Gargoyle Garden
The Gargoyle Garden is a lovely spot to sit in the afternoon in the summer as it is shaded from the harsh sun by a claret ash tree. In the mornings it's one of our favourite sunny spots for breakfast.
Originally this was the site where a truck and trailer load of rocks was dumped by Paul's very generous brother Peter
to help with landscaping the garden. We were able to move a lot of the rocks to different parts of the garden but ran out of oomph. These were some of the heavier ones that we decided to shimmy around in a 'grotto' like arch and design a garden to suit. Our boys claimed it as their push bike trials park for a few years but eventually I took it over.
My elder sister Christine was generous enough to donate us a used feed bag of white iris which I planted across the top of the rocks. Again our friend Tanya helped us out with some gargoyles from her shop with a healthy discount. We bought a couple of ornamental weeping cypress to frame each side of the sitting area then filled the lower part of this garden with tough lambs ears that recover quite well from the dry after a decent rain.
To the east is our resident ant hill complete with ants. I got that idea from a quaint little nursery in Daylesford Victoria. Oh and directly in front of the Gargoyle Garden is a crouching dragon near a European fan palm, under the fourth, in an arch of nine, claret ash trees.
We planted two rows of oleanders behind the iris on the mound: one of single hot pink and the other double pink which were all grown from cuttings and have needed to be replaced several times because of frost damage.
I'm still trying to get the palms to behave and grow where I want them but the soil, the frosts and competition from a beautiful gum tree over the road has made this garden a particular challenge. There will be three Canary Island palms across the back of this garden at regular intervals; two cotton palms on the top level amongst the iris (one each side framing the garden on the top level) ; and a wine palm located centrally at the top (or an African cabbage tree (cussonia) depending on which one I can get to grow).
I had a pot full of dead horse lilies that I was keen to plant somewhere a little away from the house for obvious reasons.
They only flower for a short time in Spring but are very pungent when they do. Anyway what better place to plant them than in the open air of a Gargoyle Garden. As with the rest of our garden this one is a work in progress. I have the ideas but mother nature has the final say.
Please enjoy the pictures and hopefully when you visit you'll enjoy the tranquillity and muse of the Gargoyle Garden.
Originally this was the site where a truck and trailer load of rocks was dumped by Paul's very generous brother Peter
to help with landscaping the garden. We were able to move a lot of the rocks to different parts of the garden but ran out of oomph. These were some of the heavier ones that we decided to shimmy around in a 'grotto' like arch and design a garden to suit. Our boys claimed it as their push bike trials park for a few years but eventually I took it over.
My elder sister Christine was generous enough to donate us a used feed bag of white iris which I planted across the top of the rocks. Again our friend Tanya helped us out with some gargoyles from her shop with a healthy discount. We bought a couple of ornamental weeping cypress to frame each side of the sitting area then filled the lower part of this garden with tough lambs ears that recover quite well from the dry after a decent rain.
To the east is our resident ant hill complete with ants. I got that idea from a quaint little nursery in Daylesford Victoria. Oh and directly in front of the Gargoyle Garden is a crouching dragon near a European fan palm, under the fourth, in an arch of nine, claret ash trees.
We planted two rows of oleanders behind the iris on the mound: one of single hot pink and the other double pink which were all grown from cuttings and have needed to be replaced several times because of frost damage.
I'm still trying to get the palms to behave and grow where I want them but the soil, the frosts and competition from a beautiful gum tree over the road has made this garden a particular challenge. There will be three Canary Island palms across the back of this garden at regular intervals; two cotton palms on the top level amongst the iris (one each side framing the garden on the top level) ; and a wine palm located centrally at the top (or an African cabbage tree (cussonia) depending on which one I can get to grow).
I had a pot full of dead horse lilies that I was keen to plant somewhere a little away from the house for obvious reasons.
They only flower for a short time in Spring but are very pungent when they do. Anyway what better place to plant them than in the open air of a Gargoyle Garden. As with the rest of our garden this one is a work in progress. I have the ideas but mother nature has the final say.
Please enjoy the pictures and hopefully when you visit you'll enjoy the tranquillity and muse of the Gargoyle Garden.