the it has been built on top of a motorway .The main paths lead to a viewing platform of it and to the urban sprawl across the Plaine Saint Denis. Some bloggers have noted that the lawn areas are a bit patchy, weedy and worse for wear but this could be expected since no water is wasted in their upkeep. When the garden was inaugurated, Jane Birkin quipped that people could 'picnic on the grass like the English'. I wonder if she was being tongue in cheek given the Englsh obsession for fine turf and 'Keep off the Grass' signs in public gardens.

I like to listen to the early jazz influenced songs of Gainsbourg. The song below, En relisant ta lettre (On re-reading your letter) is fairly sardonic and bitter, but it does remind me, in an off-beat sort of way, of the wonderfully funny book by American, David Sedaris 'Me talk pretty one day' in which he attempts to get his head around the nuances of the French language.

Jane Birkin and Charlotte Gainsbourg with portrait of Serge Gainsbourg

At the garden inauguration July 8th 2010 

Park of Peace

 

 Dove of Peace by Illawarra artist Michael Keighery

Detail includes tiny heart shaped motif on wing tips, tail and beak

 

Miners' Federation Peace Grove

Caldwell Avenue & Foothills Road, Tarrawanna, New South Wales

Detail includes top representing a miner's helmet with lamp and base of coal coloured tiles placed in a gradient to represent entrance to mine shaft and tunnels. Background planting includes rainforest pioneer, the Brown Kurrajong, Commersonia frazeri, which bears sweetly scented white flowers in spring.

This morning I went to have a look at a new park which was unveiled in my neighbourhood earlier this month. It was commissioned by the Coal Miners' Federation to pay tribute to the men and women who have served the needs of the Australian Coal Industry in the Illawarra for over 100 years, acknowledging and identifying the historic struggles undertaken by coal miners in pursuit of a safer and more peaceful world.

Included is a wall of pictorial tiles displaying interesting photos from the industry as a reminder to future generation of what has been achieved in the local area.

 Part of the park was once a paddock for the pit ponies which worked in the nearby Corrimal Colliery (1883-1985) and in a section called 'The Travelling Road' which marks the pathway taken by miners and ponies on their way to Corrimal, some terrific and touching photos of them are included in the wall tiles. Over 2000 ponies worked in the mines over the years before mechanisation.

 

 From paddock to rainforest thanks to the work of bush regeneration specialists makes this park a real asset to the local community.

Crenellated pruning

Crenellated parapet pruned Euonymus japonicus 'Aureo Marginatus' with background unidentified shrub wearing a brown autumn coat.

I get the feeling that an under-gardener grew tired of endless 'cloud pruning' and shaping of shrubs into nice round shapes and decided to go for a more medieval castle look, perhaps being influenced by a computer game involving dungeons and dragons.

This Euonymus or Japanese Spindle bush has never been a favourite shrub of mine as it always tends to look a little stiff and the colour is a very harsh shade of yellow. Hey big bird canary look at me kind of thing. It also more often than not reverts back to green in places as can be seen in the left section. Maybe this is not an issue if you want to show the Aussie colours of green and gold however. Growth can also be uneven if you plant it as a proper hedge with some sections racing ahead while others sulk and fail to grow properly. I pass a hedge like this where the individual plants look like sullen lumps and have never met up properly. Otherwise it is a very cold and drought hardy shrub with few pest and disease problems.

Crenellated parapet illustration from the Dictionary of French Architecture,11th to 16th Century (1856) by Euguene Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879)

Cloud-pruned Diosma

At the Cowra garden, the shrub Coleonum pullchellum or Diosma is clipped to resemble mossy boulders.The fine textured foliage allows for a smooth finish and the shape can be varied from small low flat 'rocks' in the foreground to larger more rounded ones in the distance.

Banana "Palm" as bedding plant

Here is a French style banana planting, as the centre piece to a circular bed, surrounded by Cannas and bedding Begonias and making quite an impact in this garden. I am not sure where I took this photo and I assume the whole thing is lifted at the end of the season and bought into a glasshouse while the cedar tree in the background gets dusted with snow.

Le Jardin public Fernand Chapsal

Le jardin public Fernand Chapsal est l'un des principaux espaces vert de la ville de Saintes dans le department francais de la Clarente-Maritime
This rock has a wonderful scultptural quality and evokes mountain scenery and wild untamed nature, the perfect contrast in a formal garden setting. I always think formal gardens need abstract organic shapes to make them come alive.

The Oleander Handbook

The Handbook on Oleanders by Richard and Mary Helen Eggenberger is a book of great charm and is the definitive guide to the cultivation of Oleanders and other members of the Apocynaceae Family. It is also a book about a community of keen gardeners who did much to beautify and transform the US City of Galveston with their enthusiasm for this one plant. Up until now, any mention of Galveston got me humming the Jimmy Webb country song about the Spanish American War of 1898 ('I still hear your sea waves crashing /as I watch the cannons flashing / I clean my gun/ And dream of Galveston')
I caught the bug for growing Oleanders during the long years of drought and when I came across a variety I had never seen before I was hooked. I saw the one pictured below in a friend's garden and just had to propagate from it. It is a hose-in-hose pale pink flower with a pearly sheen to the petals ,very delicate and exquisite looking. The parent plant was not particularly robust at a little over 2 metres tall and with smaller leaves than normal. Like many plants you see potential in, this is one I will have to grow on for a few years and perhaps develop as a standard tree shape to show off the delicate flowers to best advantage.
2017 update: I have stock of a range of different Oleanders. Love 'em

 Pale pink hose-in-hose Oleander

The Berkeley Prawn

The recently refurbished prawn sculpture in the Wollongong suburb of Berkeley is a colourful addition to the streetscape .Many of the tiles adorning the work have been made by local schoolchildren . Berkeley hugs the beautiful Lake Illawarra where tiny sweet prawns are plentiful and perfect when making Spanish fritters of Tortillitas de Camarones or Indian curries.
2017 update: RIP the Berkeley prawn sadly removed because of O H & S issues.