John and Jenny Shaw are lifelong gardeners, and their half acre plot in Woodend is an expression of their lives. Planted without reason or design, it’s a rambling and intuitive space that resists construction. Even defintion. There’s a mannagum tree over 300 years old, beside random plants gifted to John and Jenny by friends. John describes it as a ‘serendipitous’ place, a lived-in garden filled with tokens of the couple’s near 50-year stewardship of the property.

This space of cultivated landscape has seen John and Jenny’s children grow from infants to adults, even hosting one of their weddings decades later. Their son, Ben Shaw, has gone into a career in permaculture – no doubt inspired by a childhood spent soaking up this loving family garden. 

It’s a very special place.

Garden stories are some of our most popular reads on TDF these days – take a look at the news cycle in the last 18 months and it’s not hard to work out why! There’s nothing more calming than bathing in the beauty of a glorious planting scheme, and landscape designers are the ones responsible for that instant tranquility.

They are the craftspeople taming the space between the domestic and wild, and it’s about time they got some recognition! From industry legends to newcomers, these are the 12 outstanding projects shortlisted in the Landscape Design category of the TDF + Laminex Design Awards 2021.

This category is proudly sponsored by Eco Outdoor.

Whether it’s touring through his legendary home garden at Stonefields, or joining him for a guided tour of the beautiful Daylesford region, everybody loves Paul Bangay! So much so, in fact, that his classic book Paul Bangay’s Guide to Plants has recently been updated and re-released in a new expanded edition.

With tips for gardens in a changing climate, anecdotes and insights into successful landscape design, this fresh edition features two new chapters!

Read on below for an extract on how to choose the perfect plant for your garden: big or small!

Unlike many coastal properties, the brief for this garden on the Mornington Peninsula was to create seclusion and sanctuary, rather than to maximise beach views.

In response to the sprawling site, Ian Barker Gardens designed a varied, six-part layout encompassing outdoor entertaining, a sunset terrace, a pool, fire-pit and luscious flowery plantings. It’s a ‘secret garden’ filled with unexpected delights!

The owners of this architecturally designed home in St Lucia, Brisbane have lived here for more than two decades. In the time since, the home (originally designed by revered Queensland architectural firm Donovan Hill – now Partners Hill) has aged gracefully, but the garden required fresh attention.

So, recently, the homeowners engaged landscape architect Dan Young to redesign the central courtyard to suit the family’s changing needs. The result is a garden that matches the rhythms and materials of the residence, and strikes the crucial balance between aesthetic appeal and functionality. It’s a sub-tropical beauty!

Michael Bates of Bates Landscape started work on this garden 12 years ago, under different owners. Once the property was sold, the new custodians re-engaged the landscape designer to rework the garden, to complement a new renovation.

Centred around the new Madeleine Blanchfield-designed residence, a bold sculptural artwork, and a desire to activate all parts of the steep and windy site, Michael’s new garden layout connects a variety of functional and aesthetic pockets through a central lawn.

Each outdoor space in this vast and varied garden is its own moment!

A great garden can completely elevate a home. But it takes a pretty special garden to transport you to a totally different hemisphere! Despite being located in the summery eastern beaches of Sydney, this dreamy garden belonging to landscape designer Anthony Wyer could easily be on a sun-scorched Greek island.

Replete with a lush, layered planting palette, pool and a sandstone cabana cave, the Boulder House garden is like being on holiday, at home! What more can we say? It’s absolute heaven.

It has the makings of a great rom-com: tricky conditions (a sloping site and large established trees), an existing lover (a pre-ordered pool), conflicting desires (the clients being a family of five) and a dashing newcomer (Mcnuttndorf Landscapes). But these landscape designers + this Fairfield backyard = the best meet-cute ever!

From these many plot lines, director and designer Lori McNutt has created an undulating backyard wonderland. Replete with veggie beds, a gin deck, a pond-like pool and a rockery filled with everything from local indigenous species to large semi-tropical plants, it has everything each member of the family asked for. And all in the delicious embrace of surrounding majestic trees. It’s a love story with a happy ending!

Before Fig Landscapes got to it, this 1-acre block in Binna Burra in the New South Wales hinterland was an empty cow paddock filled with weeds and camphor. In fact, before the clients occupied it, there wasn’t even a house here.

On purchasing the property, the the new owners relocated a traditional Queenslander to the hill, and engaged Grant Boyle of Fig Landscapes to design a garden that would reconcile the old home with its new surrounds. The result is a relaxed country garden filled with native plantings and raw, earthy materials that complement the surrounding landscape. Oh, and a pretty dreamy plunge pool!

To say this garden has undergone a transformation would be an understatement.

What was recently a large, barren plot accompanying a newly-built home in Kenthurst (39 kilometres north-west of Sydney’s CBD) is now an absolutely thriving garden for its elderly owner.

The client’s brief can be boiled down to four key elements – accessibility, refuge, social opportunity, and views – but their main request was for flowers! The resulting design by Outdoor Establishments combines seasonal colour, mature trees, and bird-attracting species, delineated by stone walls and paved areas featuring textural travertine from Eco Outdoor, to create multiple zones for eating, lounging and enjoying the garden. The perfect outcome for an extended family who love to entertain!