I love designing gardens – and it’s not just about the gardens and plants, it’s the connections that are made with the owners in the process that make it special.
People intrigue me, and to design their garden well we have to know who we are designing for – because essentially it’s not my garden, it’s theirs.
Every garden we design is our response to it’s owners, their family, and the way they dream of living within it.
There’s also the architecture to consider and the garden is also a part of the larger environment and its community – and there are almost always constraints.
There’s nothing cookie cutter about our designs and this is what keeps us engaged.
Every project we work on is unique and has its story.

Emily and David Berlach live at the end of a long tree lined driveway on the edge of a rainforest, together they are the directors of Bohemian Traders – a size inclusive Australian Fashion house. Their home and gardens are symbiotic with their lives and who they are. This is the sort of home you would want to grow old in, it ages like fine wine and their three children have the space to grow and run free.

When we first met, I was drawn to the house and garden – it felt like I knew it. We wandered and talked through their garden which was crammed with plants of all kinds but I felt there was too much going on – an interesting, yet (to me) confusing mix of styles that lacked cohesion which we would have to lift and rephrase to tell the story it deserved.

When new owners ‘inherit’ a previous owner’s garden often there can be trepidation in making changes, but when I walked through their home they were well on the way to making the interior truly theirs and the confidence showed. It appeared effortlessly cool and our aim was to give them a similar assured feel of `belonging’ outside in the garden, using materials with character that mellow and improve with age rather than things shiny, new and bright.

There were functional aspects that had to be addressed too such as parking, access to the guest cottage as it is also used as a backdrop to some of their fashion shoots, some privacy planting to a distant home on the other side of a large pond and what to do with unused land above the house.

They really needed a larger, and really beautiful entertaining space close to their living area and kitchen and I imagined a light framed pergola attached to the building in the way Cathy and I had seen in France that would be vine clad to offer summer shade and I had little idea how to actually do this and Box Building and Landscaping interpreted and implemented our design with finesse and have maintained the garden to this day.

The black steel pergola which attaches to the home is clad in ornamental grape vines which drop their leaves to allow winter sun to enter the living room. Details such as Anduze urns, weathered table and handmade Italian light lend warmth.

An outdoor fireplace becomes a focal point David barbecues in the old fashioned way – over coals and there is nothing that beats the smell of woodsmoke

Japanese box plants are trimmed into mounds of varying sizes and a gravel path path leads to the guest house where rosemary has been planted at the base of a stone wall

An old bougainvillea on the guest house was reduced in size undercut to accentuate its age

Low stone walls add depth in a garden

Gravel has been used for occasional parking beneath a Chinese elm

The upper portion of the land was as a rough grassed paddock, and this was where fallen trees and garden waste was kept out of sight but it was from this high vantage point that the hill on the opposite side of the valley could be seen, and when some of the vegetation was removed we would see down to the home. A level space was created to play pétanque with just enough stone paving for a table and chairs and later an access path was laid above a collection of new and existing citrus trees.

A pétanque pitch in the garden above the house was intended as a destination for family and guests

There are plans for home additions, but all gardens, especially large ones take time, money and commitment, and I know that Emily and David are enjoying their journey.

The post Garden in a Rainforest appeared first on Michael Cooke Garden Design.

Whilst there is lots of land the owners don’t want to spend all their time working in the garden so the garden has been kept to minimum size and we welcome in the surrounding landscape. The entry is the part that I’m especially pleased with. We used dark face bricks as the paving leading to the front door, and to lead you out into the landscape we designed a set of concrete strips.

The plant selection is simple – well in comparison with many of our projects that is. Evergreens are trimmed into mounding forms which are offset with fastigiate pear trees, grasses and Sedum.

A broad path leads to the front door.

…and from the front door the concrete strips lead over a gravel bed into the landscape

below the entry path is a high wall which creates a private courtyard off the master bedroom ensuite for the owners

Below the house mounding evergreens, grasses and Sedum wrap around a blade wall which alleviates the need for more retaining.

The post Valley Garden appeared first on Michael Cooke Garden Design.

Close to the water we have trialled some new plants. Alyxia buxifolia and Acacia `Silver Cascade’ are both salt tolerant and this harbourside position cops it to the extreme when a westerly blows at high tide, sloshing salt water over the sea wall into the garden beds.

Extensions are about to start at the front of the home at the street side where we will be working on some private courtyards and a pond.

The post Waterside success appeared first on Michael Cooke Garden Design.

The post Lush appeared first on Michael Cooke Garden Design.