Sowing The Seed

Even when he’s off duty, Charlie Albone takes time out to smell – and deadhead – the roses. The Selling Houses Australia horticulture guru takes Tiffany Dunk on a tour of his prized family garden.

- Tiffany Dunk

The importance of curb appeal is an oft discussed topic on Selling Houses Australia, the Lifestyle program which shot a then unknown landscape designer, Charlie Albone, to fame 11 years ago.

So as we pull into the winding driveway of the Foxtel host’s home-away-from-home in Ourimbah on the NSW Central Coast, it’s shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the man himself with a leaf blower in hand, having just finished trimming the hedges ahead of The Weekly’s visit.

“Charlie comes up here and all he wants to do is go out in the garden which I find amazing because it’s what he does for work,” laughs his wife of eight years, Juliet Love. “But he decompresses out there and loves it. There is nothing I can do to get him inside. I do love the garden but I prefer to sit out there and have a glass of wine.”

“Juliet is always telling me, ‘Why don’t you get someone in to mow the lawns or help you out,’” Charlie, 37, shrugs in agreement. “But I enjoy it. What I love about gardening so much, I think, is the aspect of seeing something grow and nurturing it. We live such a fast-paced lifestyle where people expect stuff to happen so quickly. But if you can spend a bit of time nurturing and caring for things, it’s ultimately more rewarding.”

The expanse of the garden was a huge reason the Albones bought this three-bedroom home, set on an acre of land, originally intending it to be their permanent base. At the time, Juliet was pregnant with their first child Leo, now five (second son Hartford, three, arrived two years later) and, “We were looking for a place to nest, I guess,” she says of their decision to move away from the hustle and bustle of their work base in Sydney.