My name is Silas Clifford-Smith and I have been working as a horticulturist in the Sydney region for over 22 years. During the 1990s I was the Senior Horticulturist at
Admiralty House (the Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia). Subsequently, I was employed as Head Gardener for the National Trust in New South Wales.
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The grounds of Admiralty House
next to beautiful Sydney Harbour |
While working for the National Trust I looked after several of their gardens including
Springwood (the Norman Lindsay Gallery & Museum) and
Experiment Farm Cottage. While with the National Trust I also acted as an adviser on many of their other regional gardens, including
Everglades. As well as many private commissions I have also worked for the Historic Houses Trust at
Vaucluse House,
Rouse Hill and
Elizabeth Farm.
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Silas working on the restoration of the
Lewers Bequest garden in western Sydney |
In recent years I have been working mainly in private practice around Sydney. Projects include one-off major restorations as well as regular maintenance of new and established gardens. I also work as a
landscape consultant advising garden owners on planting plans, maintenance programmes and advice on heritage matters. As well as this, I also prepare land title searches for council development applications. My qualifications include an
Associate Diploma in Horticulture from Ryde College of TAFE as well as a
Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney.
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Silas was co-author of Interwar Gardens
published by the National Trust in 2003 |
I occasionally lecture on garden and heritage related matters and have written widely for a broad range of publications. I wrote
Percy Lindsay: artist and bohemian (2011), and co-authored
Interwar Gardens (2003) and contributed a series of entries to the
Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (2002).
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Regular maintenance is essential
if you want a pretty garden |
I don't advertise and rely solely on word-of-mouth from current and past clients. If you would like to make contact please e-mail me at the following address (please note I have altered the format to prevent spamming of this site).
silas[dot]cliffordsmith[at]gmail[dot]com
