A Cottage Garden for All Seasons

The fifth in a series of 'getting to know our gardening neighbours'.. 


'Cottage Garden For All Seasons'*


Heavenly perfume wafts around John Wilmot’s compact garden in Willowood Court all year round.

The colourful cottage garden takes up every metre of the streetscape and has replaced the grassy verge with perfumed plants that light up the street. The garden is an entry in this year’s Mawson Lakes Garden Competition.

John describes himself as a lazy gardener who lets nature do most of the work. “Lots of my plants are self sown, and on average I spend an hour a month in the garden, mainly trimming back the overhang from the footpath,” he says.

Twice a year he has a good clean up at the end of winter and again in summer. He throws on horse manure for fertiliser and covers the soil with pea straw to keep it friable and moist. Weeds are not a problem because of the dense ground cover.

In winter the garden is a mass of stock, diosma, primula, cornflowers, poppies, daises and pansies, interlaced with sweet alyssum. Come spring the bulbs push up and flower, then in summer the roses bloom and several hardy pelargonium bushes add dazzling colour to the charming patch.


*© Article & photograph supplied by Linda Vining, organiser of the 2010 Mawson Lakes Garden Competition.