Green thumbs, brown thumbs, all thumbs in: a new gardener’s life
With spring 2026 just a few days away, it’s the ideal time to talk about my late-in-life passion for gardening. Yet again, this obsession with greenery actually shouldn’t surprise me as it’s simply a literal extension of my obsession with homes. Born soon after I bought my first home in outer-west Brisbane in early 2023, gardening now takes up most of my thoughts, time, and lunch/coffee breaks.
And, while I’ve long since learnt to cut all adjectives and emotions from my professional writing, I’ve realised that as a naturally romantic and sentimental person, gardening suits me to a tea, purely because of its emotional ups and downs.
I’m constantly either cheering, mourning, or worrying about the latest disaster, surprise or death in my townhouse’s 20sq m of soil.
I’ve also quickly realised that gardens follow their own rules, (almost) regardless of the information tabs and books you read, and the long discussions you enjoy with greenery experts. In short: nothing stays the same in a gardener’s life.
It doesn’t help that cottage gardening has chosen me to be its fan: yes, that glorious, messy, wildflower style of gardening continuously seen on my favourite television series, Escape to the Country, is transforming my small townhouse garden in sub-tropical Brisbane.
While cottage gardening looks deceptively easy to create – and it may be in the UK and Europe – my location’s hot weather, let alone heavy, reactive clay soil, makes this style of gardening a little hard, to say the least. My back yard also faces north-west, so it endures the worst of Brisbane’s afternoon heat and sun in summer.
It doesn’t help that I grew up in Melbourne, where daffodils, bluebells, jonquils and roses were so abundant as to almost be weeds.
This year marks only my third full year of this vintage, shabby chic style of garden, or any greenery, for that matter. But remarkably, the majority of my English country garden flowers have succeeded, even in the wildes of all of the above.
Or as I like to say it, slowly but surely, I’m bringing Escape to the Country to outer-west Brisbane.
Some of my major, and more unusual successes - especially given Brisbane’s heat and humidity - include stocks, ranunculi, cosmos, dahlias, larkspurs, freesias, sweet peas and cornflowers. My jonquils are also waist high.
Meanwhile, my new day-to-day gardener’s life now includes
· “garden rounds” twice a day (if not, three times);
· continual deadheading and weeding;
· staking an unruly flower bending over backwards – literally – as it hurries to outgrow its neighbours; and
· endless planning for the next season and the season after that, and the year after that
The majority of my conversations with friends and family are also 95% gardening dramas or thrills, while more than ever, any holidays have to be short and planned around greenery seasons, especially planting.
With spring around the corner, planning and planting for the warmer (and wetter) months, is now in full swing. It’s also harder than ever to stay put at my desk when my favourite winter-spring cottage plants are also in full swing.
And, if you’ve never breathed in the scent of stock flowers, let alone their absolutely perfect, beauty, then you should.
Happy planting - and thanks for reading!
