A spectacular native garden created by a peerless gardener.
Author: Jane Munro.
18 Macquarie Drive, Mudgee.
Australian native plant enthusiasts will love the Moffatt garden with its carefully curated trees and shrubs, and charming ceramic sculptures and water features also created by Virginia. The garden’s success is the result of diligence and hard work. An outstanding garden such as this requires dedication: tireless soil improvement, research, experimentation, the embracing of self-seeding and other propagation techniques, and the combination of Australian natives with exotics. Soil improvement through mulching remains an on-going focus, supplemented by a selection of suitable fertilisers.
Favourite native plant varieties include various eremophilas, hakeas, kangaroo paws, grevilleas (including winter-flowering varieties, generally planted in groups of 3 or more), correas, eucalypts (red- and white-flowering), and a wonderful grove of banksias which form a backdrop to a sensational selection of salvias.
The unusual colours of some of the natives’ flowers are striking against their often silvery foliage. In spring, expect to see sprays of native orchid buds, new, bright green fronds of birds nest ferns and kangaroo paws, popping out of the earth everywhere.
Virginia works tirelessly in her garden every day. She says “I don’t want the garden to look its age. It has an aging attendant, but I keep the garden constantly changing.” There’s a big emphasis on on-site plant propagation. Birdsnest ferns, elkhorns and staghorns are propagated from spores. Tree fern suckers are chopped off with an axe and planted out. Banksias, mallees and a host of other natives are allowed to self-seed and the sprouts nurtured to produce the next generation.
It’s lovely to see the native plants thriving side by side and harmonising with the exotic ornamentals. Light and shade are beautifully balanced in this garden, enabling a variety of plants to flourish and bloom beneath the canopy of stately eucalypts. This has been carefully planned because, as Virgina says, “I love gardens with plants you can see through.”