Tiers Of Joy

A green-and-white palette and enveloping masses of tiered planting helped shape this suburban Melbourne “country garden in the city”.

- Elizabeth Wilson

Every morning, Melbourne homeowner Melissa looks out at her garden and smiles. “It’s heaven,” she says. It’s an understandable response. Hugging her home in every direction, the garden is a layered and luxurious buffer to the outside world. And by late spring, when the star jasmine and 71 white hydrangeas begin popping into flower, the garden turns into a phosphorescent, scented wonderland. It is, indeed, a celestial sight.

Melissa and her daughter, Jessie, moved to the property in Glen Iris, two years ago. “The garden was very much the drawcard,” says Melissa. “I just loved the privacy and the feeling of being surrounded by nature.”

This heavenly gardenscape was designed in 2016 by landscape designer Inge Jabara for the previous owners. They were giving the 1960s brick-veneer home a Hamptons-style makeover and wanted a garden to match. When Inge came to the project, the garden was original and untouched. “It was your standard 1960s garden, with a meandering concrete pathway to the front door and a sea of grass,” she says. “Out the back there was a citrus tree, a few cherry trees, a lilly pilly and small shrubs skirting the boundaries.”