There’s something about a beautiful garden — no matter its size — that never fails to impress us, or our readers!
This year we saw some spectacular ones, from a painterly perennial landscape in Lancefield to a textural backyard wonderland in Preston, and a micro-flower farm with over 2000 dahlias in Daylesford.
See these beautiful gardens, and more, below.
The self-contained studio overlooks rolling hills. Photo – Jessie Ann Harris. Landscape Design – Fig Landscapes.
A gravel path connects the main house with the garden zones below. Photo – Jessie Ann Harris. Landscape Design – Fig Landscapes.
Corymbia ficifolia (red flowering gum). Photo – Jessie Ann Harris. Landscape Design – Fig Landscapes.
Low-lying Pennisetum ‘Nafray’ (Chinese fountain grass) surrounds the pool. Photo – Jessie Ann Harris. Landscape Design – Fig Landscapes.
This Northern Rivers garden expertly balances function and form.
Fig Landscapes designed the landscaping to offer quiet places of contemplation, relaxation by the pool, and plenty of kid-friendly spaces where the owners’ young boys can run freely — all overlooking misty farmlands.
The accompanying new house on site appears private, but strategically carves out views to the outdoors throughout the interiors. Photo – Tom Blachford. Landscape design – Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD).
The new planting designed by KSLD blends the seasonality of a traditional Victorian seaside garden with a native palette. Photo – Tom Blachford. Landscape design – Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD).
The living space aligns directly with the height of the new elevated pool. Photo – Tom Blachford. Landscape design – Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD).
Miscanthus transmorrisonensis (evergreen miscanthus) is interspersed among hardy coastal plants around the pool. Photo – Tom Blachford. Landscape design – Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD).
In a former life, this Barwon Heads property featured an established, old fashioned garden of mature trees and flowering plants.
With plans to retire on the horizon, the owners built a new house on the site, and engaged Kate Seddon Landscape Design (KSLD) to rework and enhance the landscape and its wildlife, inviting a more modern planting scheme and coastal feel.
The garden softens the new house designed by Neil Architecture, and provides a daily source of joy for its recently retired owners.
A ‘mini woodland’ of Betula pendula ‘Moss White’ (Silver Birch) extends from the back of the house, designed by Austin Maynard Architects. Photo – Martina Gemmola. Landscape Design – Saint Remy.
Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus Superior’ (purple coneflower) and Nepeta racemosa ‘Walkers Low’ (catmint). Photo – Martina Gemmola. Landscape Design – Saint Remy.
Betula pendula ‘Moss White’ (Silver Birch) separate the house from the kitchen garden and the firepit. Photo – Martina Gemmola. Landscape Design – Saint Remy.
The shady reading nook. Photo – Martina Gemmola. Landscape Design – Saint Remy.
The retreat area is planted with Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Seiryu’ (laceleaf Japanese maple), Fatsia japonica (Japanese Aralia), Bergenia pacumbis (Chinese elephant’s ear), and Iris x robusta ‘Gerald Darby’. Photo – Martina Gemmola. Landscape Design – Saint Remy.
10 months after installation, the garden of this Federation home in Ripponlea, Melbourne, is an established wonderland of romantic perennials, native violet, and flowering shrubs, all basking in the dappled light of rustling birch trees.
See how landscape designers Saint Remy created three lush outdoor spaces for the newly renovated home by Austin Maynard Architects.
On the ground floor large floor-to-ceiling windows look out onto clever landscaping. Photo – Prue Ruscoe. Landscape design – Dangar Barin Smith.
These spaces, typically separated from the garden, now enjoy an intimate connection with nature. Photo – Prue Ruscoe. Landscape design – Dangar Barin Smith.
Blechnum spicant (hard fern) grows around the bath. Photo – Prue Ruscoe. Landscape design – Dangar Barin Smith.
Despite being in a busy pocket of Sydney, this home transports its owners to a lush paradise thanks to clever planting by Dangar Barin Smith.
The garden has been designed not just to be a pretty backdrop, but to be intertwined and completely connected with the interiors… quite literally.
On the second storey, rainforest-like planting under the slanting fibreglass roof inches its way into the bedrooms and bathrooms, while natives spill out from the front of the home and onto the street on the ground level.
Outside every window, there’s a verdant scene to behold.
‘The timber deck we built from the railings of an old horse fence is a lovely elevated spot to sit immersed in the garden under the shade of these giant Ash trees,’ says Tim. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
The couple planted Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper) cuttings along the posts of the back verandah. ‘Our once ugly brick veneer house is now a seamless extension of the garden,’ says Tim. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Landscape architect Tim Mitchell and exhibitions project manager Lucy Willet. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Lucy and Tim’s garden opens out onto a view of Mt William. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Inspired by the impressionist plein-air painters of the 19th century, landscape architect Tim Mitchell and exhibitions project manager Lucy Willet have transformed their once bare paddock into a canvas for whispering grasses, pretty perennials, and colourful Australian natives.
It’s an ever-evolving project with the couple choosing to grow all the plants themselves.
Take a tour through this magical garden below!
The garden is designed to work with the architecture by Imogen Pullar. Windows by Binq Windows. Photo – Marnie Hawson. Styling – Belle Hemming Bright. Landscape design – Mcnuttndorff Landscapes.
Anigozanthos flavidus ‘Landscape Tangerine’ (kangaroo paw) provide colour and upright structure next to Poa Labillardieri ‘Eskdale’ (tussock grass). Photo – Marnie Hawson. Styling – Belle Hemming Bright. Landscape design – Mcnuttndorff Landscapes.
Echinacea (coneflower) and Achillea (yarrow). Photo – Marnie Hawson. Styling – Belle Hemming Bright. Landscape design – Mcnuttndorff Landscapes.
The garden is filled with colour! Photo – Marnie Hawson. Styling – Belle Hemming Bright. Landscape design – Mcnuttndorff Landscapes.
You wouldn’t know by looking at it now, but this enchanting Preston garden used to be a barren block, with concrete and ‘terrible soil and weeds.’
In short, it was a blank canvas for landscape designer and director of Mcnuttndorff Landscapes, Lori McNutt, to create something magical.
See how she transformed the space into a wonderland of natives, perennials and textural, shifting plants below.
The owners established the property from when it was just a bare paddock! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
The couple have planted more than 2000 dahlias in their micro-flower farm! Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
The husband-and-wife duo are teachers turned flower farmers who are passionate about sustainability. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Fluers de Lyonville is run by Janae and Chris Paquin-Bowden. Photo – Amelia Stanwix.
Fleurs de Lyonville is an enchanting micro-flower farm just outside Daylesford, Victoria.
It’s also the home of Janae and Chris Paquin-Bowden who — despite having no formal horticultural training — have turned an empty paddock into a thriving eight-acre property that’s now a sea of dahlias, cottage blooms, and Australian natives.
Brick arch ways shape the pathway into the garden. Photo – Nikole Ramsay. Landscaping – Oliveri Landscape Design + Construction.
The enchanting facade. Photo – Nikole Ramsay. Landscaping – Oliveri Landscape Design + Construction.
Oliveri Landscape Design and Construction co-founders Damian and Prudence Caroline Oliveri’s family home. Photo – Nikole Ramsay. Landscaping – Oliveri Landscape Design + Construction.
The couple behind Oliveri Landscape Design and Construction have created the ultimate garden oasis at their family home near Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.
Damian and Prudence Caroline Oliveri planted the garden completely from scratch, turning what was once ‘a dust pit’ into a coastal dream — with a sea of hydrangeas at the front, a pool, productive garden, and kid’s play areas out the back!
