Meet the gardeners and their garden

Liz and her family have been living on this 5-acre block for about 9 years.  As a busy mum to two school-age children, Liz’s passion is being out in the garden growing food and flowers.   She has recently started selling her flowers, Blondie’s Blooms, through a farmgate stand. There’s always something to do in this beautifully landscaped garden that includes raised vegetable beds, a sizeable orchard, a cow, some sheep, a flock of chickens and two bee hives!

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Come to see, learn and be inspired!

• Gardening is made easier through raised vegetable beds.  These have been filled with the rich red volcanic soil found on the property and most plants seem to thrive.

• Extensive lavender and rosemary hedges, as well as rows of windbreak trees, provide protection from the westerly winds that are common in this part of Phillip Island.  

• Fruits, berries and nuts in this garden include: apricots, peaches, avocados, nectarines, passionfruit, oranges, lemons, mandarins, kiwifruit, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and mulberries.

• On a rural property such as this, some of the challenges in growing food include possums, rabbits and predatory birds including hawks.  To protect the chickens from hawks, Liz has constructed a wire tunnel that allows them to travel from the chicken coop to another safe zone.

• While they are not all edible, the abundant flower beds will be in full bloom in February and they definitely provide 'food for the soul'.  There is a huge diversity - about 80 varieties of dahlia, plus zinnias, ranunculi, irises, strawflowers and king proteas, to name just a few.

 

Parking and accessibility

Enter the driveway of Blondies Blooms with parking on the hill.  The garden is relatively flat with grassed lawns and mulched pathways.  There is a fenced-off dam.

 

Address

​148 Smiths Beach Road, Smiths Beach.

https://www.instagram.com/_blondiesblooms_/