We set very high standards which are difficult to achieve. We would love to have your view on our three simple steps, and also the time it takes to reach the confident and coherent gardening skill levels.
Australian gardens are in their infancy compared with gardening traditions that have evolved in Europe. The highly admired English garden evolved over 400 years and depended on importing and adopting flowers from overseas, since England’s native plant range was so poor. Australia’s arid regions are a rich source of plants but their arid textures rarely suit our need for cool visual refreshment during our hot summers.
Despite the fact that the botanic gardens in Melbourne and Adelaide are among the finest gardens ever created, a uniquely Australian style seems decades away.
A garden must arise from its site, nurtured by intuitive gardeners who understand the soil, the climate and the seasonality of the plants. Few gardens reach the level of fine art because the skills necessary to achieve this are so rare that it often requires a partnership of diverse talents.
Gardening knowledge builds slowly over time. It requires persistence to build that knowledge about plant growing habits, climates and soils. The accumulation of knowledge takes longer and is even more comprehensive than that needed even by the most highly-paid medical practitioner.
Let me explain: for every one of the 800 plants and seeds that Diggers lists, there are about 45 variables that need to be considered for growing success in climates as different as Hobart to Cairns. For gardeners to accumulate 36,000 bits of information would take perhaps 20 years, which is about the same time it takes to prepare a child for adulthood.
Level 3: Confident Gardener
The knowledge base needed to grow plants successfully is just the basic level of gardening. If you were living in Bali where every family grows their own food, you would have been growing food for 10 years by the age of 15. Such is the difference between an agricultural, rather than tertiary economy. Most Australians today have to learn basic growing skills and may not reach growing competence until aged 30-40 years old.
Level 5: Coherent Gardener:
‘The power of intelligent combination’
To create a coherent garden takes artistic skill on top of growing competence, so that the garden, its house and its borrowed landscape are all in visual harmony.
Level 8: Elite Gardeners
Elite gardeners are largely found in world-class gardens (counted in the hundreds only).
