Episode: #5 30/09/2006
Presenter: Melissa King

The leafy inner eastern suburb of Kew is a gardener?s paradise and if you haven?t been to Kew Nursery in the last two years then you are really missing out because the new owners have transformed it into the cutest little boutique nursery filled with quality plants and the latest design and gardening ideas.

Kew Nursery is an accredited water saver garden centre so you can come in for fresh ideas, advice and all the right plants to create a tough, beautiful garden. Silver leaves are often a sign that a plant has adapted to heat and drought and with a range of silver leaved buddleias, Colourful Arctotis and long flowering Convolvulus there is certainly no shortage of choice.

Euphorbias are classic dry garden beauties. The Euphorbia x martini has beautiful lime-green, red-centred bracts that appear during late spring and early summer. Euphorbia characias ?Red Wing? is another stunner, with bronze young growth, red buds and stems and a profusion of brilliant yellow-green bracts in late winter.

You will also find some great take home ideas for bringing the garden to the table like instant herb pots, which can be put close to the house for easy harvesting.

Let taste guide your planting. Freshly picked basil, parsley, oregano and thyme are superb in Mediterranean dishes and lemon grass, Vietnamese mint and coriander bring distinctive flavour to Asian cooking.

When you live in a city and suburban areas there is no escaping a lack of backyard privacy so here is the answer. The Weeping Lily Pily (Waterhousia floribunda) is a fantastic living screen. It is relatively quick growing, has lush evergreen foliage and can become very dense when clipped. As a screen, you can keep it to a height of 4-5m.It grows quite quickly so if you want a formal look it will need to be clipped a couple of times a year.

You can always depend on Kew Nursery for stunning seasonal colour and the buzz word for spring is petunias in every colour and form. Check out the spreading varieties which spread to over a metre and come in both hot and pastel shades.

You will also find plenty of decorating ideas and even handmade original water features to bring unique flair to the garden. Kew nursery is a really delightful place to visit. It?s quaint, charming and stacked to the brim with colour and inspiration. The caf? also makes a mean coffee and I?m told their Lamb Shanks are top notch.

Kew Nursery
Cnr High & Gladstone Sts Kew VIC 3101
ph: (03) 9853 5669 Nurseries--Retail