Journal of the Australian Native Plants Society Canberra region (Inc)
Dave Bishop’s garden
By Lyndal Thorburn
June 2021
Dave Bishop is a member of ESG at Yass, NSW. He moved to Yass in March 2015 and built a house on a large block of land on the town’s eastern outskirts. He started to build his garden at the beginning of 2016. ANPS Canberra’s Daytime Activities’ Group (affectionately known as DAGs) visited Dave’s garden in November 2020. We were astounded by the growth he had achieved in 4 years: Yass, like Canberra, is a dry place and we had been in drought the whole time Dave was developing his garden. However, he has access to bore water which has made a big difference.
he bought it in 2015, looking South.
landscaping in 2016.
Dave is an enthusiastic Eremophila grower, and regularly posts about Eremophila in the Yass Native Plants Facebook page. He is also a very careful gardener – everything is labelled, making it easy for our visiting group to identify plants. The garden has several formal beds, with plenty of native Bracteantha/ Xerochrysum daisies self-seeding along their edges, and grassed areas centrally. A large E. ‘Big Poly’, approx. 1.5m x 2m, was in full flower in the front when we visited and received much praise.
edging along one part of the circular drive.
. I was particularly struck by an E. ‘Meringur Midnight’, planted on the South side of the house, in full flower and reaching almost 2m x 2m while still only a couple of years old. E. glabra were also abundant – the Burgundy form and Murchison Magic form attracting the most comment.
Myoporum was also used as an effective edging along one part of the circular drive and a large M. floribundum stood over a mix of Acacia, Scaevola and Grevillea elsewhere in the garden. Dave has achieved an enormous amount in a very short time by enriching the soil and through ongoing pruning and shaping.
Anigozanthus sp. and Myoporum parvifolium.
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