Mornington Peninsula Garden

This garden was designed as a working garden and a work in progress for fashion doyenne Perri Cutten and her partner, photographer Jo Daniell on the wind swept slopes of the Mornington Peninsula. The garden is structured around nine garden rooms that are linked together by a one hundred-metre water feature. The proportions are based around the golden ratio of spatial harmony and took there inspiration from numerous sources including the "potage / vegetable " walled gardens at Versailles in France. Each garden room is based around the memory of a significant person in the owner's lives with the owner's selecting the majority of the plants. The large often-bridged water feature also acts as a water source for the Rural Fire Brigade during the fire season. The extensive dry stonewalls represent the structural backbone of the garden and were constructed over a two year period by two full time " stonies" stonemasons who resided on the property during the construction. The stone was sourced from a near by local quarry. The massive pergola is designed to create a powerful pergola space between the house, water feature and garden rooms. The pergola timbers were sourced from an old pier structure that was demolished on the Murray River and hand picked by the client. Various significant vines now ramble over this impressive structure. This garden definitely gets better every year with the passionate input of the owners.