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Timandra South Australia's Water Wise Garden

If you are interested in designing a garden to withstand dry conditions, the creators of Timandra Garden would be a good source of advice.

Timandra Garden is situated in the state heritage listed town of Mintaro 125 km north of Adelaide in South Australia. The garden's design is in harmony with the historical atmosphere of Mintaro emulating a garden of the 1850's.

Timandra is a very unique garden. It holds the distinction of being the only "Eco-Tourism" accredited garden in the world and has won many landscape and tourism awards. Horticulturists also refer to it for growing advice.

Eco-Tourism is the blend of conservation and tourism, which means the ecology of the area is sustainable to tourism, with minimal impact to the landscape and environment.

Other significant details about Timandra are that it is a garden designed to require very little water, it is tolerant to frost, heat and the hot, dry sun of Australia, where in the summer the temperature can get up to 40C and is prone to drought conditions.

The mixture of native and exotic plants attracts a wide range of bird species and the garden is environmentally friendly because no sprays for aphids or fungus are used.

At first glance you could be fooled into thinking the garden was first established in the 1850s due to the mature look of the plants. In fact the garden began life in 1995 originating as a bare 1.5 acre paddock with only three existing trees.

The owner of the paddock decided to create a country style garden choosing plants from all over the world and native plants that were compatible with the soil type and climate range of the location. It is due to the plant selection and design that the garden looks older than it actually is.

The garden is divided into seven rooms linked together by lawn pathways. Each room has it's own theme. Statues, birdbaths and color and texture mainly from the foliage of the plants help to create different moods in each of the rooms.

Timandra is very pleasant and peaceful to walk around, with green, lush lawns encased between walls of trees and shrubbery creating rooms and corridors of green and silver-leaved foliage. The faint sounds of birds chirping in the tree tops gives an additional sense of tranquility.

There is a great deal of shade, while other areas have dappled sunlight. Some of the rooms are totally sunlit. The amount of sun every space receives depends on the aspect of each setting and the height

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