An inspiring modern Australian country garden

Diana McGregor is a retired landscape designer, and husband Michael’s hobby is building stone walls – the perfect combination of skills to create a truly spectacular garden! Together, they have transformed Watendlath from a battlefield-like barren site over the last ten years to a beautiful, thoughtfully planned and planted country garden.

The 2 acres of garden are formal in parts and informal in others. Diana wanted to showcase Michael’s meticulously crafted walls, so as well as being functional, they are a feature and make an eye-catching framework for the front garden and the adjacent alfresco eating area.

Behind the house, a network of interlocking waist-high hedges line paths and create a series of almost secretive spaces for sitting or as wind shelter for plants. Diana has been selective with flower and foliage colours; perennials in tones of purple, blue and lavender and roses in shades of soft apricot blend beautifully with touches of silver foliage. Further from the house she has planted drought tolerant species including many natives carefully selected and placed for maximum aesthetic effect.

‘Pa’s Patch’ is a flourishing, productive garden with 11 raised beds crammed with a variety of vegetables, herbs, companion plants and fruit trees. Chooks also free range in a sizable yard known as the ‘Oval Office’! To retain the slope, there are more stone walls—here, Michael has painstakingly filled large gabions with rocks unearthed when excavating the property.

Beyond the garden, another 3 acres of bushland is securely fenced and home to kangaroos, which Diana saved and raised as a volunteer for Fauna Rescue.