The best secret gardens in Sydney

PREVIEWING the inaugural Australian Garden Show in September, Brian Johnston sets out to find Sydney's most overlooked gardens and green spaces.

A rainbow lorikeet in Wendy Whiteley's secret garden in Lavender Bay. Picture: Brian Johnston

WITH spring just around the corner and the first-ever Australian Garden Show promising to be a major Sydney event, my thoughts have turned to gardens.

I'm looking forward to the spectacle of horticulture, design and landscaping that will erupt in Centennial Park early next month.

The Garden Show promises everything from a sustainable kitchen garden to an illuminated night garden, as well as retail displays and seminars for amateur and professional gardeners alike.

In the meantime, though - and on a much more modest scale - there are a few gardens in Sydney that I've been meaning to investigate for years.

And on a bright, sunny mid-winter morning, what better time to get out and enjoy these almost-secret green spaces?

I start in Paddington at Reservoir Gardens, just across the road from the imposing town hall. I can't count the number of times I've walked along Paddington's retail strip, but somehow I always missed this hidden gem.

Perhaps that's because it's a sunken garden, not easily visible unless you know it's there. The site was once a reservoir, then a petrol station, before being transformed into a compact public garden lauded for its urban design.

It has retained many of the old reservoir's features, including iron fixtures and brick arches that give it something of the air of a Roman ruin, reflected in mirror-like ponds at its heart.

Paddington Reservoir Gardens. Picture: Brian Johnston

Wooden walkways give you views from below and above of this wonderful little space, where greenery blends with wood, metal and brick in unexpected ways.

I unfold a free deckchair and soak up the sun on the rooftop lawn, right in the heart of the bustling inner city.

Across the harbour, there are two other secret gardens that are far less consciously designed, but just as wonderful and unexpected.

At Lavender Bay, perfectly sited to capture views of the Harbour Bridge, is the unassuming Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden, created by the wife of artist Brett Whiteley.

I find it just below Clark Park, which itself has fabulous harbour views, framed between giant palm trees alive with lorikeets whose chattering competes with the scream of kids on the Luna Park roller-coasters just around the shoreline. This land adjacent to the Whiteleys' home, once derelict and overgrown, was transformed by Wendy as a tribute to her late husband.

It's a lush, almost wanton garden with meandering pathways and an explosion of greenery under giant fig trees.

Right under the tower blocks of North Sydney, it's also a haven for native birds.

Here and there, I come across a sculpture, as well as shaded picnic tables that I earmark for a summer return.

Further around the harbour at Cremorne Point, there's another very personal garden created by local residents Lex and Ruby Graham .

In the late 1950s, the couple started clearing rubbish from the area, then planted flowerbeds and created paths between sandstone outcrops.

The Grahams have passed away, but the council and local volunteers have taken over maintenance of this much-loved garden on the waterfront.

It's a beautiful and peaceful corner of the city, warm in the winter sunshine, with a promise of bright colours of spring flowers to come.

Clark Park just above Wendy Whiteley's secret garden. Picture: Brian Johnston

Follow the writer's travel blog at www.thoughtfultravelwriter.com

GO2 - SYDNEY

Staying there

Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour has stylish rooms in the heart of the city, just a stroll from the Royal Botanic Gardens. Ph 9256 4000

Eating there

The Sydney Picnic Company can put together gourmet picnic baskets perfect for lunch in a garden. Ph 0420 943 670

Doing there

The inaugural Australian Garden Show runs September 5-8 in Centennial Park.

More: sydney.com Ph 9240 8788

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