About Silver Vista

Silver Vista is an independent gardening reference for Australian conditions. It was started in 2024 by three people who were tired of looking things up and finding advice written for a different hemisphere, a different rainfall pattern and a different set of soils. We publish what grows where, how big it gets, how much water it needs and what usually goes wrong.

Why the site exists

Most gardening information available in Australia falls into two categories. Either it is written for a northern hemisphere climate and quietly assumes reliable summer rainfall, or it is written to sell something, in which case the difficult parts are missing. Neither is much use when you are standing in a Bendigo backyard in February wondering why a shrub that was described as drought tolerant has died.

The gap we set out to fill is unglamorous and specific: mature sizes that are honest, water needs that distinguish establishment from maintenance, soil constraints stated as constraints rather than preferences, and seasonal timing that changes with climate zone rather than pretending the country has one growing calendar. Everything on this site is organised around those four things.

We do not sell plants, products or services. We do not take payment for coverage, we do not carry affiliate links, and we do not name nurseries or garden centres as recommendations. That is not a moral position so much as a practical one: the moment a reference has something to sell, its plant list starts to drift towards what is in stock.

How the information is put together

Every plant entry on this site comes from a single dataset, which is why the figures on a group page, a zone page and the plant finder always agree with one another. When a size or a water need is corrected, it changes everywhere at once. That sounds like a small thing and it is the main reason we built the site the way we did — contradictory figures between pages are the most common failure in gardening references, including good ones.

Plant selections favour species that are widely grown in Australia, well documented, and dependable across a reasonable range of conditions. We exclude anything declared a weed in any Australian state or territory, anything subject to legal control, and anything where the honest answer is that it only performs in a narrow band of conditions. The list is deliberately a working reference rather than an attempt at completeness.

Figures are given as ranges and described as planning guidance, because that is what they are. A shrub listed at 2 m by 2 m will finish smaller in a container, in shade or in shallow soil, and larger in deep soil with reliable moisture. Where we do not know a number reliably — last frost dates for specific towns, watering allowances, current restrictions — we say so and point you to the body that does know, rather than inventing a figure that looks authoritative.

Pages are reviewed at least once a year, and the review date appears at the top of each one. Where a page is corrected between reviews, the review date is updated. Our full process, including how we handle errors and what we do and do not accept from outside, is set out in the editorial policy.

Who writes it

Marion Ashcroft writes the plant group pages, the climate zone guides and most of the pruning material. Marion has gardened the same half-acre block outside Bendigo, VIC, since the late 1990s, which has meant thirty years of practical education in reactive clay, frost pockets and summers that get progressively less forgiving. They previously worked in horticultural retail and left it partly because of how plants were being described to customers. Marion is not a qualified horticulturist and does not hold any professional accreditation; what they bring is a very long record of what has and has not survived in one difficult garden.

Dev Raghunathan writes the soil, mulch, drainage and bed construction material. Dev gardens in the Adelaide Hills, SA, on soil that ranges from decent loam to solid clay within twenty metres, and has spent a long time working out which interventions actually last and which ones simply feel productive. Dev came to this from a background in landscape construction labour rather than horticulture, which shows in a preference for describing what is physically going on underground rather than what a plant is supposed to like.

Hollie Ngata writes the vegetable, compost and seasonal jobs material. Hollie gardens in Cairns, QLD, and has spent years working out how much conventional Australian gardening advice simply does not apply in a wet-and-dry tropical climate — which is where the zone-specific seasonal calendar on this site came from. Hollie has also grown vegetables in Christchurch and in Alice Springs, and the comparisons between those three places inform most of what appears in the seasonal lists.

None of us hold professional horticultural qualifications, licences or memberships, and we do not claim any. Where a question needs a qualified professional — a tree close to footings, a structural retaining wall, a plant identification that matters legally — we say so on the page rather than guessing.

What we deliberately leave out

There are several subjects this site does not cover, and the omissions are deliberate rather than accidental.

We do not discuss pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or insecticides in any form, including product names, active ingredients, rates and application methods. Pest and weed pressure is addressed here through crop rotation, spacing for air movement, watering practice, mulch, physical barriers, pruning and hand removal. That is a narrower toolkit and we think it is the right one for a general reference where we cannot see your garden.

We make no health, medicinal, therapeutic or nutritional claims about any plant, and we do not cover foraging or the identification of wild plants for eating. The vegetable material on this site is about growing technique only: soil, spacing, watering and season.

We do not cover permits, rebates, grants, exemptions or any government process. Where local rules matter — watering restrictions, tree removal on private land, planting near boundaries — we say that they exist and that they are set locally, and we direct you to your council or water authority.

We do not publish reviews, ratings, testimonials or quotes attributed to people who do not exist, and we do not have awards. Where an editorial view appears on this site, it is a view held by one of the three people named above and it is written as such.

How the site is paid for

Silver Vista is funded by its three founders. It carries no advertising, no sponsored content and no affiliate links, and we accept no payment for coverage, inclusion or placement of any plant, product, supplier or service. We do promote the site itself through paid search advertising, which is how a good many readers arrive here; that is advertising we buy, not advertising we sell, and it has no bearing on what any page says.

If the funding arrangement ever changes, this page and the editorial policy will say so plainly and before the change takes effect. A reference that quietly acquires commercial relationships is worth less than one that never had them.

Getting in touch

Corrections are genuinely welcome and are the most useful mail we receive. If a figure on this site is wrong, or a page contradicts itself, or something is unclear enough to be misleading, please tell us at hello@silvervistapro.com or through the contact page. We read everything, and we correct what needs correcting.

We cannot diagnose individual plant problems by email. There is no way to do it responsibly without seeing the site, the soil and the plant, and an honest guess from a distance is worth less than nothing. What we can do is point you to the page on this site that covers the underlying question.