When Beci Orpin first moved into this Brunswick studio space and discovered a huge garden at the rear, she knew she had to make it into ‘something special.’
She had already renovated the inside of the playful workspace — styling it with chunky furniture, cute trinkets, and pops of colour — when a friend suggested she engage local garden designer Jimmy Sing to revive the outdoor area.
‘I really loved the ‘wild meadow’ style gardens like those from Piet Oudolf, using a mix of grasses and flowering plants,’ Beci says. ‘Once I met Jimmy, he had lots of other good references and inspiration, and from there I just left it in his very capable hands.’
The space was an empty lot with waist-high weeds, but Jimmy (patiently) tackled the extensive weed removal organically to make way for the new planting scheme. In addition to taking inspiration from famous naturalistic garden designers from around the world, the design was influenced by our local bushland surrounds.
‘There’s nothing like the beauty of how plants choose to organise themselves,’ Jimmy says.
‘I wanted to take those principles and bend them [to suit] Beci. Her illustrations always have a brilliant use of colour and she’s always creating fun googly-eyed personalities out of plants. So I wanted to select lots of big characters for this garden and extend the playfulness of Beci’s studio into the garden!’
Jimmy created a large circular area for gathering, enclosed by dense and layered plantings that continue in abundance throughout the garden.
Indigenous plants (like Kangaroo and Longhair Plume grasses, Rock Isotomes and Billy Buttons) are grouped alongside selections from the Mediterranean, South Africa and North American prairie plants that all enjoy a similar climate.
‘The garden is designed to have major changes in colour, form, texture and feature throughout the year. I’ve used a lot of flowering perennials that have this huge annual growth, then they turn to brown and black skeletons in winter, and you cut them back for it all to start again,’ Jimmy says.
Other than gravel that lines the softly defined pathways, the plants have been allowed to grow freely, creating an intimate, dreamy, and transportive place that’s also bought new life to a very urban setting.
The flowers have attracted ladybirds, dragon flies and bees, and birds are often hiding in the surrounding shrubs amongst the evergreen wattle trees (like Mahonias and Euphorbias) that line the boundaries.
It’s been about a year since they first planted the garden. Beci says she often finds Jimmy ‘pottering out there’, while she looks out from her desk to the towering flowers that are in full bloom this summer.
‘It’s pretty magic site to look out at whilst I’m working. And it looks beautiful in every season,’ she adds.
Beci’s garden is available to hire for photoshoots and will also be taking enquires for small functions — get in touch here.
