THE DESIGN + PROCESS

Our design response was to create a Food Forest that would combine natives, scented and productive plants as the reality was there just wasn’t enough space to create segregated garden beds on this site. By integrating native and scented plants, we could utilise the flexibility and productiveness of a Food Forest design to create a beautiful scented garden with a continual harvest of herbs, fruit, medicinals, flowers, greens and vegetables that was also low-maintenance and lowered household energy bills such as cooling in summer and warming in winter. (For a more detailed discussion on how Food Forests work, see here).

The front of the house, which faced west, was blistering hot in summer. We tackled this by adding layers of deciduous plants to the council Crepe Myrtle tree in the footpath, installing dwarf Mulberry trees for their large leaves and shady canopy in the front garden and a thick fringe of Sultana Grape and Wisteria to the verandah. The changes meant that in summer the temperature dropped by about 5C degrees as you entered the property, with the verandah now transformed into a cool green space. All these layers of cooling foliage were deciduous and allowed warm winter sun while shading and cooling the front of the house in summer. The front garden also created a lush privacy screen for the residents, who had previously felt a little exposed to the street. The blinds in the front rooms were now lowered only when temperatures were at their hottest while the front curtains were no longer drawn at all for heat protection, leaving the front of the house cooler and more private as well as lighter during summer.

In the rear garden we installed a perimeter of fruit trees to create privacy and visual screening from the overlooking terraces. This tall green buffer created a sense of enclosure and sanctuary while filtering pollution, wind and traffic noise, helping to cool the area and provide shady areas to sit in the heat of summer. The clients chose their favourite fruit trees – mostly stone fruit with evergreen citrus planted in areas with direct eyelines from neighbouring windows. Layers of plants were added, from tallest to smallest, to create a Food Forest edge that allowed all plants access to sun. Shady areas and microclimates were also created to provide contrast and relief from the direct sun, which allowed us to use a broader planting palette, including semi-tropical and native rainforest plants.

The rear garden was transformed into an open central area that spun off into a series of smaller garden rooms – each with its own distinctive style and personality – as variations on the overall theme. Plenty of seating was scattered around the garden, from conversational groups around a fire pit to comfortable benches ideal for reading and daydreaming. Hooks for slinging a hammock were installed and, we were told, got plenty of use.

Brushing past plants released an unexpectedly glorious fragrance – deliciously spicy in the case of the Curry Plant, lemony in the case of Lemon Verbena and Citronella Geranium, and even a tropical fruit salad in the case of the Fruit Salad Sage with its soft velvety leaves and hot pink blooms.

Narrow finger beds were created to reach into the garden and create accessible productive space that was easy to harvest. These were planted with cutting greens and culinary herbs including Marjoram, Oregano, the wonderfully scented Perennial Basil, Bladder Campion, Perennial Spinach and the native Botany Bay Spinach, along with varieties of plants such as Mint, Savoury, Thyme, Chicory, Dock, Sorrel, Bunching Onion and Chives.

The clients had always wanted a frog pond, so a south-facing garden bed was transformed into a tranquil billabong and planted with a variety of aquatic edibles including Aquatic Mint, Aquatic Parsley and Aquatic Celery, native Nardoo, Vietnamese Mint and Water Chestnut along with aquatic ornamentals including Lizard’s Tail, Umbrella Sedge, Water lily, and the native Pennywort. The rain-fed billabong was surrounded by lush plantings, including a shade-loving Bamboo, to create a cool green oasis with plenty of hiding places for wildlife. The billabong soon created its own thriving ecology and became home to a colony of indigenous Southern Brown Tree Frogs. The effect was a lush, cool rainforest oasis with a calm and tranquil feel.

The billabong also created a thick green buffer shading a west-facing studio that was largely uninhabitable during summer when it was too hot to work in. Now the studio was shaded during hot summer afternoons by the cooling water body and dense block of foliage. The studio inhabitants moved back in and reported that it was comfortable to use, even on very hot days.

The clients loved aquatic plants so large water pots were scattered throughout the garden with tall dramatic plants such as Papyrus, Powdery Alligator Flag, Black Taro, Louisianna Water Iris and the native Lythrum salicaria, with its startling hot pink spires, providing homes for larger fish that kept the mozzies in check, including native Murray Rainbows.

In the rear garden carving out an open area to balance all the greenery meant giving up valuable planting space: this meant going up and using every vertical space possible. Fences were covered in wire trellis to support vines such as Grape, Passionfruit, Star Jasmine and Wisteria, scramblers such as the prolific Pepino melon, berries and espaliered trees while allowing plantings to be easily changed in future. The wire was painted the same colour as the fence to became inconspicuous.

