Sophie Thomson from Gardening Australia opened her garden in the Adelaide Hills called “Hamlyn Cottage” to the public in November 2018 and I was fortunate enough to go visit and take some photos. I have seen Sophie a few times at different events and she always seems so approachable and knowledgeable. But as I wandered through her garden with hundred’s of others I couldn’t get over the fact that she was so willing to allow us traipse through her garden.
Her segments on Gardening Australia occasionally feature her garden but I never fully grasped how large her property is and how many different plants she has. The property is 1.5 hectares (3 acres) and she lives there with her husband and five kids.
When I entered the garden I was provided with a map of the general layout of the property. Including Dad’s shed, Mum’s shed, Hay shed, insect hotels, chook yard, pizza oven, vegie patch, bee hive, wicking beds and gabion walls.
There were also labels tied to plants identifying them. I overheard one of the volunteers walking around the gardens say that they were there to answer any questions but they hadn’t been too busy due to all the provided labels. I took quite a few photos of plants that I didn’t know for later reference.
There are quite a few sculptures dotted around the property. The poppies looked new. And the “Everything old is new again” sculpture incorporated many old gardening tools to create a sphere. These had been made by Sophie’s very talented husband.
There were laminated signs with more information about how the garden was built, how they handle weeds, etc. Sophie was truly honest too, with signs proudly declaring that something hadn’t worked and they’ll just have to try again. I appreciated the sign in the orchard “Forever learning, planning and hoping!” as this is something we can take to heart in all areas of life.
Beekeeper Crispin Boxhall from Crispin’s Beekeeping gave an entertaining talk on bee keeping and the bee lifecycle. Even though I have no interest in having my own hive it was fascinating to hear about how important bees are for gardens and the activities of bees within the hive.
It really was a great pleasure to walk through Sophie’s Patch and see how the professionals do it. I have certainly taken inspiration and will try out her plant combinations and how she used anything she could lay her hands on (even gumboots) as a vessel for plants.
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