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Gardening: Hedges and Borders

 

 

Hedges 

Hedging plants should be evergreen (i.e. green and leafy all year round), resilient and ideal for pruning. Hedges can be used to indicate a border, edge for your garden path or your garden bed. Hedges can also become a screen to eliminate undesired views. Lucky for you, there are a multitude of different hedges to choose from which range in many different sizes, colours and with or without flowers. We cannot possibly name them all so here are just a few. Syzygium Resilience Lilly Pilly: What a great plant! One of our favourites actually. Not only are they fast growing, this Australian native has beautiful lush green foliage with a bronze coloured tinge on some leaves. These great plants can also be resilient to the common lilly pilly pest ‘psyllids’ and produce little white flowers which then turn into edible fruit. They reach a height of 3-4 metres, but of course can be hedged to whatever size you would like which also helps to keep them nice and bushy. Murraya Paniculata: This gorgeous plant is commonly known as ‘Mock Orange’. What’s not to love? It has lush glossy dark green leaves, which in spring and summer produce beautiful fragranced white jasmine like flowers. Because of its dense growth habit, it's great for privacy and hedging. To keep these beauties hedged nicely just lightly prune them 3-4 times a year. They can be hedged to your desired height and if left alone they can reach a maximum height of 3-4 metres. Photinia Red Robin: These plants make a lovely hedge; this may be because they have glossy green mature leaves, whilst their younger leaves are a bright vibrant red. These wonders are suitable to any climate and are also frost tolerant. The idea is to prune regularly to create that dense hedge and to encourage more colour. If you choose not to prune as regularly, you can enjoy the little white fluffy flowers they produce. Once again, prune to whatever size hedge you would like or if left alone they can make a great specimen plant which reaches a height of 3-4 metres. 

 

Borders 

The finishing touches to your garden are the border plants. They serve several purposes, which include drawing the eye to a feature or focal point in your garden, conceal attractive edges and can be the last tier on the creation of your layered garden. These border plants come in a range of colours, textures and styles. Once again, we could not possibly mention them all, so here are just a few. 

Nandina Domestica (Dwarf Nandina): This border plant can be known as a foliage border plant, which does not need shaping. These gorgeous plants are vibrant in colour and also change colour with the seasons. Their leaves are shades of greens, yellows, pinks and reds becoming more vibrant red in the cooler months. These beauties reach a height of 50cm and a width of 40cm. These are an excellent choice as they are very hardy and require little maintenance. 

Buxus Japanese Box: This border plant is known as a box border plant and will require shaping to give it that ultimate box border hedge shape. Their natural full height is only one metre, but the idea is to prune them regularly to create that border shape. For the perfect border, it is ideal to plant four plants per metre. Once these stunning plants are established they require little water, which is one less job to worry about. 

Black Mondo Grass: These border plants are known as strappy border plants. Black Mondo Grass is very similar to the green mondo grass except this one has striking unique black foliage and produces little spikes of white flowers creating a stunning contrast. They are a great choice for a border plant as they require almost zero maintenance, the reason for this is they never require cutting and once established require little watering reaching a height and width of 20cm. 

 

We hope we've inspired you to create a hedge or border in your garden. Thanks for reading, and until next time…  

Happy Gardening! 

 

Local recipes corner… 

 

This month's recipe focuses on the currently thriving tomatoes, basil and red onion in your garden. Thank you, Chelsea from Bongaree, for sharing with us your delicious sourdough and feta Bruschetta recipe. 

 

Ingredients 

1 sourdough baguette 

4 ripe tomatoes 

¼ cup of finely chopped basil leaves  

1 tablespoon of olive oil 

¼ teaspoon of salt 

½ a red onion finely diced ground black pepper to taste 

½ cup of crumbled feta cheese. 

Method 

Deseed the tomatoes and chop finely. 

Place the chopped tomatoes, chopped basil, diced onion, salt, olive oil and pepper in a bowl and toss gently. 

Set aside for 10 minutes. 

Slice the sourdough baguette into ½ inch thick slices, lightly brush with some olive oil on both sides and grill both sides until golden and crunchy. 

Place grilled slices on a platter and pile a tablespoon of the prepared toppings on top of each slice and then sprinkle each bruschetta with some crumbled feta cheese. 

Serve immediately and enjoy! 

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