Tropic WONDER

AFTER BEING LEFT LARGELY UNTOUCHED FOR YEARS, THIS EXPANSIVE SYDNEY GARDEN WAS RESTORED TO ITS FORMER JUNGLE GLORY

- KAREN SPRESSER

Brimming with mature trees and plants, this beautiful old garden in Sydney's east had been left to its own devices for many years before garden designer Barbara Landsberg was asked to "reinvigorate" it. "It was like a sleeping beauty," says Barbara of the garden. "It had stood still in time essentially."

The brief was to renovate the pool area and surrounds plus create better access to the garden above, which had become overgrown. But the refresh didn't necessarily involve making drastic changes. "That was something that was quite important, that we retained its character because it's an enormous garden and we were working in one half of it," says Barbara. "The other half was going to almost, more or less, remain the jungle it is because the pathways through it were still in passable condition that was possibly going to be another stage of work - and it was full of very large, lovely old trees."