Cruden Farm Garden Diaries

Gardens are Michael Morrison’s passion. After horticulture studies and 10 years working with a local nursery, in 1971 he took on Sunday morning work for Dame Elisabeth, who had had little help in the large garden since making Cruden Farm her home after her husband’s death in 1952. His involvement is now all but fulltime. The partnership was significant; he and ‘the boss’ thought alike. Their regular circumnavigations of the garden in Dame Elisabeth’s electric buggy were times of great pleasure that inspired important decisions – immediate and longer-term – about design and planting, and kept them in touch with new developments.

Lisa Clausen was born in Toronto and grew up in Wellington, Christchurch, Sydney and Adelaide. She has worked as a print journalist in newsrooms across Australia and spent 11 years an award-winning writer covering the region for the South Pacific edition of TIME magazine. She now lives in Melbourne and writes for publications such as The Monthly magazine and Fairfax’s Good Weekend magazine. Her own garden is small but cherished. Cruden Farm Garden Diaries is her first book.