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.

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The paths are strewn with fallen leaves, the weeds are growing like there’s no tomorrow and the garden surprises me every week with a new appearance – often unscheduled and unexpected.

The days have been unseasonably warm with only a few coolish nights and the fireplace inside remains unlit but the garden is showing signs of impending cold. We lit the bonfire a few weekends ago, quickly burning the remains of last summer’s pruning. A little colour has appeared on the trees but it’s the aloes, salvias and grasses that are the real heroes – well so far at least. There are sweet subtle scents wafting up from the orchard where the old loquat tree is in flower and the berries on the hawthorn are glossy and bright.

Soon it will be time for the annual clean up with the Cornerstone Landscaping crew and the garden can be put to bed for the winter, but until then I’ll embrace the season…

Aloe First Gold, Eragrostis spectabilis and Sedum Autumn Joy

Stipa elegantissima, Aloe Copper Showers and Yucca recurvifolia

Leonotis ocymifolia – or it could be L. nepetifolia and artichoke seed heads

Salvia semiatrata 

The post Autumn leaves, flowers, scents and berries appeared first on Michael Cooke Garden Design.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment to stop, chill and really relax like I now am, and I’m loving the luxury of sloth.

I usually wake up around 4am and go to the gym before I begin with my first appointment or I begin my working day in the studio. This morning I went to the gym early but I woke at first light rather than in the dark, and when I got home I turned on the sprinkler in the nursery, made an espresso and went back to bed to swipe my way through my daily Instagram feed, and then I slipped gently back to sleep. This summer I’m behaving as I would if we were away on holidays – but at my own home, and it’s not too bad at all. When I got out of bed somewhere close to 10am the biggest decision was what herb to use on the eggs and pan-fried left over Christmas ham.

I’ve taken to walking about the garden in contemplation, asking myself things such as `shall I move the lilies to a sunnier place next year’ and `I really should plant more grasses – but where would I put them? My mobile phone has been particularly quiet as it failed to re-boot from an update, and I’ll get it looked at before work begins on the 9^th January.

What wine will I open tonight?

I may wash the car, spray the weeds on the drive – but then again I could jump in the swimming pool and contemplate these tasks again tomorrow…

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Wirra Willa from Disobedient Gardens

Two years ago I finally got to visit the garden at Glenmore House on one of their spring open days, and I did so with my Dad. I have known Mickey Robertson the owner of Glenmore via Instagram for a few years and admire what she has created. Both of us had a book published last year with Murdoch Books – and this May I will be heading out to Glenmore House to present an illustrated talk using some of the many extraordinary images Brigid Arnott took of the gardens featured in my book Disobedient Gardens.

Mickey hosts some wonderful seasonal, garden related events (follow her blog for details) and I’m also looking forward to speaking in the dairy and the long-table garden-inspired, seasonal lunch in the loggia, and I hope you will join us.

Click on https://mickeyrobertson.worldsecuresystems.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=281044  and contact Mickey.

Hawthorne – my original Disobedient garden

Park Mount from Disobedient gardens

Valleyfield from Disobedient Gardens

Mickey Robertson at Glenmore House

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I feel the abundance when I walk in the orchard and the pomegranate is weighted down with heavy fruit, the little round Courgettes in the vegetable garden are ready to pick and these were grown from seed sent to me from a friend whom lives in France. The fennel is heavy in golden flower and the seeds are ripening and yesterday when it was hot the air was heavy with it’s aniseed scent.

There’s a brightness to the garden. Brilliant coloured flowers abound. Summer is a show-off.

Time for another espresso…

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As I walked alone through the deserted garden that was full of strangers on Sunday I caught a whiff of cloves and scanned the garden for the flower that was responsible. The Jasminum multipartitum I had tied to an iron frame we has relocated in winter was in bloom and in all the rush it had been forgotten. Many parts of the garden continue without my interference, and surprise me with their beauty, like the gallica rose in the orchard, a cutting I snitched from a Victorian grave in Braidwood many, many years ago which flowers once each year without annual pruning – I don’t spray any pest or fungal spots in my garden, they have to look after themselves in this way so I know what I have is tough and resilient.  This rose also has a powerful old rose scent. (disregard the `disobedient’ weed growing in the middle of the rose image)

Thank you for all the people that came along to the open day and purchased a book, and thanks also if you donated something to Greyhound Rescue NSW because we raised over $800

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I’m very fortunate to have many amazing gardeners that help me in the months which precede this day, so despite the name of my book I sincerely hope that my garden will appear suitably primped and preened.

This is the first blog post for some time as my new website has been under construction – now up and running, so take a peek it looks fantastic, thanks Tim.

Punica granatum `Legrelliae’

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