Edwardian Front Garden Melbourne

The Edwardian period (1901 to 1914) was important for gardens as it marked the marriage of the stately home with a stately garden. Many leafy inner city Melbourne suburbs contain stately Edwardian style homes that have ample space for front gardens. This style of garden is a fusion of the formal and informal garden look.

The clients wanted to modify the front garden of this red brick Edwardian house to incorporate a new garage. A new brick wall was to be built along the front boundary. The requirement was to create a front garden that was more sensitive to the period and style of the Edwardian house, including a new driveway.

To work with the Edwardian style, it was important to create a garden that linked with English heritage and utilised materials that blended with the house. Using second hand red bricks adds some aged charm to the garden and the combination of red brick and bluestone works with the period. The important thing was to create a driveway and paving design that included enough detail to make it part of the feature of the garden. The plants needed to be leafy to sit comfortably with the strength of the brick walls. The garden needed to allow for vehicle access, a front path, as well as some lawn and garden beds.

Driveways always run the risk of being an unattractive feature in a garden. To blend this driveway into the garden, details of cobbles, exposed aggregate, and second hand red brick paving was designed to make it more appealing. The detail in the paving was important and every cut required was planned so that even the smallest detail became a feature. Driveways take up a lot of space in gardens and they should be designed as part of the garden and not as an after thought.

An obvious option with a front path is to run a straight line from the front gate to the front door. However, by integrating areas of paving you can blend a front path into a garden. This helps to make a smaller space appear bigger but it also makes you appreciate the garden more rather than just making a beeline for the front door. Offsetting an entrance path opens up more possibilities from a design point of view, and in this case I was able to form a connection between the pedestrian path and the driveway.

Autumn tones were used to blend foliage colours with the red house bricks. As the house and paving are very square, garden beds included some clipped balls of Box, which helped to add some roundness to soften the garden but also a touch of formality and structure. Garden beds included varieties of Hosta sp., Bergenia sp., Liriope sp., Euphorbia martinii, Alchemilla mollis, Helleborus sp., Pieris japonica, Dianella 'Border Silver,' Ajuga sp., Iris germanica, a hedge of Feijoa sellowiana, Azalea sp. and feature trees of Malus ioensis 'Plena' and Cercis Canadensis 'Forest Pansy' to name a few.

To create a welcoming atmosphere at night, path lights are used to pick up on the details in the paving and to also delineate the step risers. Trees are up lit to highlight the foliage and branch structure. Lighting makes a front garden welcoming and safer to navigate at night and is a worthwhile investment.

Designed in 2004.