a corner of the garden

“Nigel and I are very passionate about this land. My inspiration is my mother, Penny, an intelligent, knowledgeable horticultural force who suggested the amphitheatre effect. It belongs to all of us but it’s really her garden and there’s a lot of love in it. I follow her about like a little rabbit picking up knowledge and tips. The land was a blank canvas. We constructed a garden that is low maintenance, established the orchard and when the house garden is done we’ll get onto the blackberries and lantana on the river bank. We don’t want it too neat, we’re into the meadow. We embrace the weeds and I use them in flower arrangements. Planting rules are made to be broken. It’s experimental, we’re going for bulk same species, planting, everything rare and weird.” Sally, Hunter Valley NSW

“The stone walls in our garden, between the house and the river, were inspired by a stone mason I met in Scotland (I offered him a return ticket to come and build our walls). Our house architect designed the interacting curves of the three walls and the rocks came from the house building site.” Nigel, Hunter Valley NSW

“We moved to a dairy farm on this property in 1979 with trucks of Friesian cattle, chooks, a dog and a cat. In 1994 we closed the dairy, and moved up the farm to a new house here. The garden was a blank canvas. I scavenged a few things from the old place and built a fern house by myself. My Mum brought me many plants including fig and mulberry trees, and a garden began on this gravelly old hill. There were a few eucalypts in the yard and I planted a row of turpentine along the front fence line. I’ve built footpaths through the garden for the grandchildren to explore. Each morning I can’t wait to get out to the garden. I get up, eat breakfast and spend all day out there. My favourite area is my homemade fern house, it’s so cool. And my most useful tool is my right leg on the spade.” Lynne Hunter Valley NSW

“When we bought the old Post Office twenty-four years ago it was a dump out here. I took it on and have developed the garden with a hardware store.” Bob, Yeoval NSW

“This little lamb was separated from her mother so I look after her now. I call her Sassy Susie as she follows me everywhere even into the house. She’s my shadow.” Nicole, Yeoval NSW

“I make these little gardens as a fundraiser for our garden club. I’ve planted this one around a piece of lillypilly timber. There are succulents and some pearlwort, which likes a sunny spot and will have tiny white flowers” Shirley, Maitland NSW

“I’m trying to create more interest in the garden by introducing a wide variety of plants. I don’t want everything to look the same, the shapes of the trees, the hedges, the prostate plants. I want to mix things up; have diverse foliage, colours and textures; different plants flowering throughout the year. You have to look at the aspect, see everything at every angle. And I also want to encourage the little blue wrens.” Cliff, Morpeth

“I must give a little plug for horse manure. I married a man who had horses and every second week he’d clean out the stables. Horse manure and urine on the straw made an excellent mulch. It worked great on the garden if it came directly from the stables. It certainly made a difference.” Barbara, Morpeth

“This iron bark had fallen over at our old house. I brought it with us when we moved here. With this shape, it was too good to leave behind” Tony, Karuah NSW

“A lady gave me most of these plants. She had owned a plant nursery but didn’t have any space when she moved into a nursing home. Here’s a photograph of the orchids in flower. She said ‘just give them a cut back and a feed and they’ll flower in spring’. They are beautiful.” Eileen, Karuah, NSW

“This dendrobium orchid and staghorn came from my mother’s garden near Casino. They grew everywhere up there. Mum had these on a mango tree. I just took a sliver off Mum’s and they’ve been here for 25 years. The orchid only flowers for a short time but there are masses of blooms” Neville, Summer Hill NSW

“My sister Catherine had this ginko in her garden, the top broke off but it shot up again. When she had cancer she felt she could relate to this tree while it repaired itself” Margaret, Summer Hill NSW

“Peter’s great grandfather built this house. The fence has moved further and further out to make the yard larger. The garden is always evolving and our next plans are to plant more shade trees” Kath and Peter, Dungog NSW

"I’ll make a terrarium in this bottle. I’ll just put small rocks on the bottom for drainage, then I’ll cut a bit of flyscreen and put it on top of the rocks. I make up my own soil by adding bark, charcoal, chopped up moss. I find all my stuff for my terrariums rather than buy it. You have to find the right plants that suit, that like high humidity, like you’d find in a rainforest. Moss on the top looks really good. Add a couple of nice looking rocks. This’ll be the smallest one I’ve made” Xavier, Raymond Terrace.

“Our house was built in the 1800s and the property had been cleared and used for cattle. We have lived here from 1991 and our vision then was to create a wildlife friendly environment. Over the past 30 plus years we have created individual ecosystems to create that environment, we have rainforest, eucalyptus forest, pastureland, and wetlands ecosystems. We have provided the habitat, and nature has rewarded us with the wildlife, myriads of birds, butterflies, and reptiles. Our forests and wetlands have endured floods and droughts and are now well established and self-sustaining. Our aim now is to propagate and to give the plants to others to help re-establish some of our lost native habitat” Mal, ‘Valentia’ Paterson NSW

“My art studio was a plant rotunda that I enclosed and extended over the years. Here I create printmaking, paintings, collages, assemblages and more. This painting I’m working on is inspired by the colours of our rainforest, viewed from my window, and will be part of a series” Judy, ‘Valentia’, Paterson NSW

“I love hoyas. I’ve lost count of how many I have. They’re easy to propagate, you can put them in any garden, they’re trainable, plant them near a tree and they’ll climb it. And if they flower that’s a bonus.” Ron, Torryburn