On the 1st of September this Year, whilst walking to the top of Kunanyi (Mount Wellington) I made a little resolution that I would finally try to seperate my Landscape Design Practice from Mallee Design and the associated birdbath side of the business.
This had been long time coming, a few years of turning over in my mind, and I needed to build up my energy and focus in order to get the wheels into gear. Little did I know it would take 9 months worth of planning, juggling and procrastinating to finally launch a new website and linked Journal. However I am excited to write in my new space which feels very luxurious and well …”spacious”
Kath Gadd Landscape Design will be a new space with a journal for my ramblings (like this one) about Landscape, gardening, nature, garden design and of course native plants, because at heart I am a plant nerd. This is what informs my Landscape Design practice and I am hoping to create a more dedicated online space for sharing my work and what I am currently deriving inspiration from.
The Landscape Design services I offer will largely be staying the same, I am essentially a sole practitioner with some part time help in my studio. Over the last few years I have been running to catch up with an ever increasing workload; leading me to close my books to new clients for much of this year. It has been very difficult to say no and turn clients away and I am extremely happy that this period is over and I can launch my new website in Spring, a time for fresh beginnings 🙂
So here goes… I am surrounding these words with images of my New Years Day bushwalking or mountain climb, I was quite blown away by the amount of flowers in bloom in the middle of Summer on Kunanyi. The Tasmanian Warratah or Telopea truncata was everywhere and the Myrtle Beech was covered in its distinctive bronze new foliage.
But it really was the showy berries which blew me away, it seems the more alpine and rocky the environment the prettier these shrubs become. In the image above you can see the Purple Cheese Berry or Cyathodes glauca. This prickly spreading shrub has white tubular flowers which are followed by the large shiny purple berry, the combination was spectator.
Another heathland Apline shrub in fruit was Leptecophylla parvifolia, this can be seen in the image above, and the bush was alive with the red highlights supplied by Leptecophylla’s berries.
When you reach the top of the mountain you are usually welcomed by a completely opposing weather force to that which you have just travelled, I love the way many of the plants adapt and still thrive in the higher the altitude. Many becoming pruned and moulded by the wind, others completely disappearing from the Landscape all together, only to reemerge on your descent.
So, onward and upward I go but also descending every now and then to delve into the plants and gardening which sustains me, I hope you will come along for some of the ride. I will still be writing on Mallee Design, that has become such a lively hub which is a pleasure to  feed, but contact me here if you would like to discuss my Design services.
Best Wishes,
Kath
