A flourishing, creative and quirky coastal garden

Since 2015, Anna Leake has transformed a windswept coastal block into a pretty, eclectic and thriving garden packed with an extensive range of plants, sculptures and whimsical pieces of garden art.

The charming old church building known as The Kirk forms a backdrop to the garden, which Anna named after the now-extinct Toolache wallabies that once inhabited the area.

The westerly winds and the deep sandy soil over rock were a challenge, and copious amounts of compost, manure, and mulch have been added to improve the soil’s fertility and water-holding capacity. A wall that divides the front and back gardens helps to reduce the impact of the wind, as does the front picket fence, its weathered wood colouring the perfect backdrop for the textural foliage and the soft silver and muted green tones of the plants that spill through the palings onto the verge.

A Norfolk Island pine and a casuarina tree in the front garden were already well established, and Anna has added many robust shrubs, herbaceous perennials, succulents, bulbs and natives that mingle happily together and make a lovely colourful mix of foliage and flowers. Bird-attracting plants have been included, and the garden is now home to a variety of birdlife.

However, the many pieces of sculpture and the garden art dotted throughout make Toolache unique! There are mosaic pieces, rustic old fence posts, unusual pots and rocks, and an enormous stone from Naracoorte that has become the base for a fish sculpture crafted by a local artist from discarded spanners!

Toolache is flourishing, creative and quirky – a lesson in successful coastal gardening.

Moorakyne Garden is also open in the same street.