MEANDER THROUGH THE MEADOWS

Applying an artist's eye for colour and using a naturalistic plan, landscape designer and gardener Tim Pilgrim creates a cottage garden inspired by the loose beauty of meadows and prairies

- ANDREA TOMAZ

Lead the way

The path is lined with balls of English box (Buxus sempervirens), which give the garden elements a stronger definition.

With buckets of charm, great soil and a wet, cool climate, Trentham in Victoria, Australia has plenty of beautiful cottage gardens growing in its midst. But landscape designer and gardener Tim Pilgrim tried something a little different and extra-special- when his client, Rhonda, asked him to create a garden that would 'soften' the new residence on her block of land.

'Rhonda wanted a cottage garden aesthetic and she also liked the style of Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, explains Tim. 'He does a lot of perennial mass plantings in a naturalistic style, and plants in drifts rather than blocks. I drew on those ideas and was inspired by meadows and prairies.

With a 'drift' composition in mind and a bigpicture mindset, Tim set to work creating a garden that would fit with the house, land, town and bush beyond. 'It was all about settling that timber house into the landscape, giving it scale, he says. 'I looked at the building first, then related the garden back to it.

Tim's plant selections were based on climate and colours. 'I approached it like a palette. Like putting a painting's colours together. I borrowed warmer oranges and reds from the landscape and tried to bring it all in closer, blurring those boundaries of where the garden begins - but without forcing it. He also chose perennials that look good into decay, ones with 'interesting seed heads and structures that move well in the wind.