Australian House & Garden

Our Northcote garden was featured in the November issue of Australian House and Garden.

From swathes of Pink and yellow perennials in full summer flower to lustrous grasses shimmying in autumn breezes – this garden in inner Melbourne is an ever – changing specticle for owners Keren and Chris. Reflecticting nature in it’s mutable glory, the garden celebrates the seasons, the theatrical display savoured from inside as well as outside the home.
In striking contrast, when the couple bought the property in 2011, it was occupied by a huge weatherboard bungalow with straggly plants, lots of lawns and neglected fruit trees – nothing to see here!
In 2022, they cleared the site, leaving a timber workshop at the back, and asked modular home specialists Modscape to create a three-bedroom home for them and their three daughters, now 16 and 12. While the house sprang up in weeks, the garden created by Andy Murray of Andy Murray Landscape Design has been a long and rewarding labor of love.
In their brief the couple asked for an outdoor entertaining space, a plunge pool, a mini basketball court, and the workshop to be melded into the plan and, says Keren ‘a garden bed for trying new things such as perennials and a produce garden, I have come from a long line of gardeners and love to garden’. ‘Above all it had to be relaxed and informal, loose and not structured’ adds Andy
The garden is in five zones with the focus at the back a front section behind a picket fence and three courtyards as ‘cut-ins’ to the house, so the garden is front, back, and center. ‘A key part of our house brief was to have a series of courtyards to bring in light and the garden’ says Keren. Andy adds: it’s like walking down a hallway with a garden on both sides.
His biggest challenge was the 1.5m excavation needed to level this sloping site for a modular home on one level, leaving towering three meter walls at the highets point. And underneath sits dense poorly drained clay, making planing a challenge.

Andy designed the back garden on two levels, with the upper well back from the house atop a rendered retaining wall. OPn the lower section is a large hardwood deck for entertaining. Perennial planting on the lower level viewed from the living areas softens and conceals walls while hiding a plunge pool and a basketball area on the upper level.
Sharing the upper with the pool and workshop, cross sections of industrial pipes for raised vegetable and herb gardens. Acid-etched concrete is used instead of paving while rocks are for steppers and seats. ‘The hard landscaping is simple and neutral with plants proving the color’ says Andy ‘Densely planted it is as if the narrow gravel paths are forcing their way through the groundcovers and the vistas change as you walk through’
The ‘loose and playful’ planting on both levels high and low includes perennials such as cut leaf Cone flower (Rudbeackia laciniata) Eupatorium maculatum ‘Glutball’ and Pale purple, coneflower (Echinacea pallida) offset by evergreen (Miscanthus transmorrisonensis) qand Chinese Silver grass (Miscanthus Yakushima Dwarf) Cherry Quince and lemon trees form a mini orchard at the back while vegetable and herbs cascade out of the planters. When the perennials are on the turn the grasses come into their own, transforming the garden just weeks later. ‘It’s a herbaceous perennial garden loose and never static’ says Andy ‘It’s exciting embracing the season, come winter it’s cut back, allowing the cycle to start once again’

In the more constant front garden, the hard landscaping echoing the back consists of gravel and basalt rocks for seating. A Chinese Pistachio (Piscachia chinensis) near the front door and a Chinese redbud (Cercis chinensis ‘Avondale) on the opposite side are under-planted with evergreen Miscanthus. Meanwhile, the courtyards feature rocks and gravel with drifts of Kidney Weed (Dichondra repens) and Native Violets (Viola hederacea) as groundcover ‘Which look as if they flow under the house’ says Andy. Each courtyard features a statement tree including Golden Rain Tree (Kolrutaria paniculata) and Full Moon Maple (Acer vitafolium) in another. This is our own secret garden says Keren ‘you can see it changing with the seasons from almost every room of the house. And this green thumb can potter away to her heart’s content whatever the month.