Guest Garden: Brewery Hill Native Garden
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of visiting Brewery Hill Native Garden in Gympie.
It was an open garden that I simply couldn’t miss as it was the last time Carolle was opening her garden to the public. I don’t blame her – it take an enormous effort to open a garden to others. Just the weeding alone and wanting to have everything looking its best is enough. But Carolle went above and beyond to make it a very special day out for everyone who visited.
This garden features so many ideas that have inspired my own gardens!
Click on any photo below to see it full size.
Featured Gardener
Carolle Gadd – Brewery Hill Native Garden
Location & Climate:
Located in Gympie, south east Queensland.
Gympie enjoys a sub-tropical climate but I would generally say it is drier than the Sunshine Coast as it receives a little less of the coastal rains in summer.
Site & Soil:
Carolle and her husband started turning this two and a half acre cow paddock into an Australian native Garden in 2009. It’s a mostly level block and was alive with birds of all sizes when I visited, thanks to the abundant flowers, beautiful sunshine and access to water.
Grevilleas Galore
Brewery Hill Native Garden is well known for the spectacular grevillea border planting, designed to provide a mass of colour that acts as background to the whole garden. Throughout the garden you will find grevilleas in every colour including pretty pink grevilleas from pastel to magenta, combs of fiery red and orange grevillea flowers, towering golden shrubs of yellow and white grevilleas reaching for the sun, and everything in between. It really is a treasure for grevillea lovers.
Garden Features
Beyond the grevillea gardens you will find many wonderful features that are sure to inspire your own garden design. Near to the house a water feature provides the calming sound of running water and I’m sure is a popular watering spot for a myriad of wildlife when it is not swarming with people as it was on the open day. Along the feature creek you will find charming displays of native plants in decorated old cream cans and sprays of colourful kangaroo paws bursting from the top of hollow logs.
At the end of the creek a bed is planted with a thick tuffet of flannel flowers and ending with a beautifully shaped Eremophila nivea that is a deserving feature in the garden, attracting many admirers on the day.
At the end of the creek a bed is planted with a thick tuffet of flannel flowers and ending with a beautifully shaped Eremophila nivea that is a deserving feature in the garden, attracting many admirers on the day.
There are many other garden design features to inspire you, including charming beds of annual paper daisies in pink and white, some beautiful Sennas that were full of bright yellow cup flowers set off by soft feathered grey foliage with electric green seed pods, pretty pink native hibiscus flowers were just starting to emerge. All the green lawn paths seemed to lead you through the garden to the most spectacular tree Waratah I have ever seen (Alloxylon flammeum I pressume) !
To top off the experience we were treated to some special plant sales from Carolle’s favourite nurseries and plant sellers. Chris and Marty from Smarty Plants Aussie Plants in Tallegalla as usual had the most interesting selection of plants on sale including some unique and hard to find treasures. I was VERY pleased with my new plant treasures and can’t wait to show you how they are growing in future. Chris and Marty often grow things that are hard to find anywhere else, so if you’re in the region then a visit to their nursery is a must. Marty had some lovely art on display as well. Pete’s Hobby Nursery from Lowood also had a stand with some lovely healthy looking plants including Eremophila in a rainbow of colours, and the charming form of Chrysocephalum apiculatum Cate’s Orange which is a great groundcover for any native cottage garden.
The locals also provided a range of stylish hand crafted homewares and delicious catering to keep us all happy and hydrated.
I hope you enjoy this armchair tour of just a few of the beautiful native garden beds and features from the garden. To see more of the garden you can scroll through many photos of the garden on the official Facebook page here.
Fabulous. I have a new small garden in Melbourne and want to grow native plants. Inspired by your images.