Lara Dunston

As the garden tourists strolled my aunt and uncle’s grounds last weekend, I began to see the light – well, I’d spent a week reflecting upon dark tourism after all – but I began to see the light reflecting through the trees and shrubs in the garden here in new and different ways. I tried … Read more about Garden tours and the blossoming of thoughts on things green

I know that gardens can contain secrets (I was a little girl once) but can they tell stories? Can gardens reveal narratives to a person who knows how to read them? Or have I simply been reading too much into the cultivation of gardens and horticultural touring? (You need to read my last post first.) … Read more about Can gardens tell stories?

Have you ever been on a garden tour? Last weekend my aunt Tamara threw open the gate to this lovely big old Australian house she and my uncle George have renovated in Eaglehawk on the outskirts of Bendigo in the goldfields region of Victoria. It’s the same house where Terence and I have been lucky … Read more about The garden of leafy delights: part 1

And it is an enchanting garden, in the style of those wild, romantic, 18th century, English cottage gardens that inspired the Italians to establish their elaborate, sprawling villa gardens on the Italian Lakes. From the front gate a path meanders up to the porch of the house, a pretty pond on one side that’s home … Read more about The garden of leafy delights: part 2