Grown Here, Grown Back: The Native Garden at the Nook

When we first moved to this hill, it was a cleared paddock. Open sky, dry ground, a blank slate that didn’t know what it could become. We had a rough idea, and a good nursery not far away.

Half an acre of native garden later, we have our answer.

Vaughan’s Native Nursery

Almost everything in the garden came from Philip Vaughan’s nursery in Pomonal. Philip knows Australian flora the way some people know old friends — with genuine familiarity and obvious care. His advice shaped what the Nook became, and we keep going back.

The plants aren’t decorative in the ordinary sense. Grevilleas, banksias, grass trees, wattles — the kind of vegetation that Gariwerd knows how to grow and that wildlife knows how to find. They belong here more than anything else we could have planted.

What the Garden Has Become

Wrens, mostly. Superb fairy-wrens moving through the low scrub, honeyeaters working the grevilleas, the occasional bronzewing walking the edges. Lizards in the warm rocks. An echidna that tracks along the lower boundary on its own schedule. The garden has attracted its own permanent residents, who make no distinction between their habitat and yours.

Guests are welcome to wander through it at any hour — clutching a cup of tea, moving slowly, letting the morning take its time. There’s usually something worth stopping for.

If you’d like to take a little of that feeling home, Philip’s nursery is a short drive into Pomonal. He’s happy to point you in the right direction.

The garden is still growing. Still filling in. Your stay here is part of something ongoing — and we’re glad you’re here to see some of it. Book your stay.