With Nature charts Fiona Brockhoff's distinctive approach to Australian garden design — native plants clipped like topiary, muted palettes of grey, silver and olive, and landscapes that survive on rainfall alone, documented across properties never before published.
About This Book
Australian garden design has long wrestled with the tension between exotic aspiration and ecological reality. Brockhoff resolves that tension through a practice built on climatically appropriate planting, naturalistic structure, and a deliberate rejection of flower colour as the primary compositional tool. With Nature documents her gardens across inner-city, coastal, and rural sites, pairing lavish photography with practical design guidance on sustainable landscaping and holistic garden-making. The result is less a showcase than a working argument: that restraint in palette and fidelity to place produce spaces of lasting distinction. Essential reading for landscape architects, garden designers, and anyone serious about the relationship between Australian horticulture and contemporary design.
Key Features
- 288 pages of location photography across inner-city, coastal, and rural Australian gardens, accompanied by design guidance and planting tips
- Author: Fiona Brockhoff
- Published by Hardie Grant Books, 2022
What You'll Discover
- How shape and form — rather than seasonal flower colour — can structure a garden with year-round spatial coherence
- Brockhoff's technique of clipping native plants as topiary, blending indigenous species with exotics suited to local climate conditions
- Design strategies for low-maintenance, rain-dependent gardens across a range of Australian contexts, from small urban plots to expansive rural properties
- How productive elements — vegetable gardens, chicken runs — can be integrated into naturalistic garden compositions without compositional compromise
About the Author
Fiona Brockhoff is among Australia's most recognised practitioners of environmentally sustainable garden design. Her work is distinguished by an adventurous use of native and climatically suited exotic plants, a preference for muted tonal palettes, and a commitment to gardens that demand minimal intervention once established.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 288
- Dimensions: 285 x 230 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781743796856
- Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
- Publication Date: 2022
Perfect For: Landscape architects, garden designers, and design-minded gardeners with an interest in sustainable, naturalistic planting in the Australian context.