NATURE ESCAPE
OVERFLOWING FOLIAGE MEETS FORMAL HEDGING IN THIS GORGEOUS MELBROURNE GARDEN, A STUDY IN CONTRAST AND LAYERS
in step
Whoever said a formal garden can’t feature rambling garden beds (opposite), bursting with foliage in every shade of deep green to silvery grey imaginable, hasn’t been to visit Rebecca and Andrew’s picturesque plot in Melbourne’s Bayside. A path of oversized Eco Outdoor limestone pavers in Andorra (left) connects the house with an outdoor room at the end of the garden, running in parallel with English buxus hedging along the pool fence. “We had almost worn a dirt track through the grass from going back and forth,” says Rebecca. >
Save for a magnolia on one end and a solitary palm up the other, the original yard gave landscape designer Andrew Panton of Andrew Panton Design a blank canvas. “We told Andrew to treat it as his own,” says homeowner Rebecca, who was knee-deep in renovating their Federation-style abode at the time. With the homeowners’ two children having already flown the nest, designer Andrew knew the lawn didn’t need to be purely practical. “I wanted to bring the garden out into the yard, rather than limit it to the perimeter,” he says. Rectangular beds that cut a sharp impression into the lawn are accentuated by edging in Corten steel and mirror the straight lines of the boundary hedge and pool.
Contrasting formal and informal plantings at varying heights softens the angles, and a layer of gardenia around the boundary creates depth. In the beds, a loosely tiered design starts with masses of oakleaf hydrangea falling to Japanese windflower and
English lavender. “There’s not a lot of flowers in the garden, but there’s so much colour thanks to the foliage,” says Rebecca.
A refined palette of purple and white florals pops against the myriad shades of green, while silvery foliage complements bluestone paving around the pool to create a stunning result. “Wherever you are in the house, from the minute you walk in the front doro, you glimpse the garden,” says Rebecca.
“THE GARDEN HAS CREATED THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VIEW FOR US FROM ALL ANGLES OF THE HOUSE” ~ REBECCA