Melbourne Topiary Don visited the gardens of two expert topiarists, John Mircello and Peter Nguyen. John’s Italian background is evident when you look at his beautiful garden. He has been topiarising plants for around ten years, and spends much of his spare time...
Melbourne Tropical Garden You’d think that having a tropical garden in Melbourne would be impossible, but you can create wonderful tropical feel gardens in the cooler zones of Australia. Garden design The garden features stone tiles, blue coloured river pebbles,...
Merlo’s Garden Jack Merlo is a Melbourne-based landscape designer who is setting a new standard in style for turn of the century Australian suburban landscapes. His work has been described as ‘disciplined yet extremely innovative and appealing’, and...
The latest trend sweeping Australian backyards is the creation of fantasy gardens. Often overseas travel provides the inspiration, then people return home and make their gardens over as a way of keeping those happy holiday memories alive. Many backyards are now pure...
For the last five years or so, weekends have been very special for Fairfield businessman Aldo Pecora. Every Sunday he rises at the crack of dawn, goes outside and begins work on his hobby. Aldo is an expert topiarist, and spends hours carefully trimming and pruning...
Caroline and Jack Linschoten are passionate about Bali, where they’ve had many wonderful holidays over the past ten years. They’ve brought back everything from woodcarvings and candlestick holders through to masks, handmade furniture and stone statues....
Quang Tran is a Vietnamese Australian who is passionate about bonsai. He first became interested in the idea of creating miniature trees and landscapes when he went to a bonsai show, liked what he saw and thought “I could do that”. Ten years later Quang is...
Don visited a property situated in a remnant cabbage tree forest on Sydney’s northern beaches. Although the house and garden design could be described as modern Australian, it has a wonderful open feel reminiscent of an Asian or Balinese pavilion. Folding cedar...
This tropical courtyard garden showcases the skills of landscape designer, Phillip O’Malley. When working on this project Phillip had to overcome design constraints including lack of space, and a house with harsh red brick walls. Front Garden An old, mission...
Don and the Burke’s Backyard team visited James Letherbarrow and his French Bulldog, Hugo. James, who is an accountant and a passionate gardener, moved into the ground floor apartment three years ago. He began renovating the courtyard with the aim of creating a...