#greenliving#natureliving#greencottage#naturegarden#inspiration WOW - This large sloped garden feels like your own private park land! After its garden makeover, this large bush block property NOW includes a renovated wetland / dam / pond restoration (filled with native Australian water plants), rolling green lawn beneath towering gums, a cozy fire pit space and lots of Australian native plants. Even if you don't have a large space to work with this garden is full of garden design ideas, garden tips and inspiration - especially if you're looking for ideas on how to manage a large garden with a low gully or boggy spot.
Designed and construction by Liam Riley and the crew from ID Landscaping this garden design and creation was done in stages, with the oldest areas being planted out 5 years ago. The garden design includes aggregate pathways that connect the various spaces and outdoor rooms. And the plant choice is mostly Australian natives, including some locally indigenous plants. Australian native water plants and bog tolerant plants have been chosen to grow on the sides of the dam and in it's shallows. These help retain the soil and provide habitat for native wildlife including frogs.
Located in Park Orchards this Australian native garden design has no front fences, so it embraces the native bush surrounds. A large section of the garden has been dedicated to native bush regeneration and with the removal of many weeds including blackberry and Pittosporum undulatum.
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This garden is a great example of a space that develops slowly over time.
The owners built this house many years ago but over the last five years they've been using clever
landscape design and engineering to restore a weedy block into a garden space that sits harmoniously
in this lovely bush setting. I'm in Park Orchards, an outer northeastern suburb of Melbourne with
glorious natural bush surrounds. My name is Chloe from Been There, Dug That. There's no
garden gate to go behind but you are still invited to come and check out this beautiful big garden.
Let's go.
Wow, it's like having your own private parkland space.
Before ID Landscaping was employed to fix this leaky dam and turn this boggy gully
into the oasis it is now. This was just a mess of woody weeds.
To stop the dam leaking and fix the tunnel erosion that was happening on the lower dam wall,
Liam Riley and the ID Landscaping crew used a lot of heavy machinery and clever engineering.
Once the lower dam wall was rebuilt the whole dam basin was lined with bentonite matting.
This makes sure the water passed through the new downstream overflow point rather than where it
Two of three large willows were removed to open up the space. A new riparian vegetation
was planted around the edges of the dam and in its shallow upstream and downstream points.
The stone wall and seating area now invite you to relax
and enjoy this outdoor space and exposed aggregate paths connect it back to the house.
This large expansive outdoor deck now has the most incredible vista down towards the dam.
And likewise the dam is now connected back up to the property so you can see it from all
different angles. I love the big expansive rolling lawn which is just inviting kids out to play.
But likewise this exposed aggregate path makes moving around the garden really easy.
When you are dealing with such a big property with so many big open spaces it really does pay
to try and create some smaller more enclosed spaces or outdoor rooms and that's where I think
this fire pit works really nicely. Down here in the gully with the dam on the edge and I can hear
running water there's a completely different atmosphere. It's kind of hard to describe
but it's really magic. Wow what a completely different perspective of the house and of the
garden. And how sweet is this gorgeous little cosy nook down next to the dam. I love this lovely
dry stone wall and the big chunky seating and if you listen carefully you can hear the bell birds
and the running water of the stream. The property continues beyond this seating area up into this
bush block behind. Back here it was full of weeds and pitosporums but they've all been cleared out
and the native and indigenous vegetation is starting to come back to life.
On a hot summer's day this shaded and damp gully must be a beautiful spot to sit and I love the
fact that because the dam is now full of water and full of life it means that you can get some
gorgeous wetland plantings around the edge. Although it's not flowering at the moment the
lithrum on the edges here which surrounds the whole dam would be a sea of magenta when it's in flower.
I'm going to trip trap over this last bridge and let's head up to the front driveway and explore
the newest part of the garden. This front garden is the most recently planted and it's filled with
hardy natives again and I think a good front garden is the key to inviting people in and giving
them a hint of what lies beyond. I also love here the addition of these honey granite boulders.
They add some warmth and they're a great contrast against the silvery house.
To help make this garden low maintenance and easy care they've used a lot of ground covers here and
throughout the rest of the garden. The ground covers work because obviously they fill in the
space really quickly but they also are wonderful at suppressing weeds. I hope you've had fun exploring
this garden, I know I have. Make sure you like and subscribe because I've got plenty more garden
tours coming your way.
