Ordered chaos

A cloak of silver vein creeper (Parthenocissus henryana), hangs from this California bungalow like a camouflage, and that’s exactly how homeowners James Beattie and Michael Alexander like it. For them, the home is an unassuming backdrop, blending in with the main attraction – their intriguing naturalistic garden.

When James and Michael bought the property 12 years ago, in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Balluk people, they wanted to create a garden that would embrace the street. They replaced the white picket fence with a simple timber and wire structure that figuratively and literally lets the inside out and the outside in. “I dislike closing the house off from the street,” says James. “You either let the world in or shut it out and I’m a let-the-world-in kind of person.”

As a professional gardener and previous researcher for ABC TV’s Gardening Australia program, James knew what he wanted from the 450m² garden, and designed and built every element himself. He ripped up the original concrete path and lawn and planted natives, but after a couple of years, he decided to switch it up.

The naturalistic style of planting was gaining more of a foothold in Australia. I like the relaxed look – the style is dynamic, and maintenance is pretty straightforward.

This naturalistic style calls for upright flowering perennials and grassy foliage textures, planted matrix style. James chose herbaceous perennials for the south-facing area. “They grow during spring, summer and autumn when the garden’s sunny, and sleep in winter when it’s shaded.”

He created large beds and made a ‘crazy paving’ path from the original path. “When I pulled it up, the concrete broke into pieces that were the perfect size and shape.”

James selects his plants for their colour and verticality, with a loose orange and purple theme. “Orange is polarising with gardeners, but I like its eye-hurtiness!”

A stand-out is Lilium ‘Tiger Babies’, a lightly scented hybrid from the Tiger Lily group. “After the wet spring and summer, they were the most floriferous I’d ever seen, with 12 flowers on each stalk.” Giant hyssop (Agastache aurantiaca), orange poppies (Eschscholzia californica) and Kniphofia ‘Apricot Nectar’ contribute admirably to the orange ‘eye-hurtiness’ theme, while Allium ‘Purple Rain’, Nepeta x faassenii ‘Purrsian Blue’ and Mediterranean sea holly (Eryngium bourgatii) fly the purple flag.

The green and grey foliages provide coherence and drop the heart rate to a safer zone, while chocolatey Cosmos atrosanguineus and burgundy Persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’ offer an astute and pleasing tonal shift.

Surprisingly, this diverse, flourishing garden seems relatively easy-care. This is because James selects varieties with similar water and light requirements, positions them just so, uses less orthodox care techniques, and voraciously observes and refines. “When I get home from work, I sit on the front step and stare at the garden, thinking about what I like and what I want to change. Sometimes a plant can be three inches away from where I think it would look better, and I move it in winter. When it regrows, I think ‘that’s so much better!’”

The natural life cycle of the garden means there’s minimal upkeep, with most inhabitants just going about their leafy, flowery business from spring to autumn, before collapsing after all the excitement. “In winter, I cut everything down – it’s ground zero – and then it all erupts again.” The miniature daffodil Narcissus tazetta ‘Tete a Tete’ and Allium ‘Purple Rain’ start the party in late winter, with their classic purple/yellow combo brightening the bare ground, before being engulfed by their bedfellows’ verdancy once more.

James intentionally hinders his plants’ growth to keep everything in proportion. “I restrict nutrients by using homemade compost – top dressing with a thin layer after everything’s been cut in winter.”

He’s miserly with water too, so “plants are less ebullient and better behaved. It also encourages roots to go deep, bolstering them against heat. If you water weekly, the roots stay near the surface and the plants struggle when it gets hot.” The parched envelope can only be pushed so far, though, and when the robust Kniphofia and Verbena rigida start fading, James capitulates and turns on the drippers for a couple of hours.

The garden is so tightly packed that not many weeds get a foothold, but James is vigilant about their removal. He also ’snips’ for 30–45 minutes every few weeks so all plants receive their fair share of sunlight.

The small, north-facing backyard was created for R&R and food production, and is a delight to behold. An ornamental grapevine smothers a pergola, and there’s a chimenea, outdoor shower and a ‘telephone booth’ glasshouse. Vegetables, herbs and fruit trees thrive in island beds.

An espaliered fig is the hero of the backyard. James trained it into a single plane, using a similar method to grapevines, encouraging vertical shoots along a horizontal cordon. As well as being able to grow a large tree in a small space, James believes its unusual form dissuades birds.

Having worked in conservation land management, James has a deep love for native grasses. So, when it came to developing the nature strip at the front of the house, grasses were his natural choice. These include longhair plume grass (Dichelachne crinita), common tussock-grass (Poa labillardierei) and kneed wallaby grass (Rytidosperma geniculatum), while purple chocolate lily (Dichopogon strictus) and yellow bulbine lily (Bulbine bulbosa) sit colourfully among them. These swaying grasses meld with the textures inside the property’s boundary, and when viewed from the verandah, they serve as an appealing frothy backdrop to the garden.

Although the garden’s current iteration seems perfect to an outsider, it’s clear that James is mulling over what comes next. “There’s always plants you haven’t grown that you’re keen to have a crack at. You won’t always get it right, but that’s kind of what gardening is all about.”

Header image by Martina Gemmola