"ant" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:

but then she ends up with a stunning garden as
only Poms seem to be able to achieve (sigh). If you are a keen
gardener then I'd recommend buying it but if you are only looking
for
ideas then I would recommend borrowing it through al library even
if
you ahve to shel out the $3.50 for the interlibrary loan fee.

Sounds like a nice book, even just to read. but sounds like it'd be
useful.
I'll ferret it out. My mother is a horticulturalist and very
successful
nursery owner, but she's always been into English style gardens and
just
doesn't understand my hydrophobic soil, the wind, the dryness. she
put a
bloody fernery under my eastern deck for goddsake. Tattered
struggling
things they are. Then she planted a camellia next to it. Words fail
me.

LOL. Take heart. I started in this place with some very rotten dirt
and the hydophobic soil too. It took me a long time of using manure
and mulch but each year things do get better. I now have worms and
instead of being a pale calf sht yellow colour I now have soem areas
of rich brown soil.

I found a neighbour who has horses and no garden. I now get ute loads
of manure and spread it fresh and then mulch over the poop. I don't
have time to age it and I find that it doesn't seem to make any
difference to the ornamental plants. For the veg, I just spread it on
the beds at the beginning of winter anf fallow them with leaf or
lucerns straw mucl on top - come spring it's lovely.

BTW, not all English style plants are a failure in our area - it just
means choosing the right ones. Tell your mother to give you some
Euphorbia s - they do reasonably well in rotten soilb ut do
brilliantly in better soil. I buy 2 English gardenign mags -
"Garedens Illustrated" and "The English Garden" as I find that the
ideas are so good int hem for design and mass planting but then I have
to choose the local do good plants.

There are lovely dry gardens in our area... the sculpture garden
down at the
National Gallery, for instance, and over at the Botanical Gardens
there's a
real beauty.

Yes they are lovely, especially the sculpture garden. But go for a
walk through the ANU at sometime - good ideas there.

Also go off to some fo the open gardesn roudn here - lots of good ones
round here. Try to get to Michelago if it's ever open.

My mother thinks a grass garden is a mass of grass that'll
catch fire. I see a grass garden as sort of minature landscape,
with
paving, rocks placed carefully, gravel, and grasses. A book would
help,
pictures showing what can be done. I'll check it out. Thanks!

Sa'llright. Don't neglect to think about using sawdust - it is great
if you can find bulk manure to mix it with.