Layer UPON layer

Once idle and underused, this lush oasis on Sydney's Lower North Shore, now provides serene sanctuary from the outside world.

- Chris Pearson

The owner of this luxuriant garden on Sydney’s Lower North Shore says she feels a sense of calm wash over her the instant she steps inside the front gate. With its tantalising layers of foliage plants, it surrounds her like a warm embrace.

But it wasn’t so when she asked Henry Chapple-Cox, design manager at Secret Gardens, to remodel her garden in 2020. It was overwhelmed by conifers and box hedging the owner and her husband had planted soon after they bought the home in 1999. “At that time, we wanted the hedging for privacy and a very simple, practical garden as our children [now in their 20s] were very young,” she says. “It was serviceable, good for kids, but not for entertaining.” “The buxus did its job too well – there was a total disconnect between the different zones in the garden,” adds Henry. There were few opportunities for the owners and their guests to linger, and a magnolia tree hogged the far corner, depriving that space of its usefulness. Meanwhile, the front garden was rarely used, because it sloped awkwardly and grass struggled to thrive.