Gardens of WA: Newer isn’t always better when it comes to gardens

Western society is, collectively, obsessed with the new. Lines of people wrap around blocks for the latest iPhone; couches and cars are chucked out after only a handful of years; light bulbs and printer cartridges are built intentionally to fail in time to necessitate their replacement. These things contribute, I think, to the pervasive idea that new is always better. Fortunately, I am personally disabused of this idiotic notion on a weekly basis with every garden I visit. Wise gardeners with beautiful backyards know a secret that the rest of us need to internalise: the old is, almost always, infinitely more beautiful than the new. And if you can hone your magpie-like radar for ancient, weathered treasures, you’ll discover that the world is full of beautiful (free!) things, lying around, just waiting to be noticed. “It brings me lots of joy not to rush out and buy new stuff all the time,” says Toni Parkinson, standing in her front yard, surveying the birdbaths, succulents, terracotta urns, salvaged furniture, drought-friendly succulents and maritime treasures that make up her garden. “My dad was a fisherman in NZ, so I have a real affinity for fishing gear. And I’ve got the kookiness from my mother — she lives in New Zealand in a little coastal community,” she adds. Toni’s garden is, like all the gardens I love, filled with surprises; most of them treasures she has found on her morning beach swims. Bright orange buoys hang from the fence and adorn the front doorway; a thick rope outlines a garden path; large pots are filled with seashells and, beside a long old table, sits a wooden bench made from a piece of timber Toni discovered washed up on the shore of South Beach. “I’d just been for my morning swim, it was on the beach, and I thought, ‘I’m not gonna let anyone else get that’. It took me about half an hour to drag it 20m,” she chuckles. Toni’s garden is a testament to just how many beautiful things can be found hiding in plain sight by those who are prepared to look. Unlike gardens filled with newly made plant pots, edging and pavers, Toni’s garden objects have already stood the test of time, and their age becomes them. There is a rugged beauty in the metal shipping signs, weathered timbers and fishing twine, which simply doesn’t exist for new things. For Toni, who used to have a formal garden in Mt Lawley, this garden is a much better fit. “The formality doesn’t really suit my personality,” she admits, snipping cuttings of a coastal succulent for me to take home. “I just find things at funny little junk shops, and I do lots of foraging on the beach. Especially after a storm, there’s always things around.” As someone who contemplates swimming in winter but never does, I can’t help wondering if Toni’s approach might finally get me down to the beach. “I swim every morning,” she grins, “it’s my big blue Panadol”.