We moved into Alexandra from a large farm garden 10 years ago to the challenge of clearing our small block of a very overgrown garden.  Apart from saving a stand of lovely silver birch on the driveway and 4 beech trees everything else was cleared to make way for a house extension and new garden.

We love trees and have planted over 60, size appropriate for a town setting with many maples, ornamental pears, more birches, cercis canadensis forest pansy, weeping cercis canadensis Covey Lavender Twist, maples Crimson sentry and a few fruit trees. Our front fence line is becoming a camellia hedge, flowering over months from differing varieties of camellias.  Our garden is a mix of roses, daphnes, burgundy  leafed lorepetalums, oak leaf hydrangeas, moonbay nandinas being hedged, many hostas  and hellebores. We have also planted treasures from friends gardens which always adds to the garden story. The aim is to have something happening all year, flowers and leaf colour.

Some raised veggie beds also add a bit of interest, although have become a challenge as our trees grow and provide so much shade.  Some plants have been moved multiple times chasing the sun.   Bird baths encourage the birds to stop and as the garden has grown we are loving many more birds visiting.  We are so lucky to have Leckie Park at our back fence which extends our open space down to the UT creek.  On the back fence line are 2 magnificent grand old trees, an English Oak and a pine, both over 150 years old and some of the first plantings in the settlement of Alexandra.  The oak provides the most beautiful shade in summer and months of joy raking leaves in autumn!