About

Sub Rosa means “in secret” and this has a number of meanings in relation to gardening. The “Secret Garden” is an old concept, reaching back far beyond the 1910 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

It has always been a place where people could relax with family and friends in private and could express themselves artistically. A beautiful garden is a piece of art painted on a large, living and evolving canvas. Like a painting, it can tell a story and be interpreted hundreds of different ways, none of which will be anything like the meaning to the creator. The smallest plant can be the most significant.

This also means that there will be hundreds of different ways that other will think a garden should be or could be improved. I adhere to the philosophy that if its what you like and will enjoy using, then that’s how it should be. If that’s a rambling flower garden, a bird-attracting native garden, your own personal supermarket, a garden that will look great with minimal effort or simply a forum for a BBQ, pool, or hobby activities then that’s exactly what you should have.  No other can tell someone how they should enjoy their own private sanctuary.

Often though, people aren’t really sure of where to start or think that they’re simply not good at it. You know what the real secret to gardening is? It doesn’t have to be hard! The gardening community is full of secrets tips and techniques that can make creating your own piece of paradise possible for anyone.  All you need are some insights as to how everything fits together and the desire to get out there and try things out.

An artist draws ideas from all around them and I hope that this blog will provide a forum for tips, tools and techniques for creating your ideal garden.  As well as useful tidbits that have worked for me, this like any blog will also be full of my thoughts, philosophies and opinions on various aspects of gardening which will undoubtedly vary from many of you out there on the Internet, particularly across different climates. I spent two years in the UK and was taught in my studies that mulch like pea straw or lucerne were often undesirable as they provide shelter for snails, whereas in the Australian climate I cannot praise them high enough. My hope is that you make your own informed opinions and not get too caught up in what other people think.

Having said that, I’m almost always right. Just ask my other half.  :-)

Given that I like talking to and exchanging new ideas with other people, I hope to hear from many of you too. Questions, tips, ideas for discussion, any other good blogs and sources of information out there – please contact me using the feedback mechanisms on these pages or via email at admin@subrosa-gardens.com.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!

Happy gardening,

Karly

PS. I’d also like to thank stock.xchng for some of the photos on this blog. While the vast majority of them are my own, some have been sourced from http://www.sxc.hu/ and are very much appreciated by an average (at best) photographer.