Heronswood’s evergreen cottage garden

Unpredictable weather patterns and heightened seasonal variations are hallmarks of the changing climate that we as gardeners have to contend with. By replanting the cottage garden that surrounds the neo-Gothic granite Heronswood house, we have created a garden that is more resilient for what lies ahead by removing thirsty perennials and replacing them with a suite of flowering and foliage plants that we know will perform.

The resilience of the modern garden starts with the soil. To improve drainage, it’s advisable to create raised or mounded garden beds combined with high organic content to enable better moisture retention. Given the predicted shift from La Niña to El Niño, this type of structural foundation certainly hedges our bets (garden pun intended).

The ‘new’ cottage garden

At Heronswood we have the benefit of a sloped site for natural drainage, but this only makes the retention of moisture more critical during the hot, dry months. A tiered approach helps to slow water flow down the site, while improved organic content (through the addition of compost and mulches) ensures adequate absorption.

With the foundations right, its time to look at the composition of the garden. The selection of plants is largely dependent on the various micro-climates of the garden, available resources and our desired aesthetic.

The shift away from thirsty garden designs has continued, but the desire for a lush garden has not. Gardens need to provide a retreat and a space of solace but without the intense maintenance or drain on resources once associated with ornamental gardens.

Fortunately, gone are the days of laying pebbles out as mulch and popping a yucca, agave and bird of paradise in a garden bed with a decorative urn. Gardeners want more from their landscape, and thankfully we can plan and plant a sustainable garden that delivers on aesthetics as well as function.

Weeds use water, so using desirable ornamental or edible ground covers as a living mulch is an excellent way of filling the garden with colour and form, while minimising maintenance and water loss. Selecting the right ground cover for the position is imperative and one drip plants (those that need no supplementary water once established) are ideal. A combination of foliage colours and shapes creates the tapestry of the garden, connecting the larger feature plants, trees, shrubs and perennials.

Flowers and diversity

Not only a valuable resource for bees, birds and beneficial insects, flowers also create seasonal interest, with the ability to bring 12 months of excitement to the garden. Spring flowering cottage garden plants make way for summer flowering perennials, before being joined by autumn flowering bulbs and drought-hardy flowering succulents, which are then followed by winter flowering hellebores and shade plants. For a procession of colour, interest and form, plants are selected for their suitability to the colour scheme, their various seasonal attributes and their form.

Trees set the mood for the garden and the right selection can shape your garden for the future, creating a shady retreat for outdoor entertaining or the ideal place for a swing or hammock. The plants established in their shade also bring diversity and an opportunity for a change of pace, garden rhythm and plant selection.

Successful gardens have enough diversity to create interest, with enough repetition to look planned and purposeful. It is this balance that sets the framework of a garden, along with trees and shrubs of varying heights and forms. Grasses bring a natural, whimsical element, with their decorative seedheads adding to their overall appeal. These final additions are the finishing touches that take a garden from a collection of plants to a coherent landscape design.

A living encyclopaedia

Our Diggers gardens are living experiments, testing plants under different Australian conditions to gain valuable knowledge regarding their heights, habits and tolerances.

Plants grow differently around the world, and understanding how a plant will perform in Australian conditions is paramount to their success in the average backyard. We avoid overwatering and mollycoddling as this is something only a fraction of gardeners will undertake, with most preferring to work with the prevailing conditions to plant a sustainable, yet beautiful and often productive garden.

Written by Marcelle Swanson, Diggers horticultural editor, sustainable farmer and author.