Renowned for presenting cutting edge ideas about landscape design, the biennial Australian Landscape Conference transcends the everyday and focuses on the ideas and concepts behind the scenes that create outstanding landscapes. Inaugurated in 2002, presenters from Australia and overseas encompass the fields of landscape architecture and design, urban planning, horticulture, art, regenerative agriculture and connection to country.
The Designer: Kate Seddon has been designing landscapes across Melbourne as well as coastal and regional locations for almost 20 years.
With a small team of landscape architects designers and horticulturalists, the driving principle of the practice is to design gardens that bring joy and create useful spaces for people to engage in. Taking cues from the surrounds well as from the architecture, there is a recognition of the inherent value of nature and of connecting garden spaces closer to the home.
The Garden: The homestead at Boneo was refurbished to a contemporary and Modernist sensibility by Studio Esteta. In 2020 the landscape was designed by Kate Seddon Landscape Design to complement the house and offer relaxed family living within farmland. Views to the Bay stretch out past the lawn area and ha ha wall, unimpeded by fencing to grazing cattle beyond. Sinuous concrete walls are placed to define elements including the driveway entry, seating within a terraced eating area with open fireplace invitation to a fire pit area, and delineation to raised beds in the productive garden area
The pool is set into a lawn hillside, utilising the slope looking out over the surrounding garden. sea views and sunsets. Timber fencing around the pool extends out in a broad zone encompassing an existing stand of Corvmbia sp and Eucalyptus sp that shelter and frame this point. Generous planting schemes tie together pool, tennis court and dining terrace, and soften the house façade. Substantial pergolas at front and rear create dennition and opportunities for seating.
The planting design is a blend of natives and exotics, offering year-round interest, relatively ow maintenance needs and suitability to site conditions Plants include an avenue of Corymbia ‘Baby Citro’, Lagerstroemia of various cultivars, Ulmus parvifolia, Agonis flexuosa ‘Burgundy’, Olea europaea, Cotinus coggygria, Echium, Calamagrostis ‘Karl Forster’, Lomandra ‘Lime Tuff’, Carex testacea, Pennisetum rubrum, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Santolina chamaecyparissus, Achillea ‘Terracotta’, Iris germanica, Derwentia perfoliata, Leptospermum ‘Nana Rubrum’, Euphorbia rigida, Westringia fruticosa, Artemesia ‘Powis Castle’, Agastache aurantiaca and ground covers of Leptospermum ‘Julie Ann’, Thymus serpyllum ‘Alba’ and Myoborum ‘Yareena’.
