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The garden, and its crops of vegetables and fruit, as well as the fresh free
range hen and duck eggs, are available for guests to pick or collect for their
meals at Kookaburra Hill. I love to share the beautiful blooms, eggs and crops with guests.
 
The 5.2 acres of the property slope upwards with hills
to the south and south-west and the highest 2 acres of native bushland at the rear of the property
are high above Kangaroo Valley. This page describes
the garden that has been planted by myself and the previous owners who built the
house with its adjoining self contained accommodation in 1999. Photographs will be added
and updated regularly later.
The eating garden A vegetable garden is fenced to keep out rabbits at night. The fruit trees are mostly young still but good crops have been gathered from the plums (January), sour cherry and apricots (November - December. The 3 black fig trees are small still but produced luscious pink fruit in late summer (perfect grilled with brown sugar and marscapone). There is a lemon tree outside the guest unit and oranges, mandarin, lime and more lemon trees in the small orchard section on the village side of the driveway. Other fruit trees planted are: pineapple guava, persimmon, apple (red fuji, granny smith), cherry, nashi pear, quince, peach and in the chook yard an apple (pink lady), peach and a fig have been planted as an experiment but these will take some time to be productive. Harry, the groodle, is pictured with one of flowering plums.
The fragrant garden
Along the 40-metre width of the house is a wide bed planted with many
roses. There is a gravel path between this bed and the house and directly in front
of the house is planted: 1 Gregoire Stachelin (planted in the thick gravel of
the driveway but produced the most stunning blooms in her first year), 6 Crepuscle
climbers along the stainless steel verandah posts as well as French Lavender spilling
over the path, and a Zéphirine Drouhin climbing thornless rose on the deck
off the entrance to the accommodation. The color scheme of these roses is cerise, red,
purple, cream, pink, beige and apricot. All have been selected on the basis of
their fragrance as well as lack of thorns near the accommodation.
 
On the front lawn area there is bed with 4 cabbage gums and travelling up one is a Lamarque climber and up another is a Banksia rose. A new bed, the Tea Garden, has been dug across the lawn here to give some privacy for guests at an old hardwood table and chairs and has been planted with several large and dense tea roses, 2 Souvenir d'un Ami, 1 Monsieur Tillier, 1 Triomphe du Luxemborg, a Safrano and a Mrs Herbert Stevens. There is also a Fantin Latour and a Sir Robert Peel rhododendrom. These pinks, cream and cerise continue the colors of the front. A "before" shot is shown (with Bluey sampling the lucerne mulch) - how long for the "after"?
On the eastern side of the accommodation, on
the side fence separating the rear lawns from dogs, are climbers Lady Hillingdon
and Souvenir du Madam Leonie Viennot. On the southern side of the house are 13
large roof beams that come to steel posts. On alternating beams are planted 6
Graham Thomas (DA) and 6 Iceberg climbers. On the western side are 2 Lamarque
climbing roses. The colors here then are yellow, white and cream. This color scheme
continues into the chook house which has the best views of all and has the beautiful
cream climber tea Devoniesis, pink Albertine and Gold Bunny - the color of the
rich eggs.
The western side of the lawn near the house has the small orchard but on the
fence, a new bed has been planted with Renae climbing roses to form a thornless
hedge. Where there is shade from some large trees, 2 Isaac Perriere roses, a Souvenir du Docteur Jamain and a Baron Girod (all red/cerise) have been planted. On a bank nearby is a Seafoam grown from a cutting
of a rose at a previous house.
The rose planting has been a large exercise and I am not an expert in this
field, although I am learning a lot. I acknowledge the wonderful ideas from rose
lovers on the Roses in Oz Garden
Web Forum.
The front acre of the property has more than 250 cabbage
gums but there was no understorey and the lawns continue under the gum trees. Roses planted here are: a Cecile Brunner that appeared after some
heavy rain, and on the fence, a New Dawn and 4 Iceberg climbers. Travelling into
this woodland area, is a Heritage (DA) rose as well as 6 gardenias and 1 standard
gardenia, a tall standard white Wisteria (grown by myself from a cutting), a magnolia stellata, 4 cream camellias, and 8 pink camellias. The next
bed contains a tall weeping Golden Touch rose, and there is a hedge of 8 Buddleia
or butterfly trees planted near the fence and a neighbour's house. Along the fence
nearer the property entrance are 4 Sombreuil tea roses and 2 Madame Lombard. Along the
front fence is 8 Crepuscle roses which are having a hard time getting established
with the gum trees nearby. A bed near the front fence has 6 Heideschnee roses and one on the other side has 2 Constance Spry roses, a rugosa Blanc Double de Coubert and a China Doll rose creeping along along a fallen giant gum trunk.
The garden is dotted with many friesias and irises planted by the previous
owners as well as daffodils and jonquils. These are so lovely as winter changes
to spring. I have added bluebells under the gum trees in the front. Part of the
lawn in one section has self seeded with freesias to such an extent that it will
not be necessary to mow the lawn in this section in the winter months.
The native garden
There are many bird-attracting plants that have been added to the property.
This includes a double fence of more than 150 Callistemon Pink Perth and Pink Alma (pink bottlebrush)
along much of the eastern boundary and in front of the B&B on the suggestion
of a gardener in the valley, Brigit Earl. These are now about a metre tall. The eastern boundary
runs as a water course in heavy rain and rocks have been added in between the
callistemon rows to lessen soil erosion. The eastern boundary becomes a gully
in the front acre and it is quite a job to keep this clear of invasive creepers.
More of the pink callistemon have been planted to join the many native trees,
shrubs and wattles planted by the previous owners.
The garden bed in front of the house, has several Ned Kelly (red) Grevillias in the front bed
(although 2 other grevillias here died probably from too much water during a period
of rain) and several large clumps of Kangaroo Paw and these established shrubs
attract numerous birds each day. There are 2 Superb (red) Grevillias planted in
front of the B&B and in the circular bed nearby and a Banksia on the corner
of the B&B attracts the Black cockatoo when the seed pods are just right.
They wake you up with their raucous call!
A group of 5 Sylvia (pink) Grevillias have been planted on the western border
in the front acre as well as 5 Callistemon Salignus Rubra (Red Willow Bottlebrush)
to give some privacy between a neighbour's house and the garden. A group of 20
(lemon) Callistemon Pallidus are planted around the vegetable garden.
The driveway near the entrance has been planted with 50 White Anzac callistemon which are starting now to thrive - I am planning to try and propagate these and continue the driveway up between the white-flowered Manchurian Pears which are planted at the top end of the driveway where there are not so many eucalypts.
A dam has been installed at the rear near the native bushland and 3 Gymea Lilies
and numerous Lomandra Longifolia raised from seed and 2 Red
Cedar trees have been planted above the dam as there are more of these in
the bushland above the dam. When they establish, they should provide shade around
the dam in the summer.
The shade garden
Several large trees have been planted, in addition to the ones that existed.
The previous owners planted 2 Linden trees at the rear of the house and these
are starting to develop well now and should provide wonderful shade around the
pool that is to be installed. There is a wonderful legend about the oak and the
linden
tree.
In the front garden, I have planted an old pink Crepe Myrtle (that lived
in a pot for 10 years), a Golden Elm, 2 Magnolia grandiflora trees and in front
of the B&B, 2 Golden Robinias. These should provide shade and comfort on those
long hot summer days and allow one to stretch out on the lawns in privacy and
peace. I have also planted 4 Evergreen Alders and a Golden Ash to give privacy from neighbouring
gardens on each side of the acre at the entrance.
A wonderful green adventure!
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