Lambley Nursery and Gardens…

In September, we did a trip through Victoria, and visited Lambley Nursery, which is featured in my favourite gardening book, Australian Dreamscapes.

David Glen, a highly respected nurseryman and owner of Lambley Nursery has been a passionate gardener since his childhood in England. However when he moved to the harsh windswept plains of Central Victoria, and opened a nursery, he soon realised he would have to re-think his garden and plants.

we decided to use plants that would not only survive our hot, dry summers and cold winters, but could survive on very little water. Extremes are the new normal now and every season is unpredictable.”

Lambley, in the Great Dividing Range, Victoria has temperatures that range from -6 degrees (C)  (21F) in winter to 45 degrees (C) (113F) in summer. The nursery, and every section of the garden are surrounded by thick hedges to protect it from the winds that frequently sweep across the plains.

Our Canberra climate is similar, so we were very interested in the nursery and gardens and hoped to buy some plants for our own garden. We began in the enclosed dry garden…

….. what a treat to see such colour and texture in a garden that receives so little extra water.

Although David specialises in dry climate plants, as you can see from this garden, this doesn’t necessarily mean only native or cactus plants, but plants from all over the world that have a similar climate. David researched plants from places like Turkey and California, tested and propagated them.

 

After the dry garden, we strolled around this beautiful property, following wide paths, hedges and pines leading from vegetable gardens to spring bulbs to fruit trees…..a sight to behold!

The paths and hedges leading to garden ”rooms” were reminiscent of Monty Don’s garden (as seen on BBC Gardeners’ World).

These gardens are full of tulips, poppies, more flowers, vegetables, fruit trees and beds resting before new planting begins..

 

 

The nursery is extensive, and we were guided by their seasonal catalogues. Lambley is one of the few places in Australia that propagates a wide range of frost hardy and drought tolerant evergreen and deciduous plants and shrubs, and their online business is very popular.

As you can imagine we spend a lot of time buying plants…. the heart always rules the head, and I hope we can fit them all into our garden now…..but that will be for another post.

It would be wonderful to have this nursery nearby if you were starting a big garden as we were years ago.

The countryside around Lambley is picturesque, with wide skies, long stretches of farm land amongst the gently rolling hills.

As we drove  away we watched a farmer and his family gently herding some sheep along the road, (unfortunately I didn’t get a photo)…the youngsters were riding quad bikes very slowly, and the little boy was being shepherded by his mother…

What a very different life he will have to our little granddaughter, being brought up in the city of Melbourne, not far away.

The church at Ascot, close to Lambley.

www.lambley.com.au

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, and I hope you are enjoying your season where ever you are in the world. If you are a gardener in Australia, may the sun shine and the rain fall.

 

 

 

 

 

24 Replies to “Lambley Nursery and Gardens…”

  1. What a wonderful nursery, and so many colourful plants! I am having to change what I grow in my garden because of the low rainfall we get now.

    1. Thanks Clare, I always think of England as being so green and lush, with soft rain falling, it must seem strange to have to adapt to a lower rainfall.

  2. What a lovely nursery, Gerrie. I loved seeing the Yuccas and the Aloes. Reminded me of South Africa. I hope your new plant purchases are happy in their new home.

    1. Thanks Sylvia, actually many of the plants reminded me of South African ones…and there were Red Hot Pokers in one of the gardens too.

  3. I’m glad to see you made that trip to Lambley, Gerrie. We found it inspiring when we visited a couple of years ago. It was Autumn so it looked quite different from your photos. I purchased quite a few plant at the nursery and then carted them around for the rest of the trip! You can never stop a hortiholic.

    1. So true, we took a box of plants with us for the rest of the journey! One of the gardeners said that autumn is their best time, so we might try going back there again sometime…..it was a lovely garden just to wander through…..although, absolutely freezing the day we went! I did see Tulipa clusiana ‘Lady Jane’ tulips in the spring catalogue …after seeing them in your post I decided to get some, but will wait until autumn.

    1. Thanks Susan…and I’ve just thought of your interesting post on the Cartoon Museum …I’ll go back to read that one soon.

  4. Fantastic! I was so impressed with this creative approach to gardening. Gardeners around the world should take note. Also, “Extremes are the new normal now and every season is unpredictable” really caught my attention. A variation on my own “weird is the new normal.

    1. yes, I can’t believe plants can survive on that amount of water, and the ones we have bought will definitely be getting more!

  5. I’d probably still be at that nursery checking out those plants. Here in the US, there seem to be more movement toward ‘native’ plants that don’t require as much water. I think it is pretty obvious, we’re all experiencing changes in climate and are having to adjust. I’ll be interested to see what plants you bought and how they work. 🙂

    1. Today I planted some of the Salvias that we bought….they are small so they will take a while, and we bought a few more interesting ones like a Smoke Bush..I’ll write a post on their progress.

  6. Really interesting to see Lambley in spring, Gerrie. I have visited, but only in autumn, when it really does look very, very different. Hope you manage to fit all those new plants in at home – they have so many lovely plants, don’t they?

    1. Hi Janna, judging from photos on Instagram, we missed (by a couple of weeks) the best of spring weather and Lambley’s glorious tulips and poppies and others looked lovely for their open days. However, they did tell us that autumn is their best season….so I’d love to visit in autumn.

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