Trachelospermum encloses a mirror.
The ten-day Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, finishes this weekend. Over one week, I had the pleasure of judging the city gardens for The Chronicle Garden Competition, before returning to Toowoomba for the gala awards presentation evening. This is the Competition’s 68th year. It began in 1949 and helped lift post-war spirits, finally morphing into the much-loved Carnival of Flowers.
My choice for Grand Champion was a break with tradition.The Reynolds’ is one of the best natives gardens I’ve ever visited, and a very worthy winner – I’ll bring you images in a future blog.
Meanwhile, this delightful garden belongs to Dorothy and Tony McKeon and is only six years old. It won the ‘Design Concept Award’.
Dorothy, a country woman, was attracted to the house as it had a ‘country feel’ but there wasn’t much of a garden when she arrived. “At the front, some beds were edged in the proverbial quick kerb. There were a few roses but no trees,” she says.
The block was very open, exposed to all the neighbours. She began planting screening trees to create intimate, secluded spaces especially at the back of the block. At the front it’s more open with year-round street appeal.
It seems Dorothy has a fetish for buxus. They’re shaped in pots, grown as neat hedges delineating spaces or bordering the front steps, and used as a foil for exuberant perennials. She loves ‘fiddling around with them’, using several types including Dutch, English and Korean but mostly the dwarf Japanese box, Buxus microphylla ‘Faulkner’.
At the back of the house you’re treated to several surprises. The small space has been cleverly divided into sections. There are shaped shrubs, some potted and others in the ground all adding textural contrast. A wall protruding from the side fence screens the garden shed but also creates a nook with a mirror embraced by trachelopsermum.
Along the back fence a 1m high retaining wall supports a row of Cupressus sempervirens ‘Nitchke’s Needles’ pencil pines that provide privacy, height and a verdant backdrop. “I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from designer Paul Bangay and his use of ‘living walls’,” Dorothy says.
Categories: Queensland Gardens, Small Gardens, Temperate Gardens
Our Australian Gardens 
Lovely
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What a charming garden and story. I’m sure it must be very hard to select winners amongst all the renowned Toowoomba gardens and their clever creators. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you Kim for your email, sounds as though the Garden openings were a big success at Toowoomba. Thought I’d send a couple of photos from last year of our garden which is just awakening after a cold winter.
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Beautiful garden Kim. Would love to have visited this one on our garden tour.
Cheers
Cynthia
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Kim these are beautiful photographs. What an achievement in only six years. Glad it won a prize. Look forward to the grand champion! Anthea
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Hi Kim, it was lovely to see your smiling face in the chronical newspaper as a judge. I still remember the presentation days you made so delightfully as speaker for the open gardens. I love the garden you chose and have watched it developed over many years, it’s so hard to have a native garden on a such a small block but they are an inspiration to all gardeners. All the best Marina
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Thanks Marina, your garden must be looking so mature and even more beautiful now. Glad you like the Grand Champion.
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What a wonderful winning garden.
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Thanks, Kim. Always love your garden stories and pix.
The main things flowering in our Kefalonian autumn garden are a sweet- smelling jasmine-y type thingy (not its botanical name) and masses of cultivated lantana. I’m assuming they’re not considered noxious here, so I can enjoy their brilliant colours.
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Visualising your Greek holiday garden Kerrie… and glad you’re able to enjoy pretty lantana. Of course plants are only weeds if growing in the wrong place. In England even rhododendrons have become weeds. 🙂
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What a pity I couldn’t make it to the Toowoomba Carnival this year – I missed many lovely old gardens I am sure and at least one inspirational and beautiful young one! Shall be going next year for sure.
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