If there is one category that never fails to appease our audience, it is gardens. No matter your taste, it seems that a thoughtfully designed garden is a perennial crowd-pleaser!

From a magical hidden flower garden in Ivanhoe, to an amazingly abundant lawn-free garden in Melbourne’s inner suburbs – to a pair of lifetime gardeners tending to their plot in Woodend, these are the best gardens we featured this year.

Rose Hawkins bought her organic garlic farm five kilometres north of Tenterfield, NSW three years ago. With an altitude of 850 metres, the property has four distinct seasons, crisp air, pristine spring water and a temperate, Mediterranean climate.

Here, among olive groves and fig trees, Rose grows garlic and dahlias and other produce. Setting foot on her farm is like entering a peaceful between-world, where the rhythms of the running stream and the rolling hillocks drown out the pace of daily life.

The last time we caught up with Clea Cregan it was way back in 2016, when she was creating terrariums under her business, Miniscapes. These days, terrariums are just a small part of the Miniscape Projects offering, which is now a fully-fledged landscaping service.

Sean Fennessy’s beautiful, rolling garden at his epic Fisher House? Yep, she did that!

Clea’s approach to cultivating the perfect green space is refreshingly lawless. She likes it best when plants sit well together, evolve into new beings, and create a strong sense of place.

No one does dessert like Julia Busuttil Nishimura, who joins us again this month for her final recipe of 2022, a mango and passionfruit semifreddo!

An Italian word that means ‘half cold’ or ‘half frozen’, semifreddo has the texture of a frozen mousse. Topped with fruits like mango and passionfruit, with the added texture of toasted coconut and the crunch of peanut praline, you’ve got yourself a seriously mouth watering summer treat for the festivities ahead!

The silly season has come early this year, and by now we’re sure your social calendar for the rest of the year is looking pretty full!

To cruise through this busy time and actually enjoy all the catch ups with friends and loved ones, it’s essential to have a few reliable go-to recipes that are easy to whip up or make in advance well in advance. Julia Busuttil Nishimura has come to the rescue again, with a very festive looking meringue with hazelnuts (if you’re so inclined), finished with vibrant roasted rhubarb and served with fresh cream. ‘Tis the season!

Entering Petrina Burrill‘s Ivanhoe garden is like stepping into another world – as close to Narnia as you can get in suburban Melbourne. It’s a complete sensory experience that makes your jaw drop, your eyes widen, and your heart swell.

Petrina’s garden is, in fact, a suburban, sustainable micro flower farm. Here, she creates beautiful hand-picked bouquets for friends and strangers, bringing joy to all who stumble across her little patch of heaven.

The suburb of Haberfield in inner-west Sydney is a traditionally working class neighbourhood, though its proximity to the CBD has accelerated its gentrification in recent years. When Christopher Owen of Fieldwork was engaged to complete this garden in the suburb, he was torn on how to balance his love for the nostalgic, characterful space that had been in the previous owner’s family for decades, with his client’s brief for a contemporary garden.

He settled on a design that respected the garden’s legacy as a family space, by creating a new site ripe for the next generation of memories to take place. And it’s gorgeous!

On an eight acre property nestled in a deep valley along the flank of Mount Witheren in Canungra, South East Queensland, is a slice of pure heaven. Pretty Produce is the multi-award winning chemical-free flower farm of Simone and Dave Jelley, where they grow and sell fresh produce and edible flowers to top restaurants around the country, and to customers through their online store. But it was only eight years ago that Simone was working in a completely different field (so to speak!).

Here, Simone takes us on a tour of Pretty Produce, her pride and joy, and tells us the story.

In case you’ve missed it, we’ve had talented foodie and emerging cookbook author Clem Day aka. Some Things I Like To Cook with us this week, to share four recipes that together, make up one epic celebratory spring feast. And we reckon we’ve saved the best until last!

We started off with Clem’s anchovy roast chicken with salsa verde and lemony aioli followed by two hearty veg dishes. Clem is best known for her knockout, decadent cakes – and this one, a brown butter vanilla cake filled with chocolate ganache and boozy blackberries, and topped with flowers, truly looks as good as it tastes!

A big thanks to Clem for her delicious contributions this week – she’s hosting a virtual spring feast this Saturday and the next, so if you’re keen to get involved and cook along, make sure to tag @thedesignfiles and @somethingsiliketocook in your pics on Insta and we’ll be sure to share them!