Wombarra Garden by Richard Unsworth

The creative force behind Sydney’s Garden Life has shifted his landscape design thinking to one that heralds natural beauty, durability and variety.

In 2016, the acclaimed garden designer Richard Unsworth had an awakening. That year, he and his partner bought one of the oldest properties on Sydney’s Pittwater, Trincomalee, built in 1896. The gardens surrounding the sandstone-and-weatherboard house, which borders a national park, were completely overgrown and the old stone paths were full of invasive weeds. What could be ascertained of the original garden was cluttered and overcomplicated, with lots of different borders around what were once areas of lawn. There were palm trees swaying and bands of irises and clumps of agapanthus scattered throughout the property. The verdant nature of the garden belied the fact that there was little diversity or nuance in the planting – the weedy species had thrived on years of neglect. So Unsworth decided to do something uncharacteristic for a garden designer – he wanted the surrounding bush to come into the garden and for the garden to feel like it was part of the bush. In short, he wanted it to look natural.

“I knew very little about bush restoration at the time, but I soon realised that as the new custodian of Trinco, I had a responsibility to the environment to keep my patch of green in a way that wouldn’t negatively impact the pristine nature of the reserve next door,” Unsworth writes in his new book, The Natural Gardener (Thames & Hudson). His regeneration of Trincomalee also inspired a change in the direction of his day job as the owner of Sydney outdoor store Garden Life and a partner in the landscape design practice Studio UC.

“In the past, I’ve predominantly worked with stylised urban gardens, focusing on spaces with strong architectural planting,” says Unsworth. “At Trinco, I learned the fundamentals of rewilding and bush regeneration and the importance of working with endemic species.”

Unsworth decided to do something uncharacteristic for a garden designer – he wanted the surrounding bush to come into the garden and for the garden to feel like it was part of the bush.

The restoration of Trincomalee’s gardens was the beginning of a shift in his design practice to be more focused on natural landscaping, which he defines as working with nature rather than against it. “Natural gardens are about planting that’s inspired by the wilder, more untamed landscape beyond the boundary,” he says. “It’s about blurring the boundary, of not seeing it. It’s about celebrating the whimsical and ephemeral – gnarly and twisted branches, the irregular and unexpected.”

It’s a way of gardening that treads more lightly on the earth, according to Unsworth, and is a direct response to the world’s climate crisis. More naturalistic plantings and wilder landscapes are part of a growing movement towards living more sustainably and being more conscious of how our approach to gardening impacts our suburbs and cities.

“Natural gardens are about planting that’s inspired by the wilder, more untamed landscape beyond the boundary,” he says.

Designing a natural garden is very much about responding to the site’s conditions and climate, rather than trying to tame it like a more formal garden design concept would. At Wombarra, near Wollongong on the South Coast of New South Wales, Unsworth was commissioned to design a garden surrounding a bold new contemporary home. The site directly overlooks the ocean and is exposed, with salt-laden winds coming from the north, east and south. The harsh winds, says Unsworth, can prune trees horizontally, so the plant selection needed to cope with the unforgiving conditions. Home to some native species, as well as a few invasive weeds, a council reserve sits between the property and the beach. The architect client and his partner are keen gardeners and had plants from their old garden and asked Unsworth to incorporate them and influence the new planting. “They wanted to see a garden with lots of colour and texture; plantings with soft ‘painterly’ combinations drifting together. Most importantly, the garden needed to soften the strong architecture, but not detract from it.”

The 1,100-square-metre garden has three distinct areas that sit around the front of the house and wrap around both sides of the building. The gently sloping ground is retained with low rectangular sections of Corten steel, which follow the lines of the house. More steel is used to form vegetable garden beds on the house’s east side and arranged in a rectangular layout with gravel paths running in between. “The combination of rusted steel and gravel feels earthy and soft,” says Unsworth. Further to the eastern boundary, three ex-orchard olive trees have been planted in gravel to give a sense of maturity. Beyond the olive trees, a row of New Zealand Christmas bush acts as a privacy screen.

Running down the south side of the house, a series of advanced tree aloes makes a dramatic statement. Between the house and the road down to the beach, Unsworth opted for drifts of tough shrubs, such as Indian hawthorn and Ebbing’s silverberry, to bear the brunt of the severe southerly winds. Clipped into soft, organic-shaped mounds, they are the first line of defence from the wind for the plants behind them.

A series of coastal banksia is planted lower down towards the front corner of the property, which borders a native reserve. Unsworth heavily pruned the tips of these trees to harden them against the strong southerlies. At the front of the garden, the planting becomes less shrubby and softer, with more colour and texture. To the north of the site, succulents have been combined with native species. A garden sitting next to the pergola contains a combination of aloes with softer ground-cover casuarinas and yellow buttons.

“Most importantly, the garden needed to soften the strong architecture, but not detract from it.”

The overall effect is a garden that blends with both its natural and man-made surroundings. Concrete seating creates a type of negative space that helps to appreciate the fullness of the planting and ties the garden design to the home’s contemporary architectural expression. Unsworth says the Wombarra Garden design was experimental to a degree, with the clients’ love of colour pushing him to find plants that would work in this harsh and exposed coastal site.

“I’m keen to see how the garden matures and fills out over time,” says the designer. “With the variety and diversity of flowering plants that we’ve brought into the garden, it will soon be teeming with life.”

The overall effect is a garden that blends with both its natural and man-made surroundings.