There's a real surprise hidden away in Black Springs. It's Rosalie Pollock's wonderful garden named "Beyond Avalon", part of the 2023 Oberon Garden Festival.
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The size and layout of the garden make it easy to get lost wandering around, and the sheer scale of it make it easy to forget that it's the work of a single person.
Rosalie Pollock started creating the garden about 20 years ago.
"It was just a paddock with a few gum trees, which I hate," she said. "I have a passion for gardening and the time to do it, so I decided to transform the block."
The transformation is amazing. Every flower, bush or tree in the garden has been planted there over the last two decades and then looked after to maintain the impression that the whole thing is the work of a team of gardeners giving everything constant attention. Except there is only one gardener, and Rosalie is not as young as she used to be.
"The weather here is perfect for these cool-climate plants, and like I said, gardening is my passion," she said.
It's hard to find a suitable superlative to describe the love and attention that has gone into this garden, and Rosalie Pollock must be both congratulated and thanked for following that passion.
But where does the name "Beyond Avalon" come from?
"I used to live in Avalon on the Northern Beaches," Rosalie said.
"When I came here I found that the property was named "Avalon". It was too much of a coincidence to ignore but I didn't want to just use the same name and I'd moved on from where I was living before, so 'Beyond Avalon' seemed right."
The Oberon Garden Club must be congratulated for the work they do to bring the beautiful gardens around the area to the public. Much of the beauty is hidden away in backyards, but events like the annual Garden Festival allow everyone to admire that beauty.
