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Canberra Today 12°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Start thinking summer, now!

THE last month of autumn continues with glorious weather and regular rain to keep the garden looking its best.

With thoughts of a cold winter to come, it is an ideal time to think about next summer, sun and shade.

This week, I have returned to my occasional series of landscape ideas to enhance the quality of outdoor living and value of a home.

Gazebos and pergolas are essential items with our hot summers providing welcome shade. Rather than ones connected to the home, I am looking at free-standing units in the garden surrounded by fragrant plants.

Gazebo style

Traditional gazebo for a 1928 Canberra home.
THE gazebo style should reflect the age and type of home. For example, I have illustrated here a typical hexagonal gazebo I designed to suit the original 1928 Canberra home. It is located at the end of a path leading from the swimming pool. The roof is western red cedar shingles. Thornless roses growing over the gazebo complete the romantic picture – a perfect place to relax and enjoy the surrounding garden.

Breeze catcher

An ultra-modern gazebo for a modern home.
FOR modern Canberra homes with Colorbond roofs or using corrugated iron, an equally modern gazebo is required. The gazebo illustrated was designed and constructed by Decoin Industries, in Hume, and displayed at Floriade.

This open gazebo is ideal for catching any breeze in the home garden and possibly surrounded by additional shade trees. It is low maintenance, especially if the metal is powder-coated.

Fragrant shrubs such as Osmanthus “Heaven Sent” or the new Daphne “Eternal Fragrance” are planted close by to complete the picture. The latter is the hardy variety from Southern Italy.

For creepers

Pergola to suit the style and period of the home.
I DESIGNED this pergola to suit the style of home in old Canberra. Eventually Vitis coignetiae or ornamental grape will provide summer shade over the top with stunning autumn leaf colour and allowing sun through in winter. One still has to keep in mind regular maintenance if it is timber. This is why I would not recommend any clinging climbers such as Parthenocissus quinquefolia or Virgina Creeper on a pergola.

For the same reason, do not grow these on the home, especially if it is painted or rendered. Also be aware that Wisteria can have tremendous strength and thick stems that can literally bring down a timber pergola.

So now is the time to go through the garden books and magazines to plan where to install a gazebo or pergola ready for next summer.

MAYBE we should have a healthier respect for snails? “You’re joking!” I hear you say. But snails – or rather their shells – play an important role in knowing all about soils, especially so in Britain and Europe.

To ascertain what plants were growing in pre-history, say 3500BC to 2500BC, there are certain indicators, according to Francis Pryor, author of “The Making of the British Landscape”.

One is carbon dating of timber found in prehistoric sites and plant pollen, which survives almost indefinitely. The other is looking at snail shells. Different types of snails like varying conditions, as with plants, some prefer dry conditions, wet conditions, or full sun or shade. Snail shells, tens of thousands of years old, found in excavations tell us about the vegetation in an area, heavily treed or open country etcetera.

What’s to be done this week?

  • Finish planting bulbs now. Check garden centres for clearance specials.
  • Raise all outdoor pots off the ground to prevent water logging.
  • Lift and divide rhubarb crowns to increase production.
  • Keep accumulation of falling leaves off hedges.
  • Final reminder, once 90 per cent of leaves have fallen off fruit trees, spray with Kocide or Bordeaux to prevent brown rot in fruit next season.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Cedric Bryant

Cedric Bryant

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