A beautifully curated productive cottage garden

It's very difficult to create a garden that is exceptionally productive and beautiful, but Kate Hubmeyer has made it look easy.

She has spent over 30 years shaping her own garden, creating a stunning space that produces a massive amount of produce on what can only be described as a challenging site. Kate is also employed at the Diggers Club at the Adelaide Botanic Garden, where her passion for plants is part of her daily work. At home, the front of her property features four raised beds that form the main area for growing vegetables, set within a very pretty cottage-style garden.

Kate rotates what she plants each season, with crops such as beetroot, beans, tomatoes, eggplants, and leafy greens among the regular choices. Herbs, including oregano, thyme, and chives, also grow in these beds, while a patch of raspberries shares the space and produces fruit each summer.

Beyond the productive patch lies a cottage-styled garden, with advanced trees providing structure and a wisteria growing over a framework at the rear of the house, adding shade and seasonal display. Figs, citrus, persimmon, finger lime, guava, and plumcot add variety and interest to the garden. Passionfruit produces both flowers and fruit through the warmer months, and the presence of a banana plant is an added point of interest. Together, these plantings provide harvests across much of the year and give the garden a sense of abundance.

At the rear of the property, a chook run with a mixed breed of very healthy-looking chickens provides eggs and brings activity to the backyard.

Other parts of the garden are planted with heritage vegetables and flowers. This gives Kate the chance to experiment with different varieties and brings subtle changes to the garden through the seasons. The garden produces food that is picked and eaten fresh. Beans, tomatoes, leafy greens, figs, or raspberries are often gathered and enjoyed the same day they are harvested. For Kate, this is the real reward of gardening: the steady supply of fruit and vegetables grown by her own hand, shaped by patience, knowledge, and many years of attention.