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The Garden Curator

Garden designer | Landscape designer | Landscape illustrator

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Colleen Southwell

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Green leaves Illustration by Colleen Southwell

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The sounds of the path to the cottage this afterno

The sounds of the path to the cottage this afternoon; crunching gravel, buzzing bees, and Whistling Dick singing in the background.
The young crabapples (Malus floribunda) are in full blooming gorgeousness, so too our informal hedge of Viburnum tinus, planted to screen and ugly inherited shed from the house.
Viburnum tinus is often dismissed as unfashionable and boring, but it's an absolute trooper for dense hardy growth and masses of blooms which are magnets for the bees. Walking through clouds of bees is perhaps not for the faint hearted (or allergic), but it's so satisfying knowing that these incredible creatures are madly filling their hive with our garden, and soon we'll be filling our jars with their honey. The garden in a jar, love that thought!

Getting hands dirty in the soil is one of the best

Getting hands dirty in the soil is one of the best things about gardening, and the best way to learn!
The well-being of the garden above ground is entirely dependent upon what happens out of sight at root level. The health of the soil, hence the health of the roots that support the plant, is the most basic of garden needs.
Every time I drive past new housing estates my mind boggles at the job ahead for these new home owners; the surface of the land scalped and excessively sculpted, and more often that not the top soil removed or compacted and any soil structure obliterated. An uphill battle for new gardeners!
The soil in the garden here varies enormously from one corner to the other, from deep basalt loam, to shallow soil over a shale base. We've followed some basic principles to care for it; disturb the natural landforms as little as possible building up rather than down, use nutrient building organic mulches to encourage the worms, apply organic fertilisers, keep cultivation to a minimum and never dig when the ground is too wet or too dry (it means death for soil structure!), and avoid chemical use. Organic matter is key - lucerne hay has been the mainstay here, along with poo from our four legged family members, compost, and recycling of plant matter leaving fallen leaves and chopped perennials and grasses in place.
Happy soil = happy garden!

The pear trees are cloaked in white blossoms, catc

The pear trees are cloaked in white blossoms, catching morning and evening light. These are Pyrus Aristocrat, a large beautifully shaped tree, stunning autumn colour, lush mid green summer foliage and lovely winter form. Pear trees can be susceptible to breakage, though these newer cultivars less so than the classic and beautiful Manchurian pear. We'll see, they're hilltop here so time will tell! We have P.yrus Chanticleer, Capital and Southworth Dancer also in the garden, and I'll be finding a spot for the weeping silver pear too, Pyrus salicifolia pendula. Beautiful trees and popular for a reason!

It's such a pleasure to be selected as a finalist

It's such a pleasure to be selected as a finalist in the @york.botanic.art.prize for 2021!
Work depicting our magnificent indigenous flora will soon be on the way to @gallery152 in York, Western Australia, showing alongside diverse work by a group of fabulous artists.
Thankyou to the selection panel and congratulations to all finalists.
More details soon.

Sunday morning begins with daybreak pyjama garden

Sunday morning begins with daybreak pyjama garden wandering; I found heaven at the garden gate. I nearly broke into a Julie-Andrews-esque rendition of The Hills are Alive, but stopped to listen to the birds instead. Sometimes...often... silence is the best policy.
Enjoy your Sunday everyone, no lockdown freedom for us yet (evidently our spot is still hot), so it's off to the garden.

Gosh, what an incredible response to the little bi

Gosh, what an incredible response to the little bird I posted a few days ago!! Thankyou for your thoughts and your encouragement , it really does keep the spirits up.
I've been working on another, so here it is! There is a little carved balsa wood "egg" inside the body. the legs are jewellery wire, everything else including the downy feathers are paper.

The morning today was beautiful. White mist like

The morning today was beautiful. White mist like tissue paper layered with the rising bathed hilltops. it was like a landscape puff pastry. Delicious and sugar dusted.
It made me think of the painting of my dear friend @ingridbowenart. Dreamy translucent layers.
I'll be ready for more tomorrow, early to rise!

© Copyright 2019 Colleen Southwell