Suburban Garden

A Semi-Formal Bayside Garden That Blooms Year-Round

It’s a landscape designer’s dream to be offered a large site and the freedom to create any garden of their choosing.

This very scenario resulted in this Black Rock garden by Andrew Panton Design, which combines overflowing foliage, formal hedging, and tropical beach elements relevant to its bayside Melbourne location. 

Designed with year-round interest firmly in mind, the garden is divided into sections highlighting perennials that bloom throughout the seasons.

Written
by
Amelia Barnes

Black Rock is a garden designed by Andrew Panton Design. Photo – Marnie Hawson

The garden is divided into various sections and garden beds. Photo – Marnie Hawson

Most of the feature garden beds are on the left side of the backyard, while the pool and low-maintenance garden beds are on the right. A decked outdoor entertaining area steps down from the house to a green lawn, before the pool and another outdoor entertaining area at the rear.  Photo – Marnie Hawson

‘Around the pool I kept it fairly clean and simple using plants that won’t be too messy or require a lot of maintenance,’ says Andrew. Photo – Marnie Hawson

Andrew’s vision for the planted elements was to create a layered garden with colour and year-round interest. Photo – Marnie Hawson

Photo – Marnie Hawson

‘I just wanted to create a garden with lots of colour and interest with a hint of the tropics.’ Photo – Marnie Hawson

The garden is landscaped by Perennial Landscaping. Photo – Marnie Hawson

Photo – Marnie Hawson

‘With the beach side location, I also wanted it to have a tropical feel. I used a variety of large and small palms down the back of the property around the second outdoor entertaining area,’ says Andrew. Photo – Marnie Hawson

Writer
Amelia Barnes
10th of March 2022

When Andrew Panton Design was engaged to design this Melbourne garden, the site was essentially a large blank canvas. ‘The brief for the job was simply to “treat the garden as your own”, so I set out to create a garden which would look good all year around,’ says Andrew Panton, landscape designer and founder of Andrew Panton Design. 

‘We were given free rein to create a garden that looked beautiful from all aspects, and had practical areas that could be enjoyed by the owners all year-round.’ 

This dream brief instantly inspired Andrew, who saw potential to divide the site into various contrasting sections. Most of the feature garden beds are on the left side of the backyard, while the pool and low-maintenance garden beds are on the right. A decked outdoor entertaining area steps down from the house to a green lawn, before the pool and another outdoor entertaining area at the rear. 

Andrew’s vision for the planted elements was to create a layered garden with colour and year-round interest. ‘I achieved this through using lots of perennials that shoot up at different times of the year, and also by using a vast array of different textures throughout the garden beds,’ he says. 

‘With the beach side location, I also wanted it to have a tropical feel. I used a variety of large and small palms down the back of the property around the second outdoor entertaining area.’

Andrew describes creating this garden as a ‘dream come true’, attributing the client’s trust to the successful outcome.  

‘The garden has flourished and grown sensationally well. It has complex layers and bursts with colour throughout the year, just like I had envisaged.’ 

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