Sima Hosseini and Philip Gain talk about their gardens and entries in the 2025 Growing Communities Gardening Competition.
Sima Hosseni, Gardening Competition winner 2024
My garden is just in my backyard, not very big, but I love it. In September all the aromas and flavours are coming out, it is just beautiful. I have jasmine outside my front door, and gardenia … another plant that I don鈥檛 know the name of, but it is orange – that鈥檚 in flower now.
My father used to put all the plants in every year, for the new year. We had a big yard and garden, he would put in the plants, to grow all kinds of things.
Then my mother would make food, and put out coffee, and all my family would come around, and we would eat a lot. It was a very big thing, every year, and we loved it.
In my garden, I put in small plants, which mostly I get from Bunnings at different times and these are growing beautifully. Sometimes I try seeds – but I don鈥檛 know what happens with these! I鈥檓 in the competition this year as well 鈥� it鈥檚 a lot of fun!
Philip Gain, Gardening Competition entrant 2025
I鈥檝e got some Clivia Clevia flowering now. They were here when I got here, in 2000. I keep them going.
I’ve got ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, a purple and white flower that transforms, coming on in a month or so. I planted some petunia seeds so we will see how they go; I鈥檝e got some pansies that I bought at Bunnings.
The old bromeliads were up for about a month, just finishing up now. I鈥檓 going to grow some zinnia and giant dahlia also.
I like to give flowers from my garden away. I had some marigolds which I thought were perennials, which turned out to be annuals, very surprising, but they might be a different variety. I had some showy gladiola a couple of years ago, one I accidentally hit with the lawnmower. .
