Linda meets a Garden Clinic member whose garden is as vivacious as her personality, and is full of exciting treasures and rewarding endeavours!
There is nothing more satisfying than to bump into a member of the Garden Clinic Club and chat for hours about plants, flowers - and everything! When I met Cynthia we were just getting to solving the world’s problems when she mentioned her talent for growing blueberries in pots, growing and roasting her own coffee beans, and that she’d converted over her backyard swimming pool into an underground water tank. Intrigued by her passion for gardening, I had to investigate!
Her garden in Sydney’s north suburb of Wahroonga, is full of edible delights such as blueberries, coffee, tamarillo, figs, rhubarb and citrus. Frogs croak in the pool-pond, dragonflies dart overhead and ducks waddle about the pool edge. We sat in the colourfully cushioned Balinese pavilion that overlooks the pond and Cynthia explained, “at night time our backyard sounds like Kakadu, it’s a miracle but our neighbours love the frogs too!”
Worried about the lack of rainfall and water restrictions, Cynthia came up with a unique solution to her underused swimming pool. Her three daughters had grown up and left home and Cynthia was the ‘mug left to clean the pool!’. So she went about transforming it into an eco-friendly underground water tank. She drained the salt-water pool, re-plumbed the water from the house roof into pipes, and used the pool as water storage. The rain came and the pool gradually filled with rainwater.
Wanting the perfect perch above her watery creation she build a deck and summerhouse over half of the pool, below which the ducks shelter on hot days and on which the family gather for meals and chats. She filled the pond with waterlilies (tropical and hardy), water iris, red-stemmed canna lilies, canna, papyrus and pickerel rush. Each has been planted into large reused containers which have been positioned on plastic tables within the pool. The exception are the waterlilies which Cynthia, showing typical ingenuity, planted into large shell-shaped sandpits. “There’s no way I’ll be able to get in there and divide the plants up later, I want them to go wild, I want to be surrounded by living things.”
A small pump sits on the steps of the pool to pump water to irrigate her garden and pots – anytime she feels like it! And what happened to the spa? That’s my favourite part: Cynthia has transformed the spa into another pond full of flowering aquatic plants such as Japanese water iris and more water lilies – with thousands of tadpoles that circle like benign piranha. The frogs arrived naturally, but Cynthia plans to add goldfish and yabbies to keep the water clean and balance the ecology.
My curiosity satisfied I left Cynthia planning her next endeavour –chooks - with a sketch of a chook house to build for my own garden in one hand and a bag of tiny tadpoles in the other. Balancing the tadpoles on my lap the whole way home I marvelled at how green-thumbed friends are great at sharing!
Cynthia’s tips *Express yourself through your garden, it’s the best place to unleash your creativity. *Who needs lawn! Dig it up and plant more flowers! * Buy cheap beach umbrellas to shelter fragile plants on hot days. *Don’t pave pathways, instead use gravel pathways as they aid water absorption: water soaks into the plant roots and doesn’t run straight off. *Wide sticky insect traps work, just hang them up in your fruit trees and the insects stick to it, ‘Trappit’ is available at nurseries. * Give special plants special care, Cynthia brings her Cooktown orchid to a warm spot inside over winter and sprays it with water to increase the humidity around the plant.
Plant notes - Cynthia's favourites
Common name: Water Lily Plant name: Nymphae Description: Aquatic plant with foliage that lies on the surface of the water and flowers. Plant in pots with soil and sand then mulch with pebbles to keep the soil in. Size: Height 0.3m x width 1.5m Special comments: The hardy water lilies start flowering in October, through to mid-April. The tropical water lilies start a little later and finish flowering at the end of April. Keep them in large containers or plant into a pond. Symbols: Full sun Frost tender Good for pots Climate map: temperate, subtropical, tropical
Common name: Coffee Plant name: Coffea arabica Description: An evergreen shrub with glossy leaves and fragrant white flowers in summer followed by red berries. Size: Height 2m x width 1m Special comments: Cynthia harvests the red berries, roasts, then grinds beans and serves her ‘blend’ to special guests. Symbols: Full sun Frost tender Climate map: warm temperate, subtropical, tropical
Common name: Persian Shield Plant name: Strobilanthes gossypinus Description: Small shrub with dark green new growth, covered with eye catching golden hairs and felted undersides, as the leaves mature gold hair turns a silvery colour. Size: Height 1m x width 1m Special comments: Great in dry shade, this eye catching foliage is a great contrast and easy to grow. Protect from frost. Symbols: Part shade Drought hardy Frost tender Good for pots Climate map: arid, mediterranean, cold temperate, warm temperate, subtropical, tropical
Common name: Cattleya or Corsage orchid Plant name: Cattleya labiata Description: A beautiful orchid with large flowers in pink, purple or white, and twin leathery leaves, grows in orchid bark. Size: Height 0.3m x width 0.3m Special comments: This orchid needs light, warmth and regular feeding to grow and bloom, preferring shelter from strong sunlight and winds. Watch for mealy bug, treat with Confidor. Symbols: Part shade Frost tender Good for pots Climate map: subtropical, tropical
Common name: Native hibiscus Plant name: Alogyne huegelii Description: A native shrub with large mauve hibiscus like flowers and delicate fine foliage. Also comes in white. Size: Height 2.5m x width 1.5m Special comments: Lightly prune after flowering and feed with specialised fertiliser for natives. Symbols:Full sun Part shade Drought hardy Climate map: arid, Mediterranean, warm temperate, subtropical
Common name: Angels Trumpet Plant name: Brugmansia Description: A small umbrella shaped tree with long pendulous flowers shaped like trumpets in peach, white, pink or orange. Size: Height 3m x width 2m Special comments: Remove suckers from the base. If you prune hard and sculpt shape - you’ll have a good-looking small tree. Symbols: Part shade Frost tender Climate map: warm temperate, subtropical, tropical
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