Why now is the perfect time to start redesigning your garden (and why it actually matters)

With just a month to go before the start of spring, this is the time to invest in the garden.

“We used to talk about the house and garden, but now they’re being seen much more as one entity,” says Matt Leacy, director and principal designer of Landart Landscapes.

“People are starting to understand the value of gardens and, with the increasing popularity of green walls, green roofs and gardens coming inside, they realise that a house on a pile of soil is like wearing a beautiful ballgown with bare feet.

“It’s not a stretch to say the best gardens can add an extra 20 per cent onto the price of a home,” he adds.

Privacy is one of the major priorities now as our urban environment becomes increasingly dense. “More and more people are now becoming focused on screening planting to preserve privacy,” says Secret Gardens managing director Matt Cantwell.

“It’s a great way to avoid being overlooked and framing your home as your own private castle,” he says.

A number of clients with particularly large properties are also looking for an immersive garden experience for their children. Instead of large flat lawns, the design incorporates different surfaces, changes in foliage, garden “rooms” or secret passageways that encourage them to use their imagination.

“You don’t even need a cubby house; you can have maybe a platform in a tree that can become, in their minds, a ship or a rocket,” Cantwell says. “The garden doesn’t have to look like a playground and can be appealing to adults as well as children.

“We’re doing one project in Vaucluse at the moment where we’re positioning large rocks that we excavated from the site for the house, where children can jump from one to the other over the plants in between,” adds Cantwell.

Rather than past trends of English, Mediterranean, or Indonesian and Mexican themed gardens, we’re also mixing different elements that appeal to us in a much more confident way, Cantwell says, so the gardens become as multicultural as we are.

He recently completed one in the coastal Victorian town of Sorrento that combined both Mediterranean and Californian elements with native flora.

“We’re looking for more intense personal encounters with the greenery in our lives, increasingly embracing the kind of gardens that feel good for us”, says Lyndall Keating, director of Garden Society.

“The really big trend now is awareness,” says Keating, whose projects include a fragrant star jasmine wall for a garden in Sydney’s Darling Point. “Of course, we design gardens to suit the home, but it’s also now about matching the owner’s personality and evoking in them a sense of calm.

“It enables them to enjoy the texture, the coolness, the smells, the movement of bees and butterflies, the sense of achievement of things growing, and the feel of a garden.”

Four properties with glorious gardens

Mosman 

At this five-bedroom property, the landscaping is all about creating a wonderful entertaining space for the three-level home, which is a short stroll to Balmoral Beach.

“This garden really enhances the property, with lots of outdoor areas, the pool and the privacy it creates,” says LJ Hooker Avnu-Lower North Shore agent Michael Coombs.

“When a garden is done beautifully, it’s the icing on the cake — This garden is spectacular, with its entertaining areas and lovely water feature, and it’s also wonderful to look down on.”

Coombs has set an $8.5 million-to-$9 million guide for the property.

Bibaringa

Relax in the grand, meticulously manicured grounds of this five-bedroom French provincial-style home, which looks out beyond to the South Australian countryside. Sitting in the outdoor entertaining area, you could be anywhere in the world. 

The gardens also contain a beautiful pool and are exceptionally quiet and serene, while the house looks out through large bay windows.

The home is for sale with a guide of $3.7 million to $3.9 million via Toop & Toop Real Estate agent Jake Theo.

Burradoo

Both family rooms and casual entertainment spaces at this residence lead to the covered terrace and views across the stunning landscaped gardens, with established lawns and trees to the pond.

It creates an enormously relaxing introduction to the elegant five-bedroom residence in the middle, with high ceilings, timber panelling, formal rooms, an open fire and bi-fold doors to the terrace.  

Sarah Burke of Di Jones Real Estate Southern Highlands is selling Ashdown with a guide of $3.25 million. 

Armadale

A local landmark being offered for sale for the first time in 64 years, this stately 1930s home is enfolded in mature trees, shrubs and plantings on a massive 2,250sqm block.

The trophy estate, with five bedrooms, also has a north-facing poolside entertaining area, with a games room and sauna, and plenty of subdivision potential.   

Tudor Lodge, close to high street cafes, trams, the station and Victoria Gardens, is for sale via Michael Armstrong of Kay & Burton South Yarra with a guide of $10 million to $11 million.