Climbing roses with their vibrant blooms greet you at the front door, while their sweet fragrance fills the air and creates an inviting atmosphere. Garden designer Ashley James beautifully transformed the garden beds of this Melbourne home, replacing old plants with lush greenery and delicate flowers that echo the romantic theme of the newly built cubby at the back.
Childhood memories of playing with her siblings inspired this homeowner to restore her backyard and its beloved cubby house to their former glory. She grew up at the property and now lives here with her husband and their daughters.
The cubby house
Nestled in the backyard of a home in Melbourne, the original cubby was worse for wear and the couple were worried it was not safe enough for their children to play in, so they asked horticulturist and garden designer Ashley James to refresh it and create a fairytale garden.
“The original idea was to try to use the existing cubby house and just take it off the stilts,” explains Ashley. “By the time we took it apart, I realised that it was pretty much knackered and just structurally wasn’t there anymore.”
While the cubby house needed to be replaced, the back wall was kept as a sentimental nod to the homeowner’s dad, who originally built it.
“I wanted the cubby house and garden to complement each other,” explains Ashley. “To achieve this, I chose a clean white for the cubby and painted the door in a soft pink.”
Ashley’s signature romantic plantings of low-growing Sedum, tall mauve Verbena, Erigeron with its dainty daisy-like flowers, balls of Buxus, and ‘Karl Foerster’ grass are a beautiful accompaniment to the soft hue of the cubby’s door, in Porter’s Paints Petal Pink.
The cubby garden
“The cubby house was covered in a big vine, so we pulled it all out and created the little red brick pathway, built the deck off the front of the cubby house and then created the whimsical gardens around it as well,” says Ashley.
“The idea was to create somewhere that the kids could play, where the parents could see them from inside the house and know that they were safe. We also created a kitchen garden area so the girls could try growing their own fruit and vegetables.”
“We’ve included flowers that will attract pollinators to the fruit and veg.”
Ashley James, Garden Designer
Against the fence, an espaliered apple tree creates a blend of ornamental and edible landscaping. The vegetable patch lets the children interact with the garden, while the upper plantings of Rudbeckia, Gaura and Agastache attract pollinators.
The front garden
The rest of the landscape also received some much-needed love, with Ashley pulling up the front garden and replanting the area with romantic flora in an old-world style, such as David Austin roses.
“I replanted a lush romantic palette of pastel perennials and classic roses.”
Ashley James, Garden Designer
“I love the architecture of the house’s facade and the lovely, winding brick pathway. Unfortunately, overgrown shrubs had obscured these features,” says Ashley. “I cleared away most of the unruly shrubs and pruned the trees, allowing sunlight to flood back into the home.”
The red brick path at the front, which was originally built by the homeowner’s father, has new plantings edging it, such as the pink Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’.
The path leads past a picturesque swing seat, which is enveloped by the soft blooms of the banksia rose.
The couple and their young daughters couldn’t be happier with the result.
“The girls spend hours out there and there’s a beautiful tree that the parents can sit under on a bench and watch the girls play or, if the mum is in the kitchen, she can look down to the cubby house and watch the girls run around,” shares Ashley. “They absolutely love it.”
Garden design: Ashley James Gardens, ashleyjamesgardens.com, @ashley_james_gardens
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This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful and is republished here with permission.
