Ecologist, garden designer, writer
Garden design is an art different to all others, because nature is its raw material. Painters and sculptors can create work that is a permanent expression of their creative imagination, with potential to be admired for centuries. It is tempting to pursue permanence in garden design. Many great designers do, through hard-landscaping and tight control of … More Art and ecology of design
Originally published in The Watering Can, Western Water’s sustainable gardens e-newsletter, June 2017
If you are a gardener who retreats indoors over winter and feels your mood drop with the temperature, listen up! Get some local native plants in your garden and you’ll enjoy their winter growth and vigour and be energised by the active birdlife they bring. … More The up-side of a winter garden
Why would a garden designer create a restoration plan for a degraded gully? The scale, landscape and client are almost on opposite ends of the ‘outdoor design’ spectrum. Garden designers like me generally work in urban landscapes: designing for intimate spaces around the home and striving to meet a brief that generally aims to create a private oasis for the owner, that … More Restoration gardening
Here’s a little booklet I made for the Garden of Earthly Delights at the Castlemaine State Festival. It’s a taster for what you can do to invite more wildlife into your garden, whatever your garden style. Please feel free to download and use this booklet. If you’ve found it useful or have any comments I’d love to hear from you. … More An invitation
Originally published in The Watering Can, Western Water’s sustainable gardens e-newsletter, March 2017.
Understanding how water moves through the micro-landscapes in your backyard is key to successful garden design. Be a garden detective, on the hunt for clues to planting and garden success. … More Follow the flow
Among exuberant flowers and darting pollinator insects, twenty people gathered in Cassia Read’s Castlemaine garden … More Wildlife friendly gardening workshop
Originally published in the Midland Express, October 4, 2016
Striding around the corner of a friend’s Newstead house today my eyes met the steady gaze of a Grey Shrike-thrush sitting on her eggs. She took my breath away. She’d made her home in a basket nailed to the wall, within arms-reach from where I stood. … More Make it and wildlife will come
Emerging landscapes 