About The Garden Diaries
Step into the lush world of Australian gardens with ‘The Garden Diaries,’ our showcase series that unveils the vibrant stories thriving within backyards.
From productive vegetable patches to bush sanctuaries, each story celebrates the unique journey of passionate gardeners and their flourishing green spaces.
Come along as we dig deep into the roots of their inspiration, uncovering the heartfelt stories, cherished memories and insightful tips that have blossomed from their gardens.
Tune in to ‘The Garden Diaries’ on Instagram, Facebook or our newsletter each month for enchanting stories to inspire your gardening journey.
Betty Mae Wrote: The tale behind this stationery lover’s home and garden
Hi Kim! You live in a very cute cottage in Bega surrounded by gorgeous cottage gardens and rolling hills beyond. I’m dying to know more about it all!
Tell us about yourself & your Instagram account & business Betty Mae Wrote?
I’m Kim, and I live in the beautiful Bega Valley, on the Far South Coast of NSW, with my husband, Pete and my grown up son, Lew (he lives in the studio near our house).
I have a business called Betty Mae Wrote and an Instagram account with the same name. I work from home which is an absolute joy! I get to hang out in my PJs, wear a messy bun, and gaze out at my garden while I work. It’s a bit of a dream for me, not to have to leave home to go to work. If I could be anywhere in the world it would be right here, at home. So, yep, I’m a homebody! I create stationery boxes for letter writing women who love a handmade, country style kind of feel. My son, Lew, is an artist, and he is the talent behind all of the illustrations I use to design my stationery with. He uses ink pen and watercolour in all of his artworks and I adore the whimsical vibe of it all. I also have a letter writing exchange called The Lovely Letters Project which has around 900 members from all around the world. It is a delightful group of women who connect through the old fashioned art of letter writing. My Instagram account is mostly business related these days but I love to throw in photos of my garden, animals and home. Those things really light me up.
I’m dying to know more about your house – it looks like a little church?
Hahaha, so many people say that, and I most definitely had churches in mind when I designed it back in 2012. I have a thing for high pitched rooflines, and vestibules, much like a traditional church shape.
Before we built this house we lived in town (about 5 mins from where we are now). I had a large house on an acre in the middle of town, and at the time, it was my ‘dream’ house. I built it as an owner builder, with the help of an extremely skilled carpenter. I chose every recycled window and door, every fitting, every piece of wood that went into the creating of it. It was a labor of love, that’s for sure, and I thought it would be my forever home. But life happens, and we decided to downsize and move out of town to enjoy the rural lifestyle. This little house is small – two bedrooms, one bathroom. It was a bit of downsize from our 4 bedroom, three living space, two bathroom home, but it is the house where I feel the most at home I’ve ever felt in my entire life. That, to me, is a dream home.
It is cute and really easy to clean which is my favourite thing about it! I have an obsession for old things so you won’t find a single new piece of furniture inside. I love the worn feel of old wares and the stories they tell. Nothing is too precious and perfect, much like myself;) Most of the pieces in my home have been sourced from op shops, garage sales and auctions. I love the adventure of an old style auction. The quiet of the bidding process, the excitement of the bid- win, even the disappointment of being outbid. It’s all fun and part of the story in the end.
Tell us how you came to live in Bega?
My family moved to the Bega Valley from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, when I was almost nine. I spent the rest of my childhood years, living out of town, in an area called Brogo, where we had a cute little old farm cottage on 100 acres at the foot of Mumbulla Mountain. After finishing school I moved to Sydney and then Armidale for uni but home was calling, and so once I finished my teaching degree, I headed back to the Bega Valley, and I’ve been here ever since! I really adore this area of Australia. Cooler climate, beautiful hills and mountains and close to the coast. Perfect for my style of gardening.
Tell us about your garden!
My garden is my therapy. I just love to potter in in. It lights me up and there’s always something new to be discovered amongst the flowers and greenery. I would call my garden cottage style with a tendency for rambling. My husband and I get into arguments, often, about how much to cut back. He is a little bit Edward Scissorhands-ish and I like that Secret Garden vibe, so we clash, at times, but mostly I win, so all is well.
