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An existing mature birch tree was all the inspiration Saint Remy needed to design this new garden in Ripponlea.
The landscape design studio envisioned a ‘birch woodland’ — a sea of green interspersed with spikes of colour, beneath clusters of silver birch trees.
Each of the three outdoor spaces — the front garden, retreat, and backyard — were designed by Saint Remy as a seamless extension of the newly-renovated period home on site by Austin Maynard Architects.
Seam Lam, principal designer at Saint Remy, explains, ‘The client wanted the garden to feel part of the house and viewed it like another room, so to speak.
‘So rather than expanding the footprint of the house, the garden was extended so it could be a big part of their daily life — whether that was creating beautiful views and connections to their living areas, or having spaces to relax, play and potter around outside…
‘It was a dream brief.’
The garden comprises three visually complementary spaces with enough variation to suit the microclimate and purpose of each area.
The romantic front garden sets the tone, welcoming the residents home with its soft and layered greenery.
Quartzite paving (‘It’s lovely to walk on; formal-ish but full of character,’ says Seam) and a stepper path leads to a shady reading nook beneath the home’s awning, before the front porch wrapped in Virginia creeper.
The selection of quickly establishing plants including Viola hederacea (native violet), Bergenia pacumbis (Chinese elephant’s ears), and Aster novi-belgii ‘White’ (New York aster) creates the illusion of a garden far beyond its age (just 10 months at the time of photography).
‘This tiny forest had to feel like it had always been there. It needed depth and layering, and we also had to frame good views and screen bad ones,’ says Seam.
‘In short, it takes a lot of effort to make a garden feel effortless.’
The second garden is the owner’s private retreat, located on the northwest side of the house, accessible from the dining area and featuring a seemingly casual arrangement of Fatsia japonica (Japanese aralia), Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Seiryu’ (laceleaf Japanese maple) and Cosmos atrosanguineus (chocolate cosmos).
‘If this garden could say one word it would be “relax,”’ says Seam.
The sun-drenched backyard is the star of the show, providing tranquil spaces for the owners to entertain and unwind around the dining table, plus all the practical amenities one desires in a hardworking garden (water tank, potting shed, and compost bin around the property’s freestanding studio).
‘It’s exactly where you want to be on a nice day,’ says Seam.
Red brick paving (chosen to match the home’s extension) gives way to an enchanting arrangement of perennial grasses and flowering shrubs interspersed with more birch trees.
‘We’re most proud of achieving that big idea of a birch woodland,’ says Seam. ‘We planted 22 trees in the garden and 18 of them are birches.’
These trees separate the dining area from the productive kitchen garden to the east side of the backyard, and the fire pit area to the west, both laid with fine gravel on opposite sides of a small central lawn.
Seam describes the garden an ‘appalling overachiever,’ with plants going ‘ballistic’ over the soggy summer following its competition in March 2024.
Saint Remy maintains the garden on an ongoing basis, where they observe the plants increasingly harmonising with the home and drawing the owners outdoors at every opportunity.
Seam says, ‘To put it another way, if this house and this garden were people, they’d be best friends who fall madly in love and live happily ever after. The end.’
