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Situated on an 18-acre property rolling gently towards the Southern Ocean, work on the garden began in 2016 when Jo and husband Simon reunited after some years apart. When they first bought the property, the garden consisted of a lawn<\/a>, an olive tree and a few scattered shrubs<\/a>. They initially discussed knocking down the 1970s brick-veneer house and starting again, but instead, they engaged an architect to undertake alterations and additions, and began engulfing the structure with garden. Jo drew lines on the ground, defining pathways and structure, and Simon jumped on his digger and sculpted the land in a day. While the form of the space came together quickly, the meaning of the garden has been shaped over decades.\u00a0<\/p>\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>Jo\u2019s interest as a garden designer<\/a> lies in creating healing spaces that nurture both people and places. When designing her home garden, she asked herself and her husband questions such as: \u201cWhere did you feel most joy when you were a child? Where did you go when you were sad?\u201d Simon found respite in vegetable gardens<\/a>, bees<\/a> and flowers<\/a> as a young child at boarding school. For Jo, happiness was walking barefoot, having spent her childhood summers \u201crunning wild on the foreshore\u201d at a nearby beach. She\u2019s also always been drawn to grasslands, this connection forming during a family trip to central Australia, spending time with Indigenous people living on their homelands. \u201cBeing immersed in grasses<\/a> takes you to a place where you become nearly invisible,\u201d she says. \u201cYou disappear, feeling at one with everything.\u201d<\/p>![\"Jo](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/12\/38A0462-EditV2.jpg\")
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>Gardening is something the family has always shared and this garden began as a place of hope and healing. It also began by looking out of the kitchen window. \u201cI wanted to look out and see beauty, movement and colour,\u201d explains Jo. On the northern side of the house, the planting pushes right up to the verandah. With moist, volcanic soil, and sheltered by the house from strong southerly winds, the planting is extensive and abundant, comprising an eclectic mix of endemic grasses<\/a>, flowering perennials<\/a>, native shrubs and succulents<\/a>. Granitic sand pathways wind through the space, leading to![\"Jo](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/12\/38A0417-scaled.jpg\")
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>The garden playfully combines grasses, perennials and shrubs, often in unusual combinations. Jo credits Five Seasons, a documentrary film on the work of Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf<\/a>, and the Covid lockdowns for her experimentation. “It was like being given permission to try all the ideas I’ve ever had,” she say.<\/p>The southern side of the house is exposed to very strong winds sweeping up from the Southern Ocean, a few kilometres away. \u201cIt was hard to get things to grow here,\u201d Jo says, \u201cuntil my son Tucker really started to get interested in gardening and began bringing in good soil<\/a> and mulch<\/a>.\u201d Thanks to Tucker\u2019s influence (and love of Japanese plants and culture), the planting is an eclectic mix of bonsai, dwarf conifers, sturdy Australian native plants such as tall kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos flavidus<\/em>) and tussock grass (Poa labillardierei<\/em>), contrasting with the bold, blue foliage of Eucalyptus latens<\/em> \u2018Blue Lagoon\u2019. Other son Rupert\u2019s influence can be felt in the paddocks surrounding the garden \u2013 he\u2019s growing an arboretum showcasing ancient southern-hemisphere tree species including Araucaria<\/em>, Podocarpus<\/em> and Agathis<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>![\"Jo](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/12\/38A0399.jpg\")
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>Jo has said that her garden is a \u201cdreamy, whimsical fantasy grassland\u201d, but it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s home. Not just for Jo and her immediate human family, but for the many other beings who live among the native and exotic grasses, who visit for sweet nectar in summer, or shelter on branch and stem. \u201cWe know when we see pardalotes, fantails and scrubwrens moving among the foliage that we\u2019ve succeeded,\u201d Jo says.\u00a0<\/p>
Situated on an 18-acre property rolling gently towards the Southern Ocean, work on the garden began in 2016 when Jo and husband Simon reunited after some years apart. When they first bought the property, the garden consisted of a lawn<\/a>, an olive tree and a few scattered shrubs<\/a>. They initially discussed knocking down the 1970s brick-veneer house and starting again, but instead, they engaged an architect to undertake alterations and additions, and began engulfing the structure with garden. Jo drew lines on the ground, defining pathways and structure, and Simon jumped on his digger and sculpted the land in a day. While the form of the space came together quickly, the meaning of the garden has been shaped over decades.\u00a0<\/p> Jo\u2019s interest as a garden designer<\/a> lies in creating healing spaces that nurture both people and places. When designing her home garden, she asked herself and her husband questions such as: \u201cWhere did you feel most joy when you were a child? Where did you go when you were sad?\u201d Simon found respite in vegetable gardens<\/a>, bees<\/a> and flowers<\/a> as a young child at boarding school. For Jo, happiness was walking barefoot, having spent her childhood summers \u201crunning wild on the foreshore\u201d at a nearby beach. She\u2019s also always been drawn to grasslands, this connection forming during a family trip to central Australia, spending time with Indigenous people living on their homelands. \u201cBeing immersed in grasses<\/a> takes you to a place where you become nearly invisible,\u201d she says. \u201cYou disappear, feeling at one with everything.\u201d<\/p> Gardening is something the family has always shared and this garden began as a place of hope and healing. It also began by looking out of the kitchen window. \u201cI wanted to look out and see beauty, movement and colour,\u201d explains Jo. On the northern side of the house, the planting pushes right up to the verandah. With moist, volcanic soil, and sheltered by the house from strong southerly winds, the planting is extensive and abundant, comprising an eclectic mix of endemic grasses<\/a>, flowering perennials<\/a>, native shrubs and succulents<\/a>. Granitic sand pathways wind through the space, leading to The garden playfully combines grasses, perennials and shrubs, often in unusual combinations. Jo credits Five Seasons, a documentrary film on the work of Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf<\/a>, and the Covid lockdowns for her experimentation. “It was like being given permission to try all the ideas I’ve ever had,” she say.<\/p> The southern side of the house is exposed to very strong winds sweeping up from the Southern Ocean, a few kilometres away. \u201cIt was hard to get things to grow here,\u201d Jo says, \u201cuntil my son Tucker really started to get interested in gardening and began bringing in good soil<\/a> and mulch<\/a>.\u201d Thanks to Tucker\u2019s influence (and love of Japanese plants and culture), the planting is an eclectic mix of bonsai, dwarf conifers, sturdy Australian native plants such as tall kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos flavidus<\/em>) and tussock grass (Poa labillardierei<\/em>), contrasting with the bold, blue foliage of Eucalyptus latens<\/em> \u2018Blue Lagoon\u2019. Other son Rupert\u2019s influence can be felt in the paddocks surrounding the garden \u2013 he\u2019s growing an arboretum showcasing ancient southern-hemisphere tree species including Araucaria<\/em>, Podocarpus<\/em> and Agathis<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p> Jo has said that her garden is a \u201cdreamy, whimsical fantasy grassland\u201d, but it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s home. Not just for Jo and her immediate human family, but for the many other beings who live among the native and exotic grasses, who visit for sweet nectar in summer, or shelter on branch and stem. \u201cWe know when we see pardalotes, fantails and scrubwrens moving among the foliage that we\u2019ve succeeded,\u201d Jo says.\u00a0<\/p>