I am obsessed with flowers so I grow as many as I can possibly fit. Climbing roses surround the house and veggie garden, dahlias and other perennials blend in with one another and form a foamy kind of border around ever path and corner of the house. I like to be surrounded by my garden. It feels cosy and comforting and private and that’s important to me. The veggie garden is very close to the house, so too the chook pen. I like everything to be within easy reach so permaculture principles work for me, especially because I am what I would call quite a lazy gardener.
Did you set the gardens up from scratch? Can you tell us about how they came about?
When I bought this place, in 2011, it was 3 acres of grapevines. In the 80s and 90s, our 3 acres was joined to many more acres, and it was an established winery. Unfortunately the winery folded and the land was subdivided. My block was one of those. There was one small gum tree on the place, but otherwise it was all grapevines and grass up to my hips. I set about pulling out all of the wire and metal star pickets by hand. I did a lot on my own
before I realised that I could do it a much easier way. So, I hired a bob cat guy and he, and I pulled the rest out very easily. I did save quite a few rows of grapes with the hope of having our own little vineyard one day, but the goats annihilated those before I could fence it off properly. One grapevine remains, an ode to the good old winery days. I planned the garden while we lived in the studio, which was also when the house was being built. I drew it all, and mapped everything out, and then once we moved into the house at the end of 2012, I made a start on the garden. The first, and most important thing was the veggie garden. I set that up first of all. It’s right next to the house and it makes picking things for dinner really easy. Next came the roses surrounding the front and eastern side of the house. I have a passion for climbing roses so I planted a combination of pink Pierre de Ronsards and red Black Boys. Trees were important for the bones of the garden plus I wanted most of them to be edible, so I planted lots of citrus, olives, apples, pears and stone fruit. I also planted an avenue of Captial Pears along the driveway, and rows of crab apples and Purple Prunus.
The rest, a mix of cottage flowers and perennial shrubs, were added bit by bit, and when my husband, Pete, came along, he and I added a lot more garden beds. His aim was to get rid of as much grass as possible around the house, which we have done quite successfully. The newest addition to the garden is the Tuscan Garden (which we like to call it). It was a slopey area that was very difficult to mow, and I’d planted it with citrus and a row of pencil pines, so there was a lot of weaving in and out with the mower. A mower person’s worst nightmare (or so he said!).
Pete has done a beautiful job of creating paths around a completely mulched area, and we are now finalising the planting out of it so that it will, one day, be very easy maintenance. I’ve always loved Tuscan gardens, and so this is ours, amongst the rambling, cottage beds. We’ve planted 8 olives, 8 table grapes, 8 figs, all amongst the citrus. In the in between places we’ve planted lavender, thyme, oregano, rosemary, lambs ear and a few silvery plants we will form into topiary balls for a little bit of structure.
What are your favourite plants and why?
If that’s not the most difficult question in the world, I don’t know what is! There are just so many plants to love! But I could not live without roses, that I know for sure. I love their delicateness yet they are so hardy and tough. I love their beauty and the variety and the way they change from season to season. I love perennials like salvias, and penstemons and dahlias. They light me up. There are so many to collect and enjoy and I’ve adored exchanging cuttings with family and friends over the years.
Do you enjoy gardening? If so, what is it about gardening that brings you joy?
I most certainly do. It is something I have to do. I find that if I’m not in the garden regularly I start to feel antsy. As soon as I thrust my hands into the dirt I am immediately revitalised and grounded. Pardon the pun;) My mind just wanders once I’m in the garden and I can get lost in thought so very quickly. I love that feeling. I also love how the birds and insects enjoy the garden. There’s so much synchronicity of nature and it’s a bit of an honour to be a part of it all. We have a family of fairy wrens who visit us each day, begging for a treat or two. They are the sweetest little creatures and I love providing them with shelter and a comfortable, safe space to live.
I love the anticipation of new flowers ready to unfurl. I love finding goodies to eat in the veggie garden. I love the minimal amount of input for such a big reward. Plants grow with very little interaction from us humans, and I feel in awe of it all when I’m amongst it. There’s always beauty to be found in the garden, even in winter. Actually, especially in winter. The bare bones of the garden remains and I love the contrast of branches and shapes that have changed for the oncoming cold weather. The little jewels that pop up here and there like daffies and jonnies brighten the sparseness. I just love it!
