Petal POWER

Life imitates art in this lush Melbourne cottage-style garden, owned by a leading film director with a passion for flowers.

- Chris Pearson

Flowers play a leading role in the life of film director Glendyn Ivin. His recently released TV miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is an ode to Australian natives in their myriad textures, shapes, and hues, as well as the healing power of plants. And the same could apply to this lush oasis in Melbourne's inner north, which he shares with his wife Natalie Poole and their two children, Ollie, 20, and Rosie, 16.

In a case of life imitating art, TV series and garden are intertwined while Glendyn was immersed in the former, Clea Cregan of Miniscape Projects was busy turning the couple's backyard into this fairytale hideaway. She had known the pair for 10 years, having met Glendyn when working in film production. Then, this north-facing garden was untamed, with unkempt grass and fruit trees and a trampoline and cubbyhouse for the children. But, when Glendyn and Natalie asked architects Rexroth Mannasmann Collective to add a smart extension to their home in 2020, the garden came under the spotlight too. And it needed to lift its game.

"By then, having a backyard for the kids to play in was no longer important," says Glendyn. "The garden needed to assume a new, more grown-up, role - a firepit and deck for entertaining, alongside both productive and ornamental plants," adds Clea.