GARDEN DESIGN · TEMPLESTOWE 3106
Garden design for Templestowe's big blocks.
A local garden designer, based in Melbourne's east. When you call, you get me: Bruce, with thirty years of design instinct behind every drawing.
Templestowe gives you something most of Melbourne doesn't: room. The blocks are generous, a lot of them back onto green space or fall away toward the Yarra, and the gardens have had decades to establish. The flip side is that a big garden is easy to let drift: plenty of lawn, plenty of trees, no real plan holding it together. I design Templestowe gardens that use the space properly.
Get a free quote
Tell me about your garden and I'll be in touch.
Local knowledge
Templestowe's clay soils, slopes, established canopy and the way each house meets its garden.
Climate-suited planting
Hardy, considered species matched to Melbourne's east and your block's microclimate.
Buildable plans
Drawings a local landscaper can price and build without guesswork, with me close by.
TEMPLESTOWE · ON THE GROUND
A big Templestowe garden is an opportunity, not a chore.
The scale here is the whole point.
On a quarter-acre-plus block you've got room for zones a smaller garden can't carry: a proper entertaining terrace, a kids' run of lawn, a screened working corner, established trees worth designing around rather than removing.
The land tends to roll.
Especially toward the river end and Westerfolds. A fall across the block is where a lot of Templestowe gardens lose their way: a soggy low corner, lawn that's awkward to use. Designed properly, that level change becomes terraces, steps and a reason for the garden to have structure.
The established planting is usually worth keeping.
Many Templestowe gardens have mature trees and good bones under the overgrowth. The design job here is more often editing and resolving than starting again: keeping what's taken thirty years to grow and giving it a frame.
The view out of the house should drive the plan.
On a block this size it's tempting to design the garden from the garden. The better test is what you see through the kitchen and living room windows, because that's the view you get every day.
HOW IT RUNS
How a design project runs.
01
Consult
I walk the block together, talk through how you want to use the space, and set the brief. On-site, no charge, no obligation.
02
Landscape drawings
Concept plans, working drawings, mood boards and a plant schedule chosen for your soil and aspect. Enough that any landscaper can price and build from them without guessing.
03
Project management
I brief the trades, compare quotes and oversee the build, so the garden that gets built is the one that was drawn.
04
Post-care
Design-minded care to keep the finished garden the way it was meant to look, on whatever rhythm suits.
THE WORK BEHIND THE DESIGN
Drawn in the detail you'll build from.
Every garden I design is documented like a working project, not a sketch: scaled plans, elevation drawings, mood boards and full plant schedules. The same standard you see in my drawings goes into your garden, so you and every trade know exactly what is being built.
01 · Scaled working plan: every bed, path, level and material set out at 1:100.
02 · Elevation drawings: see the key areas at eye level before anything is built.
03 · Mood board: materials, finishes and planting references for every element.
04 · Full plant schedule: botanical names, sizes and quantities, ready to source.
Get a QuoteWHY DESIGN FIRST
Why design before you plant.
It's tempting to start with a trip to the nursery. The trouble is a garden isn't a collection of plants: it's a set of spaces that connect to the house and to each other. Get the structure right first, levels, sightlines, where you sit, what you screen, and the planting becomes the easy part. Skip it, and you spend years (and a fair bit of money) moving things that were never going to work where they went.
On a Templestowe block, getting the structure right early also means getting the drainage and the slope right early, which is far cheaper than fixing it after the fact.
WHO DRAWS YOUR GARDEN
Thirty years a designer. Now a gardener too.
After three decades in graphic design and advertising, Bruce Williams took the Postgraduate Certificate of Garden Design, finishing with Distinction, and turned a designer's eye on the backyard. The instincts carry over: composition, restraint, and making something that genuinely works for the people using it. His gardens lean on native and drought-tolerant planting, recycled materials where they earn their place, and water used carefully.
30+
Years designing
Dist.
Aust. Academy of Garden Design
East
Melbourne & surrounds
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Garden design in Templestowe, answered.
Ready to start your Templestowe garden?
Get a QuoteTell me about your garden.
I'll take a look, give you honest advice, and a fair quote. No pressure either way.
Get a QuoteGet in touch
bcwlandscapedesign@gmail.comGarden care in