Gardens

A Layered Front Garden That Gives Back To The Street

Landscape architect Bethany Williamson says you don’t need to forsake anything when designing for small spaces, and she’s proved it with this newly-planted front garden in Thornbury, Melbourne.

What started as a blank canvas is now a beautifully layered garden that gracefully softens the property’s concrete driveway and period brick home.

The garden centrepiece is a deep pink crepe myrtle tree, surrounded by a mix of grasses, ground covers, shrubs, and perennials that flower throughout the seasons.

Written
by
Amelia Barnes
|
Photography
by

This Thornbury home has been beautifully enhanced with a lush front garden.

The textured plantings range from dwarf feather grass (Miscanthus), to Jerusalem sage (Phlomis), and smokebush (Cotinus ‘Grace’).

The garden design studio had free rein to create a new garden that would soften the property’s built elements.

Cut leaf daisies (Brachyscome multifida) provide a pop of yellow in the fluffy grass.

‘We’ve created a plant palette using a mix of grasses, perennials, ground covers, and shrubs, so there is something to look at during each season,’ Bethany Williamson says.

Autumn joy stonecrop (Hylotelephium telephium) are another beautiful flowering plant in the garden.

The winding path is now enveloped in greenery, guiding people to the front door.

Writer
Amelia Barnes
Photography
26th of June 2023
Landscape Architect

BWLA

Landscaper

Melbourne Paving
Landscaping

Architect

Dan Gayfer Design

Builder

Blueprint Constructions

Location

Thornbury, VIC/Wurundjeri Country

When engaged to design this front garden in Thornbury, Melbourne, BWLA were presented with a blank canvas.

Apart from an existing concrete driveway, the design studio had free rein to create a new garden that would soften the property’s built elements.

‘The existing facade of the house has quite a strong presence, so softening it with planting was crucial,’ says BWLA director Bethany Williamson.

Naturally, the planting needed to respond to the site conditions — namely a north-facing aspect — and the lifestyle of the clients.

‘The front garden was not a space that would be used, but rather a space that was seen from the footpath and as you approached the front door,’ explains Bethany. ‘For this reason, we designed it to look the best from the front door, so that the visitor could turn back and have the best view across the planting.’

BWLA specialise in creating plant-focused garden spaces. In this project, they selected a layered palette comprising various heights and textures, as not to overpower the relatively small space.

‘We’ve created a plant palette using a mix of grasses, perennials, ground covers, and shrubs so there is something to look at during each season. Interest can come from the textures of the foliage, flower colours or seed heads, so we try to have a mix of each,’ says Bethany.

‘If you choose plants and trees that will grow too big, it will make a space feel out of scale and uncomfortable, and will require much more maintenance to keep the plant/tree at a particular size, so a good understanding of plants is crucial.’

A mature deep pink crepe myrtle sits at the garden centre, surrounded by a circle of native violet, and interplanted with bulbs that will pop up throughout the year. The curved layers of planting radiate out from the circle of violet, increasing in height towards taller shrubs and grasses around the outside edges.

Plants include dwarf feather grass (Miscanthus), Jerusalem sage (Phlomis), smokebush (Cotinus ‘Grace’), Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), autumn joy stonecrop (Hylotelephium telephium ), ‘Little Jess’ (Dianella), cut leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida), and ‘big ears’ (Stachys byzantina).

The success of this garden is evident in the love it’s received from not only the clients, but neighbours, and passersby. ‘People often stop and look over the fence to take a better look,’ says Bethany. ‘We aim to bring joy to the lives of our clients by designing a beautiful space for them, but it’s lovely to know we’re also bringing a little joy to people walking by.’

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