Ann-Maree Winter knows better than most the transformative power of gardening. Her garden on the Mornington Peninsula in southern Australia is a place of solace, joy and plenty of colour. She and her husband Paul bought the property in 2015, moving from a 450 square metre suburban plot with sandy soil to seven windswept acres of rich volcanic soil. “I can stick my finger in the ground here, and it should grow,” she says, with a chuckle.
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When the couple first arrived, the garden was sparsely planted with native plants strangled by weed mat, gum trees planted along fence lines and not much else. Now, around one and a half of the seven acres are gardened. Entering the property from the front gates, visitors are greeted by lawn with a sculptural cluster of three eucalyptus trees, followed by the productive and picking garden.
“After what we went through, it’s such a good thing to have a bit of a laugh and say, ‘why don’t I put these two together’; ‘why don’t I do this, or that’. The garden is very much rooted in that sense of unbridled joy.”
As the drive sweeps around the house, the jewel of the garden is revealed – Ann-Maree’s high-octane perennial garden. Further below is is a new ‘subdued’ garden area, which is being planted with native and endemic species, creating a strong connection with surrounding grassland and distant views.
While one of the reasons for the move was to have more space to garden, when Ann-Maree moved in, she says she “spent a lot of time up on the deck of the house looking out, wondering what we’d gotten into and being really intimidated by it”. The first summer was very dry, with the clay soil cracking and hot westerly winds ripping up the hill. Anne-Maree’s response was to begin planting a windbreak and making an “inner sanctum of over-the-topness” to counter how inhospitable the environment felt.
My initial approach to planting reflects having gardened a much smaller, suburban space.
The site’s slope and exposure to harsh winds have been the greatest challenges to the creation of the garden. Ann-Maree placed large rocks to break up the slope, and planted a hedge to protect new plantings from wind and harsh western sun. The stepping of the slope, and buffer plantings, have created a number odifferent microclimates within the garden, suiting a wide variety of plants. Inspired by local garden designers such as Jo Ferguson and Jac Semmler, Ann-Maree’s perennial garden is an experiment in colour, texture and resilience.
There’s musicality to the garden, with lulls and crescendos that are accentuated by the play of light.
More importantly, it’s a place of abundance and joy, a salve in challenging times. A few years after they purchased the property, Ann-Maree’s husband Paul was diagnosed with lymphoma. “It turned our world inside itself,” she says. The garden became an oasis for both of them. “It was good for Paul, because it gave him somewhere to be while undergoing treatment. And in between treatments, he was able to do things in the garden.” Then the Covid-19 lockdowns struck. “It was such a weird, dystopian time – we felt very lucky to have this place,” Ann-Maree says. “It nurtured us.”
She describes the perennial garden, variously, as the “colour bomb” and “jewel box”. She approaches colour with a sense of musicality and movement. “I group warm colours and cool colours together in each area, and so even though there’s a whole lot of different colours, it’s actually transitioning through the spectrum rather than being a mix of the spectrum.”
The colour relationships of the entire garden space are considered, not just within particular garden beds. Pops of colour appear in one spot, drawing the eye onwards to another. Colours move in waves within the space. “There’s musicality to the garden, with lulls and crescendos that are accentuated by the play of light.”
While highly considered and skilfully tended, the garden is also pure fun. “So often I’ll come out to the garden and just laugh,” says Ann-Maree. “After what we went through, it’s such a good thing to have a bit of a laugh and say, ‘why don’t I put these two together’; ‘why don’t I do this, or that’. The garden is very much rooted in that sense of unbridled joy.”
Now, after nearly ten years of living at the property, Ann-Maree says her approach to the garden, and the place itself, is evolving. While she’ll always have her “jewel-box centre”, her current approach is less a reaction to the place and more of a conversation with it. She’s experimenting with more native plants in the garden, and the paddocks beyond will be planted with endemic species – forming part of an important local vegetation and wildlife corridor.
“My initial approach to planting reflects having gardened a much smaller, suburban space,” says Ann-Maree. “I feel differently now. We’re hoping to give back to this place. It will be interesting to see how that feeds back into the inner garden. I’m curious to know how it, and I, will change.”