A garden full of memories and hope: The best therapy money can buy

March 8, 2026 — 6:00am

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In mid-December, I called in experts to rescue my garden after its long descent into chaos.

The brief: no monoculture, no hedges, and I didn’t want struggling plants thrown away but given a reprieve in another spot.

I wanted shrubs, natives and perennials that waved in the wind, and bright purple mystic spire salvias and other plants that bring birds and insects, and make the worms and the occasional blue-tongue lizard happy.

It seemed to come at the perfect time. It was hope. And a place to weep between calls as I worked with colleagues to research what had happened the day before at the Hanukkah festival in Bondi.

As I worked, I would look outside to see my crazy overgrown garden being dug up. “Save that,” I’d duck out to confirm. “Don’t touch, please. That’s my friend Kate’s dad’s frangipani,” I’d say about the plant I’d inherited........

© The Sydney Morning Herald