Much of the original red-brick paving was replaced with native lawn, especially in the shady areas. The indigenous groundcover, Kidney Weed (Dichondra repens), was also seeded between brick pavers to out-compete weeds and created a tufted green border that softened the hard surface.

Scented plants included using many varieties of scented Geranium, Mint, Artemisia, Stock, Sage, Ginger Lily, Lavender, Thyme and Savoury along with Perennial Basil, Lemon Verbena, native Prosanthera, Marjoram, Oregano, Patchouli and Lemongrass. Ornamentals included Daphne, Freesia, Oriental Lily, Christmas Lily, Tuberose, several varieties of old-fashioned scented Roses, a double scented Brugmansia, Wintersweet, Jasmine, Star Jasmine, Laculia and a native Hoya with an incredible fragrance.

Vertical forms in the garden came from the water pots and plantings of Native Ginger, edible Canna, Arrowroot, Galangal, Turmeric, Cardamom and ornamental varieties of Ginger Lily with a delicious scent.

The long narrow side path became a food alley with pots of rainforest natives including the Native Pepper, Plum Pine, Davidson’s Plum, Small-leaved Tamarind, Lemon Myrtle and Macadamia. We also added citrus including pink Grapefruit, Kaffir Lime, Tahitian Lime and a Cumquat variety that is eaten whole, several varieties of Hazelnuts and Elderberries – including the native variety – an Arabica Coffee bush and a hardy Carob tree.

At last count 23 fruit trees were planted and included Fig, Mulberries, Feijoa, Avocado, white Nectarine, white and yellow Peach, Apricot, Apple, Pear, four Plum varieties, Babaco, Pomegranate, Tamarillo, Lemon, Mandarine and a dwarf Orange – with a further 22 productive trees in pots.

Medicinal, culinary, native and scented food plants abounded at all levels, from root crops to groundcovers, herbaceous plants, shrubs, vines and trees. Thanks to its design around perennials, the garden was always lush, full of flower and scent – even in winter when traditional gardens lay bare.

The vast biodiversity was surprising because the effect was green and tranquil. The eye could dance around the shapes and forms – the more you looked, the more you saw – but rest comfortably without being jarred or overwhelmed. Repetition of plants, shapes, colour and texture all helped to create a feeling of calm, lush green space.

With a steady and continuous stream of harvest, the garden has been continually mulched – a little at a time – by the clients using a chop and drop method that, like the forest floor, feeds from the top. The mulch reduced watering, which proved absolutely necessary only during summer, especially during hot spells. Weeds were eliminated altogether by the thick layer of mulch and dense groundcovers. Around the brick pavers, native lawn suppressed weeds as well as softening the hard surface. A strict ‘no dig or stepping on garden beds’ policy supported the soil structure and biome. A series of composting methods, including cold compost bins, an under-sink Bokashi Bin and a worm farm, were introduced and quickly became a no-fuss method of disposing of kitchen scraps, paper and cardboard, drastically reducing contributions to the council bin.

The garden became an elegant closed-loop system that did not create waste that needed to be carted away or need external inputs – reducing the client’s gardening bills to zero.

As the Food Forest matured an outbreak of pests, such as aphids, was quickly followed by an outbreak of predators, such as Lady Birds. Beneficial insects, birds, lizards and frogs – which were all encouraged in this garden – did the rest.

The clients tell us that apart from pruning some of the fruit trees in late summer and winter, the hardest job is an occasional sweep of the paths and raking up the Eucalypt leaves to strew on the garden beds. The garden makes a daily contribution to the family’s meals in terms of fruit, herbs for tea and greens for salads and stir-fries.

The transformation of the landscape has played a huge role in how the clients now live – no longer a source of frustration that continually drained their resources, it became a source of pleasure and relaxation that was comfortable to be in. Rather than fighting with the garden armed with hedgers, pesticides and chemical sprays, now the clients were busy harvesting and enjoying their space.

The design made the front of the house cooler and lighter in summer, and warmer in winter – with lower energy bills to match – while the studio no longer lay abandoned over summer.

This is what a smart hard-working garden design can do: This household reduced its overall waste, food bills, energy bills, started using areas of the house that were uninhabitable in the hot months and completely stopped spending money on replacing dying plants, mulches, soil amendments and trying to get their garden to momentarily look good.

More importantly, the garden is a pleasure to be in and home to native birds, butterflies, native bees, dragonflies, preying mantises, geckos, crickets, cicadas, native fish and indigenous frogs. The garden is a calm, lush green refuge that teems with bird song, the drone of insects, the splash of water and the everyday magic of wildlife ecology.