Gardens of my memory

Chookie http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com asked a question about gardens from childhood and my memory of my Nan and Pop's Nambour garden came flooding back. ... not that surprisingly though - its only been about 8 or so years since Nan moved out of her lovely home.

When my Nan and Pop "retired" from farming they bought a 2.5 acre block and turned the old horse paddock into the most wonderfully mysterious garden imaginable. It had various "rooms" - the camellia "room", the front lawn curving down the hill, the avenue with banksias and grevilleas, the rose garden, the hibiscus, the enormous vege patch where we'd pick strawberries and watermelons in summer, the herb garden, the "jungle", the fruit orchard which included the banana grove, the mango trees, the pecans, the Bauple nuts, the lychees, the custard apples, the avocados, the persimmons ... all in their own little groves or avenues. It sounds like a lot but the front lawn was like the lounge room and various hallways and other rooms branched off from that. Each room was well-thought out but still naturally arranged. There were a number of sheds, a dam and an old red Massey-Fergusson tractor that I remember "driving" from Pop's knee.

The block was on a hillside so you could see everything from the picture windows at the front of their house ... all the way to the ocean in the distance. The house itself was designed by a friend who built it for them - quite a lovely architectural masterpiece that was built in the early 70s but with a livability that never will date..... large open great room with views onto the garden, a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom tucked down one end and a very large open kitchen.

He was such a fun Pop - he had a great sense of humour and would let us get away with a lot. I remember that he'd go down into the garden every morning and pick a hibiscus flower and bring it up to the house for Nan to put into a vase, and then he'd make a pot of tea and butter some bread and bring it in to Nan before she got out of bed.We used to stay there many weekends and so I got to spend a lot of time in the garden with Pop or my brother. Mum and Nan would spend a lot of time in the garden too, but the vegetables and fruit trees were Pop's domain.

Such great memories of my childhood. I'd love to have a garden like that some day.