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Naturally Gardening

© Gay Klok

"It is a rare thing this gift for placing stones. Lovely as formal gardens can be, it is these informal schemes, in which boulders form so important a part, that appeal so tremendously for the reason, perhaps, that they give the atmosphere of the country, and the refreshment of mind derived from such" - Edna Walling, Australian Home Beautiful, 1938

Edna Walling was born in 1896, and she is quoted as saying, "My father thought I would be a boy [there was already a girl in the family] and he went right ahead with his preconceived ideas on "how to bring a boy up hardy"; in spite of the turn of events, he went straight ahead"

It was the walks through the borders of Devonshire that gave Edna Walling her love of mauve and soft greens and mossy boulders and stone outcrops. The fire that destroyed the Walling family business in England, was the reason that the family left England for a new life "down under". In 1911, they set sail for New Zealand leaving the Spring of England, with its bluebells and foxgloves carpeting the floor of the ancient forests.

The whole family was unhappy in New Zealand and finally, after Edna's brief training as a nurse in Christchurch, which she quite enjoyed, the family settled in Melbourne, Australia. In 1916, aged 19, Edna started a horticulture course at Burnley Horticulture College. With her writings and the charming gardens she created in the harsh, dry environment of many parts of Australia, she became Australia's most treasured and famous lanscape gardener and philosopher, of the last Century.

In the Australian Home Beautiful, Miss Walling describes her work in the wonderful seven acre garden "Warrawee", in Melbourne's most exclusive suburb, Toorak. She had been called in to redesign parts of the famous garden and in the magazine she describes to the readers how she transformed these sections. An "impossibly steep earth bank" was transformed by the implanting of a stone pillared pergola, graceful stone flight of steps and wrought iron rails. She also wrote of the paving stone walkway and the beds of flowers filled with foxgloves and iris to compliment the wisteria in flower on the pergola. She also recommended a native planting to link the new area with the natives growing in the other sections of the gardens of "Warrawee". Later in her professional career, Miss Walling became very keen on using natural flora mixed with European ornamentals

The copyright of the article Naturally Gardening in Tasmanian Gardening is owned by Gay Klok. Permission to republish Naturally Gardening in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.