Have you ever been put off gardening because you don't know much about it
or, worse still, you're renting
and you think, "Why should I put in all this effort
"if I'm gonna have to move out anyway?"
Well, hold on to your trowel, 'cause I'm about to introduce you to someone
who's not only renting
but up until a couple of years ago knew nothing about gardening.
You're gonna love this!
This is the amazing garden of Darren Partridge,
by day, a humble research laboratory manager,
but in his spare time,
a super gardener extraordinaire.
And it all started as a way to honour his great-aunt.
DARREN: My great-aunt passed away a couple of years back,
and she loved her petunias.
The day before she passed away, she actually planted some petunias out.
And I thought,
"You know what, I'm gonna finish off what she started."
Little did I appreciate
just how much work they were gonna be, though.
By about midsummer, I was done with deadheading petunias.
Having been bitten by the gardening bug
but no longer loving his petunias,
Darren was at a bit of a loss as to what to plant next,
until his then housemate came home with a struggling native plant.
He said, "Can you fix this for me?"
And I said, "I don't... I don't think so.
"I think it's...I think it's due to go to the compost bin.
"But what is it?"
And he said, "It's a kangaroo paw."
And I said, "A what? I have never heard of a kangaroo paw."
But my curiosity got the better of me and I looked it up online,
and I was amazed by what I saw.
I went to the native nursery and got my kangaroo paw
and then picked up about a hundred other plants at the same time.
I was just blown away by what was available in the nursery
and just fell in love with
so many different varieties and textures and colours.
What were some of the challenges you faced
when you started to set the garden up?
The aspect was a... a major challenge,
or a major consideration at least.
You get a north-facing sun.
It just, you know, pelts down on this pavement.
But in the winter, it's full shade.
So, you've got to go with some plants
that are gonna tolerate that... that real blistering sun,
and then, you know, at least filtered light in...in the winter.
Wind is an issue here.
Even though we are in a small courtyard, with the sun,
it's about just going Western Australian,
I say, in the containers.
They love their sun, the Western Australian plants,
and this courtyard gives you that opportunity
to play with those Western Australian natives.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped into Darren's backyard
is the layers and the staging of the plants.
They're clustered together.
You don't notice that they're pretty much all in pots.
All of the pots are literally shading
and protecting each other from the sun, aren't they?
Yeah, absolutely, and that's the whole idea.
I mean, you want to retain that moisture as long as possible
to save on water.
Like, I'm trying to create a cottage garden,
and I want it to look full,
and I want it to look different at every angle.
So the height and the layers and... Mmm.
..it's really important to... to work with all that.
I feel like I'm in a lolly shop.
Have you got any favourites that you want to talk about?
It's a good way to describe it.
The Lechenaultia biloba is probably my favourite.
The blue is amazing. And it's a Western Australian plant.
It lives in sand, it...it lives in desolate soils,
yet it produces just amazing colour.
The yellow bells here - I mean, look at how much flower is on it.
Yeah, I mean, this flowers for such a long time as well.
It starts to open in about winter
and it just keeps going right into the summer.
It's another Western Australian.
It's grafted, this one.
It's recommended to be in a container,
especially on the... on the east coast,
but, yeah, I love it - it's a winner all the time.
Boronias.
Yeah. You've got more than your fair share.
They're not the easiest plants to grow.
What's the favourite one here?
My favourite would probably be the one
over there on the hanging basket.
Yep. The Boronia safrolifera.
It is a difficult one to grow, I've been told,
but I've had excellent success with it.
I've not lost one yet.
I have lost other boronias in the past.
You...they don't like to be waterlogged
and they will just drop from rootrot almost overnight
sometimes without... with very little warning.
So, what sort of soil have you used in this?
This is just native potting mix, is...
..I mean, a good native potting mix is all they...all they require.
Just keeping the root... the root ball moist,
especially for the boronias, is to keep it moist and cool.
I have my boronias south-facing.
So that helps keep 'em out of the direct sun,
or at least indirect light, yeah.
So this garden here is two years old. It's two years old. Yeah.
And your gardening heritage is effectively two years old.
Yeah.
What would you say to people that...
..are setting out?
Read, read, read, read, and fall in love
with learning about gardening,
and embrace the learning.
Don't be afraid of it, and don't be afraid to fail at it,
'cause every time you fail, you are learning still.
I like to be the best I can be at something.
If I'm gonna do something, I mean, I'll put everything into it
to make sure I do it as well as I can.
If I'm not satisfied, I'll keep working at it,
and the problem with gardening is that you're never quite satisfied.
What was motivated by a few pots of petunias
has been transformed into a native garden wonderland.
And if a renter like Darren can do it
and go from garden zero to horticulture hero
in less than two years,
then what's stopping you?