Have you faced any unexpected challenges in your gardening adventures?
One word – goats!
Goats and gardens do not blend very well at all. I learnt this the hard way. I wouldn’t be told by well meaning people.
Goats have an extraordinary way of finding the holes where there appears to be none, and venturing through them and into the garden. They are a magnet to all of the things I love the most in my garden – namely roses! They also adore the veggie garden and can destroy it in 2 minutes flat. I learnt, quick smart, to never trust our gorgeous goats. They are sweet pets and I don’t get too cross with them, but oh my gosh, there’s a kafuffle when one of us finds a goat in the garden! It’s all systems go to get him or her out! Because they are pets they won’t be shoo-d. They have no fear. They think they own the place and they have no intentions of leaving the garden. So it usually takes two or three of us to ger them out. We have learnt the hard way how to manage the goats and even now we still have times when they will appear at the front door wanting to come in! I think they like to keep us on our toes, and when they do get in, havoc runs riot! Oh, country life can be such bliss! haha
Can you share any favourite gardening books, resources, or influencers that have inspired you along the way?
I loved Peter Cundle from Gardening Australia. He was such a relaxed, no fuss kind of gardener. When I first went to Tasmania I visited the Botanical Gardens where his veggie patch is. That is still one of the highlights of my life. Touching the ground that gorgeous Peter Cundle walked on. Haha There was a garden, quite local to me in Tilba, called: Foxglove Spires. It was created by an absolute garden queen, Sue Southam. She started the garden from a bare paddock with only a couple of large pines. She turned it into an enchanting, magical place that my friends and I would to visit regularly. I even painted one of my houses the same colour as hers (with her permission, of course). She has such a tasteful way of creating art in the form of a garden.
She has written two books, one is called Velvet Pears and it’s a journal style book of her garden from the beginning to the end. It’s a treasure of mine and I love to flick through it regularly.
She has since sold her precious Foxglove Spires and has created a new home and garden right opposite Foxglove. I am waiting for the day that she opens her garden to the public. I will be there with bells on!
Foxglove Spires has had a big impact on my own garden. It’s everything I think a garden should be and more. Rambling plants, winding paths, hidden rooms, an aesthetic veggie garden, chooks, water, a forest of oak trees. It’s just so beautiful.
How has gardening positively impacted your life?
Gardening is my way of unwinding. As soon as I get into it I start to feel my muscles relax and the stresses of the day leave my body. I can’t be miserable in the garden. The birds won’t allow it. They are so happy flittering about and enjoying their life amongst the flowers and branches. Nature just brings me so much joy.
It certainly is the simple things in life that are the best. And gardening is one of those simple joys. I can’t imagine my life without a garden. Perish the thought.
How does your garden reflect your personal style?
I have a need to be surrounded by beautiful things. My home is full of all of the things I love and enjoy looking at. That makes me feel happy. It also needs to be practical and comfy. My garden is the same. I need to have plenty of flowers to enjoy, both outside and also to cut, and bring indoors. I need to have food growing, and I also like a relaxed, rambling feel in my garden. I do adore the look of formal gardens but I am just too lazy to maintain the look. I like to be surrounded by things that tell a story. My garden is the same. The stories of the people who gift me plants from their own gardens, is something I truly treasure. It feels like a little piece of them is with me, and I love being reminded of that as I wander around it each day.
Do you grow anything from seed?
I often grow from seed. Most of my annual flowers I grow by seed. The Sweet Peas are looking luscious right now. Some have popped up from self seeding and others I have planted in purposeful places from last years seeds. I love growing seeds in my potting shed during the cooler months. It’s so exciting to see nothing, nothing, nothing then bingo, a bright green shoot lifts itself out of the soil. It’s such a treat.
Somehow I always feel more like a proper gardener too, when I grow from seed. A little arrogant even. lol
Have you ever shared seeds with friends or gifted some seeds to someone?
Sharing seeds and cutting from the garden is my love language! It’s something I love to do with my gardening family members and friends. Seeds from the garden are such a gift because not only do they cost nothing, but they are a way of sharing a little piece of our garden with those we love. I think that’s one of my favourite things about gardening, having little pieces of the people I love in the garden in the shape of a flower or plant.
