Christina Kennedy’s “Horse Island” book is a work of love capturing the stunning island landscapes and gardens she has created over 25 years.Horse Island is an 80 hectare private island surrounded by the Tuross Estuary. When Christina purchased the island it was covered in all manner of weeds and landscaping hurdles but with a dream and a design she has crafted in to the natural folds of the island a unique native garden.This exquisite coffee table book, just published through Zabriskie with photos by acclaimed landscape photographer Jason Busch offers an insight into the history and design of these magnificent gardens that lie just across the water from the Tuross Head village. Horse Island, the private retreat of Christina and Trevor Kennedy, sits tucked away in an estuary of Tuross Lake on the South Coast of NSW. To the west, softened by distance, are the mountains of the Great Dividing Range. To the east is the sea. But what is most surprising in this place of great natural beauty is the remarkable garden created by Christina, featuring only Australian indigenous plants. After working for years as a physiotherapist running her own busy practice while her boys were growing up, Christina and her husband began to spend more and more time in their south coast retreat. This is when and where the gardening passion was ignited. Twenty five years later she is still creating the gardens of Horse Island.
This great garden reveals itself gradually − as did Christina’s own passion in its creation. Gardens and gardening had always been around Christina, but were not in the foreground until she was faced with the mess and devastation of the landscape when she began her first building project on the island. A timely suggestion from a friend directed her towards native plants. Christina’s own desire to complement and enhance the existing natural beauty then took shape, forming the basis of her thinking and of all her designs.
To visit the Island is to engage with Christina’s passion, her knowledge and enthusiasm for Australian plants, and to hear her stories about all she has discovered including her mistakes and learning curves, during the long process of creating the garden.
Horse Island, the book, reflects Christina’s own desire to share the true magic of an extraordinary place. We walk beside her as she guides us around the island encouraging us to think differently about native plants and how they are used in a domestic situation.
It is the author’s own gardening story, her total zeal for, and commitment to, indigenous plants combined with gorgeous photography that creates this truly beautiful book. The above review of “Horse Island” by Trisha Dixon is republished here with kind permission Horse Island - The gardens and landscapes of Horse Island by Christina Kennedy Photographs by Jason Busch Publisher: Zabriskie Books, September 2016 Available at Moruya Books 4474 2242, Church Steet Moruya or online at the following link:http://tinyurl.com/jhtkpef
