Stunning views of surrounding countryside plus an orchard, veggies and impressive stone walls

Clair de Lune sits high on a hill with sweeping views over the garden to paddocks with grazing sheep, beautiful bushland and the rolling Skillogalee Hills in the background. The entrance to the garden and the bold, sustainable house is welcoming and colourful, with rich red ground cover roses and lavender lining the beds along the drive.

Warm toned local stone has been sourced from a ruin at Waterloo and used to build small walls behind the house to visually separate the garden from the adjacent paddock. Two raised beds are each planted with Chinese elms to provide shade; there is a well-used pizza oven, and adding a little fun is a piece of quirky garden art that also serves the birds well as their watering point.

The planting in front of the house combines both native and exotic plants – gravel paths lead through beds mass planted with silvery cushion bush (Leucophyta brownii), a contrast to the lovely lime coloured weeping foliage of Acacia cognata. Strappy grasses mingle with the solid shapes of succulents, and in the shade of the house, a long line of camellias thrive.

A tepee created from branches will in time be enveloped with jasmine. A remembrance garden is hedged with rosemary and filled with gifted plants and cuttings from friends’ gardens, and there is an orchard and productive area with raised concrete beds crammed with organically grown veggies.

A fence surrounding the entire garden successfully deters kangaroos and plant-eating animals!