Actually, you know, I am not a writer. I merely made a record of the work I had done...

dna Walling wrote this response to The Australian Society of Authors in 1964 after they suggested she join their organisation. She went on to write:

The books were only achieved through the great help of my teacher friend, Miss Lorna Fielden, without whose assistance I doubt if they would ever have seen the light of day. And so, much as I appreciate the honour you have bestowed on me, I don't really think I have any right to be counted amongst the illustrious names appearing in your Society...

The contribution of Lorna Fielden (Walling's friend and a published poet), to Walling's books was often acknowledged by Edna Walling. Certainly, in the State Library of Victoria's Walling collection of manuscripts there can be seen the hand of another, presumably Fielden's, with firm edits made to the text. However, the bulk of the material is certainly Walling's and is in the same style as her magazine articles. Nevertheless, the importance of Fielden's encouragement and support should not be underestimated.

Barbara Barnes, Edna Walling's niece comments:

I reckon that none of the books would have been written except for Lorna's help and patience and encouragement which Aunt always acknowledged...

Edna Walling wrote the following books:

"Gardens in Australia: Their Design and Care", Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1943

This book is not just about the cultivation of plants but also about garden building. The inside dust jacket reads:

This book has a twofold purpose - to give pleasure, as a thing of beauty, while also providing practical help to those making new gardens or intending to reconstruct old ones.

Walling invites readers to consider that the main object of garden design is that the garden be a fit setting for the architecture of the house and that gardens should be a joy to live in.

Two impressions were made of this edition: in 1944 and 1946.

"Cottage and Garden in Australia", Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1947

Her second book, she sets out to describe the building of a country cottage and its integration with the garden. The book provides the building plans, specifications and detailed drawings of Sonning II, her home in Bickleigh Vale, as well as an evocative selection of her photographs of Bickleigh Vale village. In the Foreword she writes:

Here then is a book of cottages... It has been written for those haunted by the dream of a cottage in the country. That the cottage will rest upon the landscape in sweet and quiet accord instead of being a dull bruise that never departs must be the unconscious wish of all.

This book is an invaluable record of Walling's Devonshire style village and its cottages.

"The Australian Roadside", Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1952

Edna Walling's fourth book. It is filled with her love of Australian native flora, the Australian countryside, and her growing preoccupation with conservation issues. Travelling widely around the eastern states of Australia, she came to understand that although roadside vegetation suffers greatly from environmental degradation, it is often the last refuge of much that has disappeared from the surrounding land because it has escaped clearing.

This is largely a collection of her photographs taken during her travels. The text includes detailed notes of specific roadsides, notes on roadside ecology and suggestions for highway planting. A second edition was published in 1985 as "Country Roads: the Australian Roadside" by Pioneer Design Studio.

Candlebarks
(Eucalyptus Rubida) [92 K]

Published Posthumously:

"On the Trail of Australian Wildflowers", Mulini Press, Canberra, 1984

"On the Trail of Australian Wildflowers" was written in the 1940s and published 11 years after Walling's death. It confirms her strong commitment to the Australian landscape and conservation issues. The manuscript was with Jean Galbraith until she passed it on to Victor Crittenden of Mulini Press. Jean Galbraith edited the botanical content, and Moira Pye, who had written some verse for the book, supplied new verse and drawings. The photography was produced in the 1940s by Walling.

"Gardens in Australia: Their Design and Care", 2nd facsimile edition, Bloomings Books, Hawthorn, Victoria, 1999

Second and third impressions of this book were undertaken in 1944 and 1946, and were erroneously described as editions. This facsimile edition is from the author's copy with her notations, and includes reproductions of photographs selected by Walling to be included in the second edition.

Con Thecka [67 K]

Unpublished Walling Manuscripts:

"Braggadiccio"

Also known as "And as for Gardening" and "Idle Vaunting", "Braggadiccio" was never published.

"The Happiest Days of My Life" or "East Point"

Another planned manuscript, which told the story of her building a house at Lorne.

"As for Gardening" (incomplete)

"Harvest of a Quiet Eye"