BEAUTIFUL GARDENS

IDEAS AND INSPIRATION FOR STYLISH OUTDOOR LIVING

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Garden designer Ashley James has created a romantic plot that looks plucked from the pages of a Beatrix Potter story Seeds of joy What began as a “little Covid project” for Ashley James (pictured, opposite) soon blossomed into a vibrant plot at his home in Victoria. His garden features a sunflower plantation, a potager section (pronounced poe-ta-jay) – a French term meaning ‘small kitchen garden’ – and a lush mix of blooms (this page), which is also available as a ‘Gardener’s Meadow Seed Mix’ from Meadow Flowers. > Ashley James had barely settled into his former childhood 1860s weatherboard cottage in Victoria's Yarra Valley when the world hit pause. The 2020 Covid lockdowns arrived just as he, his wife Bianca - pregnant with their third child - and their two young children were beginning their new chapter. Fortunately, they found themselves surrounded by rolling green hills - a landscape that softened the isolation.

His garden design and construction business, however, wasn't so lucky. “We were shut down for three months. I wasn't able to work,” recalls Ashley. “It was horrible, business-wise - it knocked my company for six - but I have three children and it was the first time I actually had time to spend at home with a newborn, which was really nice.”

Another silver lining? The chance for Ashley to design and bring his dream garden to life. “The original gardens around the house that Dad had done were due for an upgrade. I ended up pulling everything out and replacing it,” he explains.

Becoming more self-sufficient was also a priority, so Ashley opted for a potager garden. “That's a fancy French way of saying kitchen garden,” he tells us. “It was hard to buy fresh produce, and you never knew what was going to happen in the supermarkets, so we started growing our own.”