This is a garden built on a love of plants. Over the years it’s just grown as Terry Ashton fell in love with, and had to have, first this plant, then that one, then another and another. For Terry, there’s always room for new additions and obsessions to her Glen Waverley garden. She just makes the garden beds bigger or squeezes them in anywhere that looks like it could be a space.

PICS: Terry Ashton's favourite plants in her garden

Terry credits her grandfather for her love of plants. As a child, she spent many happy hours with him, learning gardening skills and the names of plants as they pottered in his garden in Surrey, England. She still grows many of those plants, but her creativity has led to plant partnerships that could only work in the warmer Southern Hemisphere.

In a nutshell
Where: Suburban Melbourne
Aspet: Front faces north
Size: 804sqm
Style: Roses, perennial flowers, fruit and veg

Age: 18 years

Roses are her first love, and though she’s had affairs with clematis, foxgloves and others, Terry always comes back to roses. Each of the garden beds is punctuated with at least one rose. In all, there are more than 75 varieties in her collection, including David Austins, Delbard roses, Hybrid Teas, miniatures and many old-fashioned roses. As dedicated rose growers know, part of the pleasure of growing them is experimenting with other flowers that go well with them. Terry’s had great success with tall foxgloves, the grey-leaved Plectranthus argentatus, as well as climbing clematis and star jasmine.

Fast becoming another firm favourite for Terry are salvias. The beginning of their relationship can be traced back to her joining the Salvia Society six years ago. Over this time, Terry has come

to admire their toughness in times of dryness and hot weather. They were great performers during the drought, blooming right through summer and into autumn. There are several varieties in her garden – Mexican sage, bog sage and Salvia greggii ‘Snow White’, to name a few. But her passion for them leads us to think she’s not finished collecting them just yet.

Terry's top 3 tips
1. Do a little bit, often, and don’t let jobs get out of hand. If you try to do a small amount of gardening daily or regularly, you’ll never be faced with a weekend of work.

2. Minimise spraying. If you see a problem, look for the cause and squash it. Spray only if a plant is seriously threatened. The less sprays you use, the more you’ll see the birds, praying mantises, dragonflies and ladybirds gobbling up your problems.

3. Use organic matter. Spread composted manure and mulch with thin layers of pea straw or lucerne hay. It has such a beneficial impact on the soil.

Being waterwise

Drought was what introduced Terry to water tanks. Her collection has grown steadily since the first arrived in 2003. From the humble beginnings of 800 litres, her tank capacity has now grown to 26,000 litres over several tanks. That’s enough to give the whole garden four good soakings, each equivalent to more than 11mm of rain. Constant mulching not only acts as a water-retaining blanket but, as it rots into the soil, it makes it more sponge-like and water-retentive.

Visitors to Terry’s Melbourne garden are greeted by a picket fence and this striking rose-covered arch. They step into an oasis full of salvias, clematis and, of course, roses.