Etna Street

Etna Street

Is anyone out there? Who knows really, but if so, I hope you enjoy these next few blogs. Now that I have examined both Hawthorn Easts residential gardens as well their local nursery it is time to go back to my old neighbourhood of the Caulfield area. The houses and gardens I have chosen for these blogs are ones that I had taken photos of during Spring, so I found it quite interesting to take a look at how they are doing during Winter. Unfortunately I could only find the photos from the first house, and none from the second or third, which is indeed a shame. 

As we can't do anything about that, let's just focus on the first house. Number 9 Etna Street, Glen Huntly. Interestingly, this was the first house both last Spring and during this assignment that has not been overly friendly towards me. The owners name is Eva and she wasn't all that interested in talking to me – though she was fine with me taking some photos. Here are some of the photos, and afterwards I will get into the words. 

Spring time: 

As you can see, number 9 Etna Street is not just a house and garden, it boasts a sidewalk  garden as well! Now I love this idea, I truly do. If I could plant just a couple of streets in this way I feel it could grow and grow and eventually change the streetscape in Melbourne forever. It just has so much potential and personally I feel like it creates a really noticeable look and spark to the front of any home. Anyway, here are some of the photos I snapped more recently:

Winter time:

As you can see, more fake flowers fill the spaces where the bloomers died off, which is understandable. I do feel though that the general choices of flowers are not the most ideal for the conditions and year-round look that a sidewalk garden really should have. If I were the owners, I'd be picking Alyssum as the primary flower and perhaps some structure plants such as Rosemary and some Hebe. That way, there will continue to be some bushiness to them all year round, with the Alyssum providing the constant colour. I'd also add some Autumn/Winter flowers such as Heleborus as they look very pretty when in bloom. Unfortunately, the owner was not very keen to chat, so I only gathered a few details from here. Her husband does the sidewalk gardens whilst she (Eva) does the front gardens behind her fence. In Spring both look great, and interestingly the fake flowers really do help during Winter. It was pretty clear to me that Eva did not really enjoy gardening, similarly to Launa, which is why the fake flowers appealed to her so much. However there are moments in her garden that are very pretty and as I have said – during Spring the garden really shines.