Indigenous - The Making Of A Native Garden

by Don Burke

This is the story of how Don Burke built his dream, transforming a bush block with virtually no soil - a barren rocky hillside in a dry rainshadow area - into a family retreat with a lush native garden that looks as if it's been there forever. The plantings in the garden are a showcase of what can be achieved with native garden design, and how a garden can become a habitat for native wildlife. To the existing local natives, such as the beautiful old scribbly gums, Don has added a wide variety of plants that attract native birds and introduce colour, perfume and foliage textures. He has solved problems by using natives that thrive in shady areas, wet zones and even cracks in rock faces. Some plants were regenerated, many were propagated and then planted by Don, while others were given as gifts by old gardening friends. The garden has evolved over time and Don shares all the highs and lows, offering information not only on native gardens, but also on building driveways, installing ponds, dams and waterfalls, bagging bricks, keeping pets and much more. He tells the story of how he and his wife, Marea, battled to create Burke's Backyard at the same time as he battled to createTable of ContentsIntroduction 1Chapter 1 Building the backyard dreamChapter 2 Bushland beginnings Chapter 3 Reclaiming the bush Chapter 4 Driveways and dream homesChapter 5 The main plantings Chapter 6 Ponds, dams and waterfalls Chapter 7 The good life and wildlife Chapter 8 Pet projects Chapter 9 Don's practical tips Index180 colour photos

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Donald William "Don" Burke OAM (born 16 July 1947) is an Australian television personality and author. He is best known as the long time host of Burke's Backyard, a lifestyle program which ran for 17 years from 1987 to late 2004 on the Nine Network. It has returned several times over recent years with a number of Burke's Backyard Specials. The show has now returned again with several segments on Nine's A Current Affair. There is an ongoing monthly magazine titled Burke's Backyard also.

Burke was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2010 for service to conservation and the environment through advisory roles, to the horticultural industry, and to the media as a television presenter.

Reviews

[Anna Hepworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not wonderfully impressed. It is like someone has taken a blog, organised it into thematic sections, added some stream of consciousness bits to fill in the gaps and a large helping of 'look at me, look at me, I'm so clever', and published it. So, a coherent narrative it is not.

Another thing it isn't is a gardening book - it reads more like a biography. A biography of a garden, heavily salted with comments about the gardener, and how he has done things differently, or invented new ways of doing things, etc etc. Okay, so much of that is fair cop, Burke's Backyard *was* completely new and different, and he has a right to be really proud of his contribution to that, and to other things, but it did get wearying.

To some extent, I did enjoy the book. But I did read it in chunks, which probably worked well with the way that it is written. If you are looking for a book to help with planning/planting/creating an indigenous garden, this one is probably not it. However, if you are after some ideas, this is a reasonable place to start. And if biographies, or fractured writing are your thing, highly recommend it. Especially if your reading time gets interrupted frequently.