There comes a time in most family homes where the outdoor play equipment is outgrown, and the surrounding garden is in need of a little TLC. It was at this familiar stage that Kate Seddon Landscape Design was brought on to design a Hawthorn garden for a growing family and their now young adult children.

Kate’s design sees a disused trampoline and spa replaced with a sophisticated planting and material scheme, inspired by both Japanese and Danish gardens. This lush and inviting outdoor area is now a seasonally changing retreat for the owners, representing a new phase in their family’s life.

Local legend has it that this one-acre property in Deepdene, nine kilometres east of Melbourne’s CBD, was designed by William Guilfoyle in the 1860s. The creator of the Royal Botanic Gardens himself!

The historic suburban garden was brought to life over a century and a half ago, and contains plant life nearly as old. It’s even listed on the National Trust! The garden-loving clients who embarked upon the restoration project required a landscaping team who were sympathetic to the history of the plot and dedicated to restoring the heritage garden to its original grandeur. It required a lot of, well… trust!

Landscape designers Ian Barker Gardens were up to the task, combining modern practices with heritage style to ensure the charm of this slice of horticultural history for many years to come.

When Mud Office first entered this Ivanhoe property, the existing block was ripe for transformation. There was a lot of work to be done with the bare concrete driveway, large expanse of rear lawn scattered with paving stones, and a Hills Hoist plopped right in the middle.

The resulting garden is a multifunctional family space working in perfect tandem with one seriously amazing home!

This project is a lesson in turning a small outdoor space into a fresh and elegant retreat – without the need for a lawn, or traditional flowering plants.

Originally a tired rear courtyard, Garden Life has introduced a textured and climate-appropriate design scheme in this Sydney garden. The result is a low-maintenance yet beautiful garden that mirrors the sophistication of its accompanying 1800s Paddington house, and also brings a touch of sunny Californian vibes!  

Surprise! We’re in Normandy! Just kidding. This incredible provincial estate is actually the Picardy Gardens in – wait for it – West Gippsland! The stunning property is owned by Marian and Bryce Somes, who have lovingly tended it for over 27 years, bringing new parts of it to life, and building its rich provincial charm.

With a rambling rammed earth house and mud brick outhouses alongside the abundant garden, Picardy brings Marian and Bryce’s love of the French countryside to regional Victoria. What was meant to be a weekender house has turned into a labour of love, paying homage to the great European gardens off the fin-de-siecle.

Artist and garden designer Lily Langham tells Georgina Reid she was ‘was born in a garden’. Not literally, but figuratively. Her life began with plants, under the wing of her garden-mad mother, and continues today, in an incredible botanical wonderland embraced by 100 acres of bushland near the Victorian town of Daylesford.

Today, Lily and Georgina guide us through this bountiful, sprawling wonderland, that Lily has intuitively transformed with an artist’s eye over the past 13 years.

‘Think the world is ending? Grab a shovel, not a shopping trolley.’ That was the headline of  Adam Liaw’s recent Guardian op-ed that inspired the TDF office to spring into gardening action. (Clearly we weren’t the only ones, with multiple online seed stores reporting an overwhelming number of orders in recent days!)

If growing your own produce at home is new to you, we’ve compiled the following advice from those in the know to get you started. The one tip they all share? Start now – it’s easier than you think!

Like almost every major event scheduled for the year, the 2020 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show has been cancelled. It’s a devastating blow to the stallholders and designers involved – so much time, effort and resources are put into the show every year, with some concepts in development for more than 12 months prior.

Inevitably, our Instagram feeds were flooded with heartbroken retailers (including a particular post from Red Earth Bulb Farm and their entire flower crop) that wouldn’t be on display. In lieu of its cancellation, we reached out to some of the key exhibitors due to install their show gardens this week, to ask them what they had planned, what the show means to them, and who they were looking forward to seeing!

Some people are just born plant people. Jac Semmler, Ornamental Category Manager at The Digger’s Club is one of them! After spending years experimenting in the gardens of various rental homes, Jac finally has a place to really let her plant-freak flag fly: in the garden of her own home in Frankston, where the outside space is almost as big as the house itself! It’s the perfect place for experimentation.

Georgina Reid of The Planthunter chats with Jac about her ‘botanical laboratory’: getting it wrong, getting it right, and embracing the art of the process.