Photography: Nikole Ramsay
This lush, quirkily shaped garden in coastal Victoria gives “love triangle” a brand-new meaning. Bursting with greenery and sculptural hardscaping, it’s a passion project for owners, Prudence and Damian, who share it with their two children, Theodore, 12, and Luella, seven – plus Miniature Dachshund Greta, Aussiedoodle Thelma and British Shorthair cat Claris.
inside the house for continuity,” says Prudence. “Every little cobble is individual – that’s the deliciousness of working with natural stone.”
“We love being in the garden,” says artist Prudence, who with clever concreter Damian, recently established Oliveri Landscape Design & Construction. “When we moved in five years ago, it was just dirt. We didn’t inherit any established trees – every plant had to be brought in. But that also gave us the freedom to design on a blank canvas.” And it was a tricky canvas, as the garden occupies a triangular block and the north-facing house, running most of its length, had left idle ground in its eastern apex.
Of their aim, Prudence says, “We wanted to include all the things that kids and adults love to do, including places to play and lounge as the sun moves throughout the day.” Overall, the look was a nod to “a manicured Tuscan garden, adapted to coastal salt air”. The dull red brick of the 1980s home was underwhelming, so they lime-rendered it and then enveloped it in creeping fig, paired beautifully with the existing gable roof. This created an idyllic backdrop to the villa-style garden they wanted to achieve.
“You feel you’ve left the outside world behind thanks to those lilly pilly hedges,” Prudence, homeowner and designer.
The unused patch became a play zone for the kids, with a basketball court, in-ground trampoline and monkey bars. Three years later, the couple installed a pool in front of the house, with a sunken lounge and fireplace. Finally, an alluring entry courtyard completed the look, separated from the pool by a sinuously curved rendered brick wall.
The finished garden is a little formal at the front with a party at the back, and plantings which complement these moods. “The streetscape is simple – a contrast of soft and manicured greenery and silvered hardy succulents, with cobblestones underfoot,” says Prudence. “The play zone is more jungle-tastic, with shades of purple flowers, herbs, fruit trees, and experimental annuals and perennials.” Such abundance
is an alluring world away from the bare soil that greeted the couple five years ago.
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Landscape design & construction Oliveri Landscape Design & Construction, oliverilandscapedesign.au
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