An impressive, award-winning garden with a lovely mix of formality and cottage style providing a beautiful setting for the old home

This historic house, once the home and consulting rooms of Dr Auricht, the local Hahndorf GP, was beautifully renovated in 2020. The densely overgrown garden was revamped entirely. Since then, it has received several awards from Master Landscapers SA for its design, construction, and maintenance excellence.

A contemporary cottage garden suits the traditional house with its modern extension. Sandstone, available after the renovations, was recycled and used to build retaining walls and steps and create flat, usable spaces on the originally sloping block. Several mature trees were integrated into the design, including cedars, birches, a big old false date palm, and an oak said to have come from a seed collected in a royal garden. To allow these giants to have the focus they deserve, instead of more trees, several solid and substantial pergolas draped with wisteria and roses have become impressive features, adding height, creating vistas and clearly showing the way to the front door.

The garden flows from semi-formal areas with manicured hedging to informal borders and beds planted with shrubs, grasses, colour-themed roses, flowering perennials and pretty cottage garden plants. An expansive lawn, wide meandering paths and steps lead from sunny to shady spaces, linking the different areas and the varying levels. Well-preserved old stables and an existing fishpond were integrated into the design, and the owners’ much-loved horse-drawn cart was strategically placed in a prime position!

A productive garden with raised wicking beds was positioned in a sheltered corner behind the old stables.