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Above was a piece of living garden sculpture we sa

Above was a piece of living garden sculpture we saw a few years ago whilst travelling around the Cotswolds. We were exploring all the glorious gardens of the area and stopped off in the town of Morton on the Marsh for lunch. This succulent horse sculpture was right in front of the pub we had lunch at. These Echeveria would continue to grow over time so they may need some thinning however they fill in nicely and make a lovely show instead of say a Buxus topiary or Ivy grown on wire supports which would be the more commonly used species to get this same effect.

DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE COLOUR OF YOUR HYDRANGEA

DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE COLOUR OF YOUR HYDRANGEAS ?
If you’re not happy with the colour of your hydrangeas, Winter is a good time to start the process of changing the flowers colour. If the soil in your garden has an acidic pH (pH less than 7) your Hydrangeas will have blue flowers. f the soil in your garden has an alkaline pH (pH greater than 7) your Hydrangeas will have pink flowers. If you have pink flowers and would prefer to have blue flowers - you can use the pre packaged blueing tonic which can be purchased from garden centres. The blueing tonic is aluminium sulphate it is a soil additive. It works by lowering the soil pH and providing aluminium, which the plant needs to create intense blue pigments. This needs to be applied as per instructions on package. If your Hydrangeas are blue and you would prefer pink flowers you can add garden lime to the soil, which will raise the pH. Both of these options are time consuming processes that will not happen over night.

PLANT PROFILE - Salvia “Anthony Parker” This is on

WATER STORAGE If you live off mains water then you

WATER STORAGE
If you live off mains water then you need to always be thinking about water storage not just for your consumption but for the garden and livestock too. Whenever I’m asked by clients about what size water tanks they should purchase I always say select a tank or tanks that have the largest holding capacity possible, the biggest ones that you can fit in your space and the ones that the most budget will allow. You will not regret it. It is now in these wet times that I am happy we have a good amount of water storage. We have now been lucky enough to fill them to the brim. These can then be saved for when you may need them.

It has been a very wet week. The dams are spilling

It has been a very wet week. The dams are spilling over their walls, the paddocks are extremely muddy and the garden tanks are full. All of our lawn areas are squelchy under foot and have well exceeded their water holding capacity. The dirt road to The Berkshires garden is now awash with streams of water running in new directions across the road and new pot holes seem to be appearing every hour. These conditions are brilliant for planting out new plants however you may struggle to get a break in the conditions to actually dig the planting holes. The heavy rain this week will put any mowing on hold as the sodden soils will not react well to having a ride on mower running over them or a push mower digging through their spongey layers. Last Wednesday evening was particularly ferocious as we had rain along with wind. I was especially grateful when I woke up on thursday to find that we had not lost any new or old trees to the storm. The very wet conditions prior to Wednesday night, along with over 56 mm of rain falling in less than 12 hours plus the gale forced winds are a recipe for disaster when it comes to trees. Trees will fail when the soil is wet and not able to provide its normal structural anchorage against blowing gales. On the Olympic Highway north of Young I noticed a number of casualties from the storm in the form of Eucalyptus that had blown out of the ground. There were also some limbs that had snapped off and then smashed into pieces when they hit the ground. It is good to be having winter rains now, hopefully it will mean it will be an abundant spring in the garden and on the farm. I was pleased to see all our water tanks were full because then we know we are ready for what could be a hot summer

GARDEN TIP FROM THIS WEEK'S "GARDENS AT A GLANCE"

GARDEN TIP FROM THIS WEEK'S "GARDENS AT A GLANCE" NEWSLETTER
Now is a good time to plant out seedlings of Delphinium, Larkspurs and Hollyhocks. Planting them now will allow them to settle in for the spring season of flowering. They are brilliant spring flowers as they are a little tougher than the normal annual spring flowers. They don’t have high water requirements and they will self seed for next years crop. These plants should give you some flowers from spring through to late summer.

ARE JONQUILS SMELLY WEEDS OR BOTANICAL BEAUTIES ?

ARE JONQUILS SMELLY WEEDS OR BOTANICAL BEAUTIES ?
One piece of joy I noticed this week is the Jonquil Erlicheer in many gardens have started to bloom. Now you often smell them before you see them. Their scent is a heady very sweet strong fragrance that is often described as a rich blend of warm honey, hyacinth and jasmine. It is definitely not subtle. Whilst I love this scent in the garden I really can’t cope with it indoors. It is too over powering for my sensitive nose. The Jonquil Erlicheers have delicate double blooms that are a blend of ivory petals with soft, buttery centres. The flowers are in clusters like small white fluffy clouds that sit on top the top of dark green slender stems. It is always nice to see them at this time of year when there isn’t as many splashes of colour throughout the garden. These soft fluffy blooms will soon be followed by the single white star shaped flowers of Jonquil “Paper Whites”. These are another early flowering bulb which are high value in the winter garden. Jonquils were never a favourite of mine when I gardened by the coast. I almost looked at them as being weeds and I could not stand the smell. I think the main reason I disliked them was that there is still so much colour and interest in the winter garden when you garden in a frost free area. Whereas here in Young where we get hit by the colder weather, the garden starts to look a little dull. Then if we have a patch of endless grey days and rain the garden can look even more wintery. A few clumps or many clumps of these beautiful bulbs becomes a welcomed sight and for some reason my sensitive nose does not find their fragrance offensive anymore.

Love a misty winter morning

Love a misty winter morning

I do think every form of Ivy should be sold with a

I do think every form of Ivy should be sold with a written warning of " This plant is highly invasive and can cause structural damage. You will need to manage the growth of this plant forever." Ivy will attach itself to every vertical surface and also spread as a ground cover everywhere if it is not managed. It is definitly one of my least favourite plants. If using Ivy, ideally you would use it in a garden bed where nothing else grows and not close to any vertical surfaces including tree trunks where you dont want it to grow.

OUR FIRST FROST This week winter has really shown

OUR FIRST FROST
This week winter has really shown its presence here in the Hilltops region of NSW. We had our first frost of the year today, 25th June, although the day has now turned into a brilliant blue sky day.I have to say I logged onto Substack this morning to write my newsletter for today and ended up getting completely side tracked by all the brilliant content you can access on Substack. Some of it free and some of it paid. As a reader to my newsletter I wonder what other newsletters you subscribe to? Please do let me know via replying to this email or using my email address glenice@glenicebuckdesigns.com.auFellow Substack author and podcaster “The Sentimental Gardener,” Cass Dowding posted an interesting call out on her page this week about what other Australian garden writers can be followed on Substack. It did make me realise that most of the Substacks I follow are from overseas. I would definitely like to follow more Australian Gardeners if you have any recommendations let me know. I will post here a few of the Australian garden related Substacks that were mentioned by Cass this week Casey Lister , Duncan Cocking, The Garden at Moorfield, Louise Brown and Cerina Triglavcanin . These should all be linked so you can simply click on them to check out their pages. Thanks for sharing Cass. Also to my readers you should make sure you check out her wonderful podcast - The Sentimental Gardener - Link hereIt was also interesting to see that since May 2026 Substack has had a Home and Garden Category which previously it did not have. I know when I first started this Substack page I had to select the design and education categories to be listed in. Both of these categories in theory did not exactly match what I write on here every week. The Home and Garden category fits much better with my writing topics and I judging by the list of rising and best seller writers there will be even more great content available to read.In this week’s newsletter I have my weekly garden tip and then my list of garden recommendations for the week. If you would like to subscribe go tonlink in BioHappy Gardening

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December 2020

21 Dec My Top 5 Garden Gear Recommendations

Posted at 17:35h in Garden Tips by GleniceBuckDesigns

Glenice Buck Designs (GBD) is an award winning horticultural business offering landscape design, garden management, consultant arboricultural services, horticultural advice both onsite and virtually, garden coaching, garden workshops and freelance garden writing.

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