Our very own Andrea McDonald (Head of Learning Enhancement at GCC) has had her home recently featured in the Better Homes and Garden magazine! Andrea and her husband Michael won a prize in a gardening competition and as a result, received a visit from a photographer to take photos for the magazine.

The McDonalds began in 2009 with a steep block of land which turned out to be solid rock with a little bit of topsoil. After excavations for the house and pool, they ended up with a huge pile of thousands of rocks in the backyard. They set about moving them one by one with a wheelbarrow to make terraces, garden edges and paths. There were still so many rocks leftover, the McDonalds gave them away to family and friends.

After a couple of years, Andrea and Michael bought a dingo to speed things up and in 2018 they finally finished the garden. Andrea still spends a lot of time adding plants, most of which have been grown from cuttings. All of the plants are tropical and easy to grow. In fact, they grow so well, Andrea has to cut them back from the paths quite often.