#privategardens Archives - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

Finally, it feels like summer here in Perth and we are getting some hot, sunny days, easterly winds and dry heat. The children arrive home from school all red-faced from their bike ride or walk and ready for a dunk in the pool and a long, cold drink. I love the heat that summer brings and adore all the gorgeous summer blooms that I have in my garden. They make me happy.

Magnolia ‘Teddy Bear’

My garden is only 4 years old and as much as I could, I salvaged favourite plants from the old garden. I have planted tough plants in our garden, which will bloom for us, mostly all year round but especially in the summer when we are spending lots of time outdoors enjoying the long days and warm evenings. I have a good collection of Salvias, Roses and Succulents and I guess our space has a “formal cottage” feel due to the diversity of plants.

Want White?

It’s hard to beat this hardy Iceberg rose which seems to bloom most of the year. We planted it on my first Mothers Day in 2000.

I planted this pretty hibiscus along the pool fence last year, sweet delicate blooms

These bees are going crazy in this magnolia-the fragrance is overwhelming

Our garden survives on the two allowable reticulation waterings per week. We do not have a bore on our property, if we did we would be able to water three times a week. I hand water my pots, they are not on drip irrigation.

I group plants together depending upon their water requirements.

Frangipani grown from a cutting from a friend-you don’t always need to buy all your plants, donations are fun to nurture along.

This frangipani smells like roses and was taken from a cutting from my friend Helens’ cattle station near Broome

Apricot Brugmansia-the fragrance is divine when you’re taking a dip in our pool

This year, my veggie garden is having a bit of a rest and I have planted lots of Salvias and a couple of roses in that bed behind a hedge of Rosemary Tuscan Blue. I, of course, still have herbs and veggies growing in pots! I just can’t resist having fresh herbs for my cooking.

Potted Chilli-so pretty in a shady corner

Burgundy Iceberg-because every good host serves up white and red

The garden is fertilised with mature compost and liquid fertilisers like Seasol Powerfeed and Compost Tea, a great product I picked up in the USA. I try and keep it all as organic as possible. I use anything organic that will bind together our ancient but gutless sand that lies beneath my feet.

Pretty in Pink…..

so many of us forget about this great plant-Oleander-it blooms all year round-this is a “borrowed” plant as it’s feet live in our neighbours yard.

David Austin ‘Jubilee Celebration’ planted for my 50th birthday

This is a climbing pelargonium that I have growing in terracotta pots

I love this geranium..another slip cutting form a friend, happily dwelling here now

Rosa Pierre de Ronsard, slowly making his way up and over my arbour

I just love the lime green colour on the new Pierre de Ronsard buds

This is Hibiscus ‘Apple Blossom’ and it’s an awesome screening plant…and you get flowers!

I mulch my garden every two years with wood chips that I get from my friendly Arborist and I top it up with lupin mulch for pots. We re-use a lot of the leaves and nuts that drop from our Eucalypts for mulch too, they get raked up by Dr Garden Consultant and put into the garden beds.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ was a favourite of my friend Margy who we sadly lost to cancer a few years ago-I always think of her when I look at this plant

This rare tradescantia was give to me many years ago by as nurseryman from down south.

I’m not really one that likes being told that I can’t do something- and so, I break all the rules for our climate. You can have a pretty garden in the summer. You can have an organised, abundance of flowers. You can have lovely garden on just two waterings a week. You can have a healthy patch of lawn. You can create a habitat garden in an urban setting.

I am always observing my garden to see the huge variety of bugs and birds that come to visit, I have provided lots of height variation so that we get a variety of birds and insects and somehow in this relatively small patch of dirt, we have created a habitat where they all seem to live in happy harmony and no-one eats too much of what they shouldn’t, everyone is kept in check by the other. Even Jazz, the Labradoodle chases away the doves when they eat too much of her kibble!

What’s flowering at your place this summer?

OK, so last year, I had this great idea to plant a passionfruit against our fence. This is not the first I’ve planted but IT WILL BE THE LAST!

How Gorgeous, you say…well, think again!

We dreamed of loads of juicy, fragrant, passionfruit pulp oozing over freshly whipped cream on top of home-made pavlova and the sheer joy of knowing that I had grown them myself.

I already had this in mind when I planted my vine

I carefully chose a Nellie Kelly Grafted passionfruit and here’s what Nellie Kelly say about it…”

Nellie Kelly Grafted Black Passionfruit

Passiflora caerulea (rootstock), Passiflora edulis (scion)

The Nellie Kelly Grafted Black Passionfruit has delighted generations of Australian gardeners with its hardy rootstock and tasty fruit. The grafted black is grown around Australia, from the cooler south to the northern sub-tropics and is self-fertile, requiring only one plant. The vine produces round, medium-sized fruit that is soft to firm with a juicy tanginess that sweetens as the fruit wrinkles and matures over summer and autumn. The Nellie Kelly Grafted Black Passionfruit vine will cover an area of 6 to 8 square meters during an 8 to 10-year lifespan, producing up to 400 pieces of fruit each season.

Plant in a sunny, well-drained area and expect flowers from early spring with fruit ripening during summer. With any grafted plant it is vitally important to remove any growth below the graft, including suckers, using a sharp knife or blade.”

I prepared the hole as I always tell people with lots of “good tucker”, my personal planting mix, a lovely rich blend of mature compost and blood and bone, some people even say you should put a whole cows liver into the planting but I did not go that far this time.

I picked one out from the nursery which looked just like this one.

I planted it and watered it in well, it was growing very nicely along the trellis then one day I spotted the first, day two, three more and…..

what they don’t say is that this baby can send out suckers

…not just a few either…

They are EVERYWHERE!

They are popping up all through my lawn.

They have gone under the fence into our neighbours’ yard, right through my perennial border plantings, around the base of all of our deciduous trees and every single morning, I am pulling out new suckers. It is a job that I could well do without on a warm summer’s day…and to date-no flowers-all the energy in that plant is going into those darn suckers which are trying to take over my whole yard. The leaves are quite different from the grafted plant, much lighter green and on thin evil, tentacle-like vine stems that grab onto everything alive or dead.

So, if you’re looking for me this summer, it looks like, I will be in the backyard pulling out very much unwanted, very much un-loved and super annoying Passiflora caerulea, ROOTSTOCK!!!!

Next year, I’m buying locally grown passionfruit pulp or making friends with someone who has too many and I will let someone else deal with these suckers!

Have you ever planted something that went nuts in your garden????

Photos Courtesy of Nellie Kelly-Thanks they are lovely!

Tag: #privategardens

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