Perfect BALANCE

A hidden garden on the Mornington Peninsula gently mediates between the established and the new, creating multiple spaces for family and friends to enjoy all year.

-  Yvette Caprioglio

The multi-faceted gardens of Ducks Crossing, a property on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, are composed of three areas: a formal parterre garden, a Japanese-inspired area with a ginkgo forest and cypress trees and a new perennial garden that surrounds the main home (see 'Homecoming' on page 80).

Camilla d'Antoine, husband Tim and their young family moved to the property, with its old weatherboard cottage, in 2016 and began a rebuild in 2020, finishing in 2022. The plan for the established garden was to consolidate and pare it back, bringing it into parity with the new design of the house. For Camilla, it was a nonnegotiable to keep all the existing well-established trees as well as the stunning stone walls. "They're the centrepiece of the property. We designed the new house around these trees and walls," she says. "You can't replace the effect of time in growing these incredible species."