This garden in Glossodia was inspired by one of Sydney’s most beloved cafes

Inspired by visits with their granddaughters to the Grounds of Alexandria – a much-loved inner-city Sydney cafe and urban farm – the owners of acreage at Glossodia, on NSW’s Hawkesbury flood plain, set out to create garden grounds of their own.

The couple had been looking to overhaul a rectangular, fenced lawn at the rear of their home, which sat within a larger bushland block densely populated with eucalypts.

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In mind was a private garden that captured the cafe’s rustic charm; an enchanting rural patch the couple could potter about in and explore at their leisure, while enjoying views of the surrounding bush.

“The owners absolutely loved the popular Sydney cafe,” says landscape designer Mitch Kushturian, who runs Mosman’s Exotic Living with his carpenter brother Josh. “They wanted to recreate that same relaxed aesthetic in their own garden.”

More specifically, they were big believers in recycling materials that felt bucolic, oozed character and helped to tell a story. Quality was also important, which is perhaps why they reached out to the Kushturian brothers, who were awarded the Landscape Design Institute’s best emerging designer award last year.

“The owners loved that idea of the imperfect perfect,” Kushturian says. “And let me say, building something imperfectly is much harder than building something perfectly.”

Also on the couple’s wish list was an outdoor fireplace, glasshouse and potting shed – elements that would be familiar to visitors to the Grounds of Alexandria – as well as features that held personal memories, like a vegetable patch (with Pop’s tomatoes) and a fairy garden (a sectioned-off area filled with their favourite cut flowers).

Kushturian set about assembling a series of clearly defined garden rooms, ringed by custom fencing of hardwood pickets and copper plumbing pipe. Instead of neatly arranged open spaces, though, he opted for curved paths and narrow corridors to create mystique and surprise as you walk through the garden.

Stepping down from the property’s back verandah, a green tunnel of weeping lilly pillies leads to the heart of the garden: a raised circular planter, made from used bricks, with a gnarly 50-year-old olive tree, craned in by Exotic Living, sitting on a herringbone-patterned brick apron.

“I didn’t want too much formality, like manicured hedging, but rather plants with a soft foliage … that didn’t let you see too much of the garden,” Kushturian says.

The approach to the olive tree from the eucalypt forest at the bottom end of the garden is through a curved metal arbour covered with Boston ivy and bordered by native plants.

From this central point, winding granite and brick paths – aided by a rough-made signpost – spin off in different directions through native and succulent garden beds. These include westringia, casuarina greenwave and Cousin It, kalanchoe copper spoons and creeping boobiala, a groundcover blurring the pathway edges.

One way leads to a large fireplace clad in shou sugi ban (Japanese-style charred timber), with a concrete plinth and wicker chairs on a raised brick platform. Overhead is a recycled-hardwood arbour softened by white-flowering hardenbergia.

Alongside is Rosie’s Garden, commemorating the owners’ dog: a pocket of lawn with a sandstone block on which to sit and remember.

This side, too, has a veggie garden (with Pop’s Tommys, as signposted) in raised planters crafted from old railway sleepers and rails for posts, sitting in front of a retaining wall planted with grevillea and spills of rosemary.

In the other direction is the Fairy Garden, a break from the native palette, with annuals and perennials, such as buddleia, echium and foxglove, in raised weathering-steel beds. Next to it is a bench fashioned from hardwood with live edge and cut-down wine barrels.

Further on is the glasshouse made by Josh: a light frame of recycled timber, held by rusted bolts, with charred timber skirting. “We’ve tried to emphasise the glass … to soften the structure’s height,” Kushturian explains.

The rustic, repurposed charm continues inside. A low wall made of recycled bricks hides wicking beds. The floor is made from the owners’ old bathroom tiles, while a chandelier hangs overhead.

“The owners love sitting in there in winter having cups of tea at the small table, just because it’s a nice warm space to sit within the garden,” he says.

The same plants, like westringias and banksia birthday candles, and planting pattern around the fireplace are repeated around the glasshouse, while a sandstone block birdbath creates a point of difference.

“Repeating the plants creates familiarity and a subconscious pattern and rhythm every time you enter a new space,” Kushturian says. “Even though there are so many different spaces, they are connected by the plants we use.”

The last stop is the potting shed, an open area primarily made from a never-used chest of drawers the owners had at a previous property, leftover pavers for the benchtop and hardwood offcuts from the fence.

“It was all cobbled together from leftover materials very much in keeping with the rustic, reused nature of the garden,” Kushturian says.