News location:

Canberra Today 25°/28° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Open gardens bloom in spring

BRIAN and Penny Tetlow’s fragrant, flowery garden, overflowing with daffodils, daphne, jonquils, crocuses and pansies, hellebores, primulas and polyanthus, was created thanks to a collapsing gum tree. 

“It had been a much-loved tree for our four kids to play on, but one quiet spring morning it snapped at the roots and fell on our front garden, destroying everything,” says Brian.

“As well as the garden being crushed, there had always been other problems – the soil was hard and gravelly and frustratingly, anything we planted almost always died or grew extremely slowly.”

Some years later, Brian and Penny hired a landscaper, Tony Mumberson of At Home Landscaping, to help them create the garden they wanted.

“He brought in countless truck loads of good soil and a large number of large rocks to create the terracing,” says Brian.

The result is a series of softly winding, wide paths beneath flowering plums, a Manchurian pear, and a stunning 50-year-old pink camellia.

Brian’s fragrant, colourful garden will open for the first time as part of Open Gardens Australia, which will kick off its 25th anniversary open-garden season on September 1-2, the first weekend of spring.

The couple was so happy with the no-lawn front yard, which provides year-round colour and scent, that they engaged the same landscaper to do the back garden several years later.

As Penny has MS, they wanted the back garden to be easy access. Now the soft, sloping wide paths are ideal, and are also enjoyed by Brian’s mother who is in a wheelchair.

“We lined the pathways with thyme, as I like sweet-smelling things,” says Brian. “I have a reputation as being the worst gardener in my family, so it’s a great joke to them that I’ve got a nice garden now!

“It’s manageable to maintain now that the bones are there.”

Two ponds in the backyard, with a gentle waterfall separating them, are home to several frog species – which Brian has never seen, but says can always be heard – and are popular with the local birdlife.

“It’s a surprise to me that the birds love the ponds so much,” he says. “It wasn’t the intention, but every day there are rosellas, magpies, currawongs and wattle birds, who love to dive in and out of the water.

“It provides wonderful entertainment when we’re having lunch on the veranda!”

The garden at 9 Lomandra Street, O’Connor, will be open on Saturday, September 1 and Sunday, September 2, 10am-4.30pm. Adults $7, children under 18 are free. Funds raised will go to the Open Garden Scheme and The MS Society. More information at www.opengarden.org.au.

Colour and contrasts

Also open this weekend is a beautiful garden with year-round colour and gorgeous foliage contrasts at 14 Harcourt Street, Weetangera. Sheltering beneath mature trees and shrubs are abundant swathes of native plants, including pandorea, philotheca, wattles, banksias and the low-growing grevillea.

Terraced beds enjoy the dappled shade of mature eucalypts, while the images of native and exotic animals dotted around the garden add an element of surprise and will particularly delight young children.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Kathryn Vukovljak

Kathryn Vukovljak

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Gardening

Blue flowers brighten a drab plant

"The sky-blue flowers are most interesting with a little frill on each of the petals that make up for this drab looking plant," says gardening writer JACKIE WARBURTON of common chicory.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews