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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
GARDEN DESIGN TIP - Designing steps within your ga GARDEN DESIGN TIP - Designing steps within your garden
When you design steps, stairways, level transitions within your garden area you should always aim to have your step risers (height of step) within the expected Australian Standard range of 110 - 190mm. The most comfortable step height for most people is 150 - 170mm. You do need to consider how many steps you will need to get from one level to the next. You need to think about who will be using the steps, their mobility level and also how often you will use the steps. Usually it is better to have groups of fewer steps stretched out across a space rather than one large step of steps. However sometimes this is not possible due to a short steep incline. In this case you are best to work out a total number of steps required and then introduce level platforms / landings to act as a transition zones between each section of steps. According to the Australian Standard you should not have more than 18 step risers per set of steps however in a residential situation I would suggest this number is best kept under 10.
On this last day of Autumn we say farewell to the On this last day of Autumn we say farewell to the lovely flowering roses and Salvia.
PART ONE - Plant suggestions for evergreen structu PART ONE - Plant suggestions for evergreen structure in your garden through winter.
🌿 Viburnum tinus
🌿 Indian Hawthorne
🌿 Teucrium
🌿 Grevillea
🌿 Callistemon
🌿 Abelia
🌿Chosiya
🌿 Lavenders
🌿 Elaeagnus
🌿 Pittosporum
🌿Chinese Star Jasmine
With the week of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show all f With the week of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show all finished up I took a minute to look back at some of my photos from attending the press day in 2013. This was the 100th  year anniversary of the show. The highlight of the show was seeing the Fleming's sponsored Australian Garden win which was designed by Phillip Johnson
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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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