Gardens By Salt

Qualified horticulturalist. Plant installations and styling for cafes and restaurants. Sensory gardens for specific needs groups. General garden styling.

gardens by SALT – My Story
I am an English woman who worked as the head gardener of a late 18th century country house which had been turned into a residential home for elderly patients, some diagnosed with dementia.
When I first arrived at the four and a half acre estate, the gardens and the surrounding woodlands seemed to have fallen from their former glory.
For the first two years I cleared bracken from hidden terraces, uncovered an
old potting shed hidden for years by ivy and uncovered pathways long strangled by weeds.
I created pond areas using the original lead pump from the old courtyard, conjured up a sensory garden with seats for the old folk, and made sure they could start to get out and enjoy their garden. Raised beds were made so the residents could touch, smell and taste what we grew. A ‘grow the tallest sunflower’ competition brought even the most infirm outside.
Woodland walks were created, vegetables were grown, a herb garden provided teas, and seasonal displays of flowers bloomed which evoked days gone by.
The wildflower area buzzed with bumble bees and butterflies danced. Sweet peas climbed trellises, old fashioned roses draped pergolas, residents watched robins on bird tables, caught glimpses of sculptures in the woods and rang bells and wind chimes as if they were still children.
The residential home became full and in the summer evenings the garden was alive with people enjoying their home and its surroundings. The garden was accepted into the National Open Garden Scheme last summer.
It became more than a job. For family reasons I emigrated to Sydney last October. The day I left my garden I felt that my heart had broken.
Few of us are blessed to spend our twilight years in such surroundings, but, I believe, everyone – the old, the infirm, those suffering mental illness, the sick, the young, is entitled to a slice of the beauty and the tranquility that nature can offer.
A space or just a solitary container, however small, that allows us to reflect, to sit, to consider and to heal.


And so to Sydney.
My ethos is that the garden is an invaluable resource. On the smallest scale to the larger picture, a useful garden can be, and must be, a beautiful garden.
A sanctuary and something to treasure when times move too fast and we just need to slow down and reconnect.
I hope that I can bring a little something of what I have learned to city life. . . . . . . . .