CCPLF ’14 Coastal Planting Cornucopia

Plant Hunters EXTREME at CCPLF’13 last year, be early !!…my Coastal Planting talk from 1pm Sat with Mark Paul

Central Coast Plant Lovers Fair ’14 ….

Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September, Kariong Mountains Primary School 9am to 4pm THIS WEEKEND !
Kariong, Central Coast, NSW

Such a FREE Speakers line up !! Both days of THIS weekend …
I’ll be doing a 2 hander on Coastal Gardening with Mark Paul on his Greenwalls from 1pm on Saturday.

Don’t join just to hear us, get there early for all the fabulous planting on offer, much of it you simply won’t see again until next year’s Fair !

Costa & me Give Good Rooftop…

The week before last, ABC Gardening Australia host Costa Giorgiadis (thanks huge Costa…) met me on this rather nice Cremorne Rooftop, to extol the virtues of dry sub-tropical gardening.

Joined by proud owners Noelene & Ian Dawes, (thanks huge-er Noelene & Ian…) it was a fun shoot as you can see on the attached link and I like to think much of the planting would adapt to so called “difficult locations” around your own garden, where harsh radiation, fast drainage and a high impact appearance are required with year round interest sans irrigation and not much maintenance.

And thanks huge also to the talents and flawless eye of Master Maintainer Glenice Buck, without whom this space wouldn’t be nearly so appealing.

Have a quick look if you missed it…

Paradisus No. 6 “The Sea-changer”.

Beginning again …. Paradisus No. 6 “The Sea-changer”.

Having spent all my 52 years on this planet in a Sydney setting in one way or another, the time has come to leave the confines of city life and embrace fresh surf air and sandy top soil beneath the sheltered but open sky conditions of my new plot at Forresters Beach (between Bateau Bay and Wambaral Lagoon) here at Spoon Bay on the Central Coast.

All that remains of Paradisus No. 5 the “Inner City Jewel Box Court” are these few pots. Three weekends of frantic pot ups have now passed in saving anything flicked out in haste before the move. After a bit of current house surgery, my roving eye now lands speculatively in regular spots around this new 725ish square meters ….. and ideas are beginning to form …

Watch this space dear reader, so you can check in on how this unsuspecting block morphs into a better life … beyond its wildest dreams !

MOOHAARRRR (said while rubbing hands together).

Greenwall Inspirations & ABC 702 Small Gardens tomorrow!

“After visiting Peter Nixon and Ian McMaugh’s gardens on Open Gardens Australia we were inspired to create two vertical gardens in our inner-city Sydney courtyard. Recycled window security grilles were attached to wooden walls with turnbuckles and doorstops to give stability and clearance. In this courtyard with a northerly aspect Bromeliads and orchids are thriving and their verdant growth has created an eye-catching focal point.”

– Judy Ellis local Darlington resident

Just loved this… and did you know I’ll be talking further TOMORROW (SATURDAY 28th June) sometime between 8.45 and 9.30am with ABC 702 radio announcer Simon Marnie on Weekends, about how to make the most of a little. If that’s all the garden you’ve got, well, make the most of it !! Hope you’ll join me.