A layered approach

In spite of many years as a horticultural teacher, garden presenter, consultant and tour guide Brian Sams confesses it was not until he actually started developing his Highfields garden that he realised the size of the task he had undertaken.

“In theory, I knew it was a sloping site,” he recalls. “But I didn’t fully twig how steep until I actually started working on it.” Brian and his late wife, Vivien, moved to the property on acreage in the semi-rural community just north of Toowoomba in south-east Queensland a decade ago and the garden has been a work in progress ever since. Sadly, Vivien’s life was cut short by a brain tumour last year, but the garden