Kind of inevitable I would choose to include my mum’s garden as inspiration. A constant work in progress on a 5 acre block at Kenthurst in Sydney’s Hills District. My parents moved here in 1967 and the garden has been evolving ever since.
At 85 my mum can still be found in her garden most mornings. This isn’t a garden you sit and look at, although you can, this is a garden that requires some participation. Whether it’s to take home plants that mum has propagated, to pick flowers or excess citrus or even just to wander around it while my mum curses her gardening nemesis, the bloody wallaby.
During its creation trees have been planted, prospered and died (bye, bye Crabapple), my mum’s own inspiration has made its mark on the garden (thanks Vita) but somehow, always it is distinctly hers – abundant, seemingly abandoned, but never really so, also strict in its way.