Photography: Martina Gemmola
Filtered through an ancient oak tree, dappled light flickers over this garden in country Victoria, joining bobbing flowerheads and wiggling bees in a bucolic dance, choreographed by nature – and by landscape designer Tim Pilgrim.
The story of this garden began when city girl Virginia was seduced by the country, encouraged by friends who had settled in Macedon. In the wake of Covid, Melbourne had lost its charm and, Virginia says, “Every time I’d visit their house, it would feel like this beautiful escape from the city.” Oak Cottage, with charm in spades and more than enough room for green-thumbed tinkering, stole her heart.
The adorable cottage deserved a gorgeous front garden to match, but while Virginia is a keen amateur gardener, she was unsure where to start. “I wanted something beautiful, that I could enjoy and spend time in, but it was an unclear vision.” Luckily, the friends who prompted her tree change include Grant Smitten of Macedon Ranges Garden Services, who knew Tim Pilgrim by reputation.
Tim, who specialises in naturalistic cottage gardens, set about crafting a plan. “Talking to him about what I was hoping to achieve really helped shape my thinking and helped me work out how I wanted to use the garden.” Through their conversations, the garden design started to emerge, like an image coming into focus – the spot where Virginia had soaked up afternoon sun was sketched into a summer courtyard, the living umbrella of the oak tree dictated the position of a paved dining area, while the dappled shade from that tree inspired a brightening palette of whites, mauves and pastel colour, which worked neatly with the blowsy, layered cottage garden look Virginia loved.
Though the garden is richly layered with flowers and foliage, it’s surprisingly low maintenance, designed to have a thorough clipping and tidy up twice a year, with not much in between, says Tim. The labour-light design is due to his preference for a naturalistic style that allows perennials to run through their full cycle with minimal interference. “I try to choose plants, not just for the colour of their flower, but for their structure into decay,” he says. Flowers peak and die back, with new cast of blooms always following on their heels.
This idea of multiple garden heroes, each stepping into the spotlight, then fading out to support a new star, requires a skilful balance and an imaginative vision. Tim explains that this scene, with its haze of mauve and white, punctuated by purple alliums like fireworks, is just one of the garden’s many faces. As the alliums fade to straw-coloured seedheads that roll around like tumbleweeds, Tim says a new palette, driven by peachy orange achilleas, will emerge. Hot pinks start to come through late in the season, fading into rich autumn tones to complement the falling leaves of the oak. “It’s an ever-evolving display. Hopefully, we’ll get six ‘scenes’ out of it.”
This constant change encourages Virginia to keeping exploring, drawing her outside to snatch little moments of serenity in the middle of a work day. “Often if I’m on a lunch break or I have 10 minutes between meetings, I’ll wander out and have a look, see if something new has started to bloom. There’s something about that connection to nature and being in the fresh air,” she says.
Tim’s country garden flowers
Landscape design: Tim Pilgrim, tpgardens.com.au.
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Landscape build: Macedon Ranges Garden Services, 0497 857 735, macedonrangesgardenservices.com.au.
