Sue visits Chartwell
Presenter: Sue McDougall
Episode: 25 (20th October 2007)
Large gardens are a source of inspiration for many gardeners and just because a garden is large, there is nothing that can relate to you and the average suburban backyard. Often the design features you see in gardens such as this can be adapted in small ones.
Water use is one of the greatest challenges when it comes to maintaining a garden of large scale. The owners need to implement water wise practices such as thick layers of mulch, dripper reticulation and of course water wise plant selection.
Sue took a tour of Chartwell in Mundaring to see how you can become inspired to make a difference to the amount of water you use in your garden. The garden is situated on Great Eastern Highway and instead of using water thirsty plants for a hedge, a bottlebrush has been planted. This tough hardy plant screens brilliantly has dark green foliage and bright red flowers. The variety is Kings Park Special and it has gorgeous soft lighter green new growth.
To keep it bushy it just needs a regular trim, with the hedge shears all over. Trimming can be carried out at any time of the year, but if you want to enjoy the flowers, wait until the flowers have finished before getting the hedge shears out.
Another superb hedge is the Wedding Bush. It is a West Australian plant and is prized for its masses of star shaped flowers in spring. The dark green foliage ensures the plant always looks lush and exotic. In reality it’s tough, waterwise once established and only needs occasional watering during summer.
For brilliant foliage colour in spring, Sue has a favourite. It is the Photinia robusta which is so tough that once established it does not need any additional watering at all. It grows to about three metre high but can be trimmed to virtually any height. It has gorgeous new red growth which stays on the plants for about eight weeks.
Native plants put so much effort into flowering this time of the year that a sprinkling of a controlled release fertiliser at the moment will mean the plant can replenish all the nutrients that have been used up over the spring flowering season.
Featured Garden
Chartwell
5360 Great Eastern Hwy
Mudaring WA
Open as part of the Australia’s Open Garden Scheme on the 3rd and 4th of November.
Featured Plants
King’s Park Special Bottlebrush (Callistemon, Hybrid Cultivar, ‘Kings Park Special)
Wedding Bush (Ricinocarpus tuberculatus)
Photinia (Photinia fraserii ‘Robusta’)
Episode: 25 (20th October 2007)
Large gardens are a source of inspiration for many gardeners and just because a garden is large, there is nothing that can relate to you and the average suburban backyard. Often the design features you see in gardens such as this can be adapted in small ones.
Water use is one of the greatest challenges when it comes to maintaining a garden of large scale. The owners need to implement water wise practices such as thick layers of mulch, dripper reticulation and of course water wise plant selection.
Sue took a tour of Chartwell in Mundaring to see how you can become inspired to make a difference to the amount of water you use in your garden. The garden is situated on Great Eastern Highway and instead of using water thirsty plants for a hedge, a bottlebrush has been planted. This tough hardy plant screens brilliantly has dark green foliage and bright red flowers. The variety is Kings Park Special and it has gorgeous soft lighter green new growth.
To keep it bushy it just needs a regular trim, with the hedge shears all over. Trimming can be carried out at any time of the year, but if you want to enjoy the flowers, wait until the flowers have finished before getting the hedge shears out.
Another superb hedge is the Wedding Bush. It is a West Australian plant and is prized for its masses of star shaped flowers in spring. The dark green foliage ensures the plant always looks lush and exotic. In reality it’s tough, waterwise once established and only needs occasional watering during summer.
For brilliant foliage colour in spring, Sue has a favourite. It is the Photinia robusta which is so tough that once established it does not need any additional watering at all. It grows to about three metre high but can be trimmed to virtually any height. It has gorgeous new red growth which stays on the plants for about eight weeks.
Native plants put so much effort into flowering this time of the year that a sprinkling of a controlled release fertiliser at the moment will mean the plant can replenish all the nutrients that have been used up over the spring flowering season.
Featured Garden
Chartwell
5360 Great Eastern Hwy
Mudaring WA
Open as part of the Australia’s Open Garden Scheme on the 3rd and 4th of November.
Featured Plants
King’s Park Special Bottlebrush (Callistemon, Hybrid Cultivar, ‘Kings Park Special)
Wedding Bush (Ricinocarpus tuberculatus)
Photinia (Photinia fraserii ‘Robusta’)
AS SEEN ON 
