Life is a Christmas Garden
It’s easy to bring ‘life’ to your Christmas decorations this season with a range of textural and aromatic green life found in your garden and local garden retailer.
Our favourite garden experts show us a selection of inspired and creative decorations to use in your own home this Christmas.
Summer is a time when gardens and backyards are in full bloom. Garden experts Jamie Durie, Meredith Kirton, Linda Ross, Brendan Moar, Josh Byrne, Melissa King and Andrew O’Sullivan show us how to use green life and everyday items from your backyard to create beautiful Christmas décor that will last far beyond the holiday season, for the whole family to enjoy.
The ‘Life is a garden’ initiative by Nursery & Garden Industry Australia aims to celebrate the garden as an extension of our home, environment and lifestyle. This Christmas, everyone can create a beautiful and green inspired decoration by our leading garden experts to suit one’s family and Christmas day celebration.
Jamie Durie
Award winning Landscape Designer and Horticulturist
"The wonderful thing about our country is we’ve got a plant for every occasion. Rather than encouraging exotic plants into our garden, why not use the Australian native equivalent for our Christmas tree? I love the fluffy foliage and the classic shape of our local Woolly Bush.”
Josh Byrne
Environmental Scientist and presenter on ABC’s Gardening Australia
"To give an Australian theme to Christmas this year I would use the Corymbia ficifolia ‘Living Legend’. It’s a true dwarf type only growing to 2m and it’s a great garden feature throughout the year, even in the smallest of gardens and it can be brought inside and decorated for Christmas. I’d decorate it with various homemade decorations to be made by the kids next door from recycled bits and pieces to give it an organic and whimsical flair.”
Melissa King
Garden Guru Presenter and author of Gardening Feast
“This Christmas I thought it would be wonderful to adorn a living piece of history, the Wollemi Pine, with fragrant Christmas Lilies surrounded by potted fiery red petunias for a festive splash of colour. It is easy to use your favourite flowers and plants in a way that brings greenery and life into the house.”
Linda Ross
Landscape Architect and Presenter
“I love the Picea Abies ‘Albertiana Conica’ and will decorate it with Frangipanis this Christmas. I’ll start by planting it in a beautiful pot and then decorate it with fresh Frangipanis from my backyard tree. Bringing these outdoor plants indoors will allow the lovely aroma to waft through the house!”
Brendan Moar
Environmental Scientist and host of Moar Gardening:
“My favourite chrissy tree is a collection of beautiful eucalypt branches sourced from the paddock and bound together with galvanised tie wire. The foliage of the eucalypts would be judiciously pruned to a rough pyramid shape and then decorated with a few decorations made from more galvanised wires, for instance baubles of wire rolled up like a ball of wool and stars made from wire. It’s amazing what you can find in your own backyard!"
Meredith Kirton
Gardening Australia Presenter and top selling gardening book author
“I like using second hand pots because they already have a lovely patina. This native grevillea ‘Lemon Delight’ comes with its own floral decoration, but I’ve added lights and presents of course."
Andrew O’Sullivan
Landscape Designer and Environmental Consultant
“This Christmas, I suggest bringing new life to an old treasure. By sourcing an old, traditional artificial Christmas tree from the home, you can pot it with soil. Around the base, plant festive coloured Bromeliads from your garden or nursery that have red centres with green foliage. For the tinsel, decorate with 'old man's beard'-tylansea, which is an air plant and traditionally can grow without water. There is a range of coloured Tylansea in shapes or stars and baubles, which would feature nicely over the tree. After the season, re-plant your Bromeliads in the garden for ongoing flowering!”
Not sure what the best plants to use indoors are or don’t have a backyard to pull greenery from? Visit your local nursery or garden retailer for the best tips of the season. For further information, visit www.lifeisagarden.com.au.
