 Growing Gardens
with Julia Hancock
Rock Solid
In my travels I've recently come across some innovative approaches to growing native plants that cast an altogether different perspective on the cultivation of shrubs and perennials so often associated with beds and borders.
Rockeries have been popular since the early twentieth century but frequently their creators made a rod for their own backs. Selecting suitable plants for such a feature requires a great deal of skill and where this is lacking the result can be a sorry combination of plants which either struggle to survive or outgrow their position, and always there is the problem of weeds.
In a modern Australian rockery, it is the rocks, not the plants that are the feature. Rather than cover them up with spillover plants, they can be enhanced by a dramatic group of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea australis) complimented with a pocket planting of wispy grasses such as Cymbopogon exaltatus and Stipa elegantissima.
Derive colour and interest from the foliage and growth habits of your plants; flowers look too fussy here and detract from the big picture, although one or two really special ones can be accommodated.
Shady crevices harbour dendrobium orchids and native ferns, perhaps a bird's nest or three depending on the scale of the project.
This style of gardening lends itself perfectly to the clean lines of contemporary architecture and serves to anchor these often lofty dwellings to the land on which they are built. If you want a labour-saving garden then this is for you. The hard yakka lies in designing the overall picture - when working with huge rocks there is no margin for error.
Such a landscape requires discipline on the part of the designer because the choice of plants is minimal and they have to be absolutely right to bring it off. Looking to nature is the best way of making sure you don't end up with something that looks silly.
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