An impressive and award-winning garden with a mix of formality and cottage-style surrounding a historic home.

This historic old house, once the home and consulting rooms of Dr Auricht, the local Hahndorf GP, was beautifully renovated in 2020, and the densely overgrown garden was completely revamped. It has since received several awards from Master Landscapers SA for excellence in design, construction and maintenance.

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

The Auricht House garden is impressive and award-winning - a lovely mix of formality and cottage style, and a beautiful setting for the old home.