About the garden

Boat’s End is a country garden of about one hectare that has been created over the past 10 years by Sarah and Roger Budarick. It overlooks the lakes near the town of Goolwa and lies about 10km from the Southern Ocean.

The soil is not particularly rich here – a sandy loam over clay that becomes waterlogged in parts during the winter – and Sarah, an experienced gardener, knew that with only limited tank water and periodic strong winds, any plants she chose would have to be adapted to life in an exposed, winterrainfall climate with poorish soils.

Happily, there are lots of those; correa, kangaroo paw and Geraldton wax from Australia, cistus, valerian, olives, echium and euphorbia from the Canaries and Mediterranean, and arctotis, salvia and osteospermum from Southern Africa. Add in western South America and California and the list of possibilities runs even bigger.

All of these plants plus many, many more occur naturally in climates like Sarah’s, so failures are few, and because plants that evolve in a particular climate often share physical characteristics, the resulting garden looks almost natural.

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Echeveria Ground morning glory Kangaroo paw