LANDCARE’S annual Broken Hill Garden Award, which is given to an established garden embodying sustainability and innovation, was last week awarded to Helen Murray of Umberumerka Creek Road in Silverton.
Ms Murray moved to the Far West 40 years ago from Perth, and to her property in Silverton 25 years ago.
She and her husband Barry Murray bought the two-hectare block to allow room for Mr Murray’s horses and Ms Murray began planting a garden.
“When we got here there was no garden at all – no trees, grass or flowers,” she said.
“There was nothing, so I went to the agricultural fair and came home with a big tray of eucalypt saplings, which I planted all the way around the garden.”
Ms Murray said growing plants in the garden was all a process of trial and error, though she owes her green thumb to genetics.
“My father was a gardener, he used to share-farm and garden at home, he grew everything imaginable,” she said.
“Mum then picked it up from him and was quite a gardener too.”
Ms Murray said she was never deterred by the naysayers who told her a lively garden couldn’t be grown in the outback.
“When people say that to me, I’m like a bull to a red flag,” she said.
Her garden is proof of this; it’s full of colour and a huge variety of plant and animal life. Even frogs have made their homes in one of the many ponds.
“It’s probably a little different to most gardens,” Ms Murray said.
“A bit over the top maybe, but I don’t really see it. I work on it every day, so I don’t see the wow factor, it’s been so long adding little bits.”
Ms Murray said once the eucalypts grew big enough to offer shade to the surrounding garden and create their own microclimate, she was able to add plants into the garden that were a little less hardy and enduring.
“When we got here the only thing I could grow was geraniums,” she said.
“But as the trees grew I was able to plant more, and I began trying different plants to see what would grow out here. Over 25 years that list has changed dramatically.”
She also added fences and increased the height of the existing fences, to help to protect the garden from wind, heat and the cold.
“I look at things and think, oh well I’ll give it a go, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” she said.
“It’s not just the heat, it can get to negative five or six degrees here too, so things need to be a bit tough, there’s no sooky-la-las out here.
“It’s the same with people, you’ve got to be a bit tough to live out here in these conditions.”
Ms Murray said she was surprised to win the award because she knew many amazing gardens throughout Broken Hill.
“Honestly, you could’ve bowled me over with a feather when they said I won,” she said.
Her favourite spot is the fairy garden area.
“I just really like the shaded woodland type thing,” she said.
“I often pull up a chair and sit and have a look at the garden, but that doesn’t work because once I sit I start looking at things and getting ideas for things I want to add or change.”
Ms Murray’s garden and photography gallery are open to the public at the Silverton Photography Gallery and Garden.
