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Tips & Tricks for your day at the Cambridge Garden Festival

Your first garden Your ticket has a Garden for you to start at.  We would appreciate it if you could aim to start at that garden, so that not everyone arrives at the same garden at the same time.  Then plan your day using the map, from that starting garden. Most of the garden owners will be at their gardens when you visit.  Please feel free to ask them questions as they are keen to share what they have discovered and know.  Visiting gardens and talking to people is the best w...

Garden Two, 2/182 French Pass Road - Designer Inspiration, Juliet and Sean Coleman

Juliet Coleman’s garden in French Pass Road is such a contrast to the two small town gardens I had visited recently.  In two words, huge, impressive. Ailsa and I were met by Juliet and her gorgeous, friendly poodle-spaniel Maisie and we were immediately invited in for coffee.   The first thing we see as we walk to the front door is Hellebores in a mass planting.  This will be a fabulous display in a few weeks. Juliet says she a love-hate relationship with Hellebores.  ...

Garden One, 97 Wells Place, RD1 - Crowd Pleaser, Jan & Bill Mathers

Mass plantings of Hydrangeas, wandering paths through trees, shrubs, and garden art. This country garden is not to be missed. Lots of ideas and plants to buy.  All the garden photos in this newsletter are of this garden Jan Mathers is an ‘Original Cambridge Girl’ and has become a hydrangea enthusiast and collector.  Jan and Bill’s acre of farmland on the outskirts of Cambridge has been transformed since 2002 to the beautiful garden it is today with 178 varieties of hydrangeas. Mo...

26 Queen Street, photos

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Traditional Villa Garden - a sight to see

This lovely garden has been crafted over the years by Louise and Duncan McGillivray.  In central Cambridge, the traditional villa is surrounded by trees, lawns, box hedges. Over the 14 year that they have been here, they have taken the established garden that they inherited and added fruit trees and a much bigger vegetable area. Louise & Duncan have always had a garden, but this is their largest one. Some trees have been removed or cut back and most of the flowers have been changed to suit ...

Joy and Des Bells garden at 3 Boulton Street, Norfolk Downs

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Final showing (possibly) of this lovely garden

When Joy and Des Bell purchased their house and property in Norfolk Downs 8 years ago there was a minimalistic garden with Laurel trees at the front and 18 olive trees around the perimeter. Having moved from 15 years on a 10 acre block with a 2 acre garden then to a to a 1 ½ acre garden and then to this ¼ acre town section, it was quite a change for these avid gardeners. Joy started with a green and white theme but soon missed the colour of her old gardens. In conjunction with daughter Wendyâ€...

Garden Transformation photos of 12 Williams St

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Garden Transformation

Shirley is the owner of this garden which illustrates the dangers of being in real estate.  Through her work she sees a number of homes and gardens, and from time to time, Shirley discovers a property that she can transform. When she purchased this1960's cottage 2 years ago, it was a blank canvas and had a garden that was sparse and unloved.  The gardens were bare, there were 2 cherry trees and a rotten back fence.  The weeping cherry died, so an artistic twist has been designed l...

Wetlands, Parks, Reserves and beautiful gardens

St Kilda is a new suburb of Cambridge and our two gardens showcase the suburb, with modern structural gardens that interact with the wetlands and parks and reserves of the area.Ground was broken on the 80 hectare St Kilda development in mid 2012.  A total of 285 sections are to be developed, and many are already well established with lovely gardens.   St Kilda is an energy efficient and eco friendly development, built around 4 hectares of wetlands, parks and reserves. We are delig...

St Kilda - how it came into being

Matt Smith was the owner of a dairy farm with 400 milking cows had a dilemma when the Waikato Expressway cut his farm in half. He solved the problem about what to do with it by developing the property into a subdivision with a rural lifestyle with a residential feel. It was to be free of rigid fences with no two houses the same and all with solar panels. The average sections are 1600m2. It is a a community where it is safe to commute around with off road paved walks and boardwalks arou...

Our 2 St Kilda Gardens at 20 Baxter Michael Crescent

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Lilies by Blewden - special Behind the Scenes Tour

At the Cambridge Garden Festival this year, we are privileged to be able to offer 100 tickets for the Behind the Scenes Tour of Lilies by Blewdens.  These one hour tours are available at 9am, 10am, 11am and midday.There are only 40 tickets left - the cost is an additional $10 per person and you can purchase them only on the Cambridge Garden Festival website at Lilies Tour.The Cambridge News wrote an excellent article on what they do out at Lilies by Blewden.  For more informa...

Learn more about Hydrangeas - old and new from Jan and Bill Mathers

From the old Hydrangeas in your grandparents gardens to the new small Hydrangeas that are suitable for smaller town gardens, Jan and Bill have experimented and learned about this plant over the years.  They have many varieties in their garden, come and visit their garden at 97 Wells Place, Cambridge - and learn more. The genus HYDRANGEA Hydrangeas or hortensia is a genus of 70–75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas, and Indon...

8 Different types of Hydrangeas in Jan and Bill Mathers Garden

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Festival could become an annual event

Thanks to Cambridge News for their article announcing the launch of the Cambridge Garden Festival.To see the full article - click here....