Monash Open Gardens Day

This truly unique garden was started in 2021 with the front garden now featuring more than 50 varieties of roses, with potted petunias, pansies, begonias and dianthus planted in raised PVC pipes on frames.  

There are also more than 100 dahlias (30 varieties), azaleas, gladioli and lilies.  

Recycled materials have been used extensively.  

In the back yard there are 20 varieties of fruit trees and a large vegetable garden with Asian and Australian vegetables.  

There is a tree house in the middle of an apple tree!  

There is also a small cactus garden and many strawberries. It’s remarkable how much can be achieved on a standard suburban block. 

The front garden is a more formal setting with a photinia hedge along the side fence and smaller hedges in the front, but the real delight lies in the large backyard where you will find a citrus grove including a lemon, two mandarins, a lemonade, an orange tree and a grapefruit tree as well as another 12 fruit trees.  

Summer and winter veggies are grown in four veggie plots. There is a circular rose garden with standard freesia roses.  

Over 30 varieties of dahlia have been planted and bulbs such as ranunculi, Babiana, irises and self-seeding annual flowers edge the garden plots. 

When the garden was started at Christmas 2005 there was very little garden.  

It is now a wonderland of colour and variety. The front garden consists mainly of Australian native plants, which were planted during the drought years of 2006-2009.  

The side garden and backyard feature exotic plants, including rare trees and species seldom seen in Melbourne, such as Rhinacanthus beesianus (Chinese Snake Jasmine), Alberta magna, Chiranthodendron pentadactylon (Devil’s Hand Tree), Handroanthus chrysanthus (Golden Trumpet Tree), Castanospermum australe (Moreton Bay Chestnut), Metrosideros laurifolia (Yellow-flowered Myrtle), Xeronema callistemon (Poor Knight’s Lily) and Dombeya cacuminum (Strawberry Snowball Tree). 

The front garden was designed just 18 months ago for pollinators and biodiversity, with an eclectic mix of native plants, grasses, evergreen shrubs and flowering perennials. A big clump of Miscanthus ‘Cloudehill’ is a drawcard in late summer.  

The back garden, with a large silver birch, has a large variety of seasonal vegetables grown alongside melianthus, iris and many other flowering plants.  

Some winter flowering plants include tree marigold, banksias, grevilleas and a stunning salvia. There is also an Ellis Stone inspired shed. There is so much to see here.  

Caution: bee hives on property. 

A stunning, award-winning garden, Rosemont, well worth a visit, is just outside Monash.  

This garden extends the ‘gardens for wildlife’ idea of having corridors for all creatures – possums, birds, lizards, frogs, butterflies, spiders.  

No poisons are used. It is a garden of 10,000 plants featuring nature’s variety of leaf-shape, colour and texture, collections of trees, roses, natives, ground covers, cacti, succulents, bulbs, herbs, annuals, perennials - some rare or unusual – all growing happily together.  

There are over 500 hanging baskets and pots. The garden includes a Spanish Courtyard, water features, ornaments, recycled materials rainwater tanks, solar panels.  

We’re fortunate to have the opportunity to revisit this wonderful garden.