5 days ago
Garden Benefits
Jane visits life-long gardener Bev Brownstein, who is still gardening every day in her 90s.
Designer/Owner: Bev Brownstein Location: Ivanhoe East, Vic, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Climate Zone: Cool temperate Garden Established: Bev has been here 20 years. Some plants are about 80 years old. Style: Large suburban garden, about 3,000-square-metres.
Key Features
Bev and her late husband moved here from Victoria's Wimmera district 20 years ago and they started work on the garden straight away. She describes her garden as 'Like me: it's semi disciplined, but in its spirit, it's inclined to be a bit feral.'
A huge, variegated elm dominates the back garden, where Bev spends most of her time. 'You do it bit by bit and you've got to have a love of it,' she says. She spends about two hours a day working in the garden.
Another huge specimen – an enormous tree philodendron – also features: 'It's bigger than the one in the botanic gardens,' says Bev.
A potager garden has all the herbs that she needs for cooking. At the back of the block under a large English oak is a shade garden with hardy ferns, cliveas, hellebores and rainforest plants. All the leaves from the deciduous trees are composted to create the 'garden gold' that fuels her garden.
She learnt to garden at about 4 or 5 from her grandmother. She and her husband walked a lot in the Grampians with their six children, and that made her more aware of the 3,000 varieties of wildflowers in the area. She still loves native plants and has created a bush walk in the garden.
Both her doctor and physio agree she's 'reasonably fit for her age' but recommend that she keep moving – so she does! Bev advises mixing up different garden activities and 'be kind to your body, as you would your plants'. She has been told not to lift more than 5kg but has found ways around it, by sliding bags of potting mix from the car onto a trolley, for example.
Bev also reads a lot: 'Boredom is self-inflicted in a way – you've got to make and effort that you're caring for your neurons,' she says.
VARIEGATED ELM Ulmus cv. TREE PHILODENDRON Philodendron bipinnatifidum PROSTRATE SWAMP SHE-OAK Casuarina glauca 'Cousin It' Melaleuca sp. STANDARD GREVILLEA Grevillea bipinnatifida cv. ENGLISH OAK Quercus robur
