Summer features silver, golden or tawny grasses. Winter is not bare and bleak, but green and often colourful with flowers. Our vision of the garden we want is influenced by our cultural background and personal experiences. Forty years ago, we gardeners grew a number of Australian plants from cuttings or seeds, and experimented with their horticulture. Knowledge about cultivation is now amassed in reference books such as the Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants, so it s much easier to use our plants successfully in design.
Nurseries now stock a range of many more species, especially exciting small plants.
Horticulture investigation has expanded into the selection of special forms and cultivars, and also the recognition of provenance and ecological relationships. Today an Australian garden can be more obviously designed, and its design can even be strikingly formal. Reading and observation can contribute to new and varied design styles. I have come to realise that a garden evolves through time and is never finished . In garden design it may be impossible to create anything completely new, but each garden is unique, a product of its site, its sense of place and the owner s experience and artistic sensitivity.