Spring Inspiration: Bring Your Garden Alive

What’s your at-home garden style? Low maintenance, eco-friendly, English and formal, balcony and indoor, edible and all-season, native and natural?

If the view from your window lacks a verdant, restful vibe, then a little investment in some green life is a perfect way to fill your days with the wellness-promoting qualities of gardens and gardening.

Once you’ve got green in your veins, the quest for your next plant friend will take you all over the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, discovering plant-loving secrets and new besties.

Spring is the perfect time to floral up your life, and what you do today will bring you garden loveliness for months.

Take some inspiration from the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges most delightful gardens. Wander the pathways of inspiration, learn ‘green’ secrets, and create your perfect garden plan to see your dream garden realised.

Chelsea Australian Garden at Olinda

If you want serious inspiration, start here.

Located within the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden, the Chelsea Australian Garden at Olinda is a permanent display, featuring an enormous Waratah sculpture, waterfall and billabong. Over 15,000 plants have been used in the design, with over 400 different Australian species.

Wander around the sealed paths and discover an amazing variety of building materials, plant shapes and beautiful vistas. Sit and listen to the frogs and birds. Discover the interpretive signs and read more about this enormous project. If you have time bring a picnic and enjoy the spacious lawn next to the stunning Boab trees.

Built on an unused grassed area of the former Olinda Golf Course, this feature enhances the environment by introducing additional rare and endangered plant species and providing more native habitats for plants and animals. The garden also provides a fantastic opportunity for locals and tourists to connect with Australian nature and learn about native plants and sustainable landscape design.

Alowyn Gardens

The purpose of the gardens at Alowyn Gardens is to provide an informative and educational experience for anyone interested not only in gardening but also the enjoyment of a beautiful garden. It has been designed with shade and comfort in mind. Plant names are on view to educate and inform visitors about the gardens.

There are seven clearly defined areas within the gardens, a perennial border, a silver birch forest, an edible garden of generous proportions, a parterre garden and a number of display gardens.

SkyHigh Mt Dandenong

At SkyHigh Mount Dandenong, amid cool fern glades and lush towering native forest, the views from the lookout are pretty special, from the Mornington Peninsula across Port Phillip Bay, surrounded by Melbourne's growing urban fringes, to the You Yangs on the southern horizon.

There's something for the whole family including an English garden, Australiana Tree, Percy Possums House, Giant's Chair and a hedged Maze for you and the kids to get lost in. There are nearby trail walks in the Dandenong Ranges, National Park, Wishing Tree and the Arthur Streaton Monument.

Cloudehill Gardens and Nursery

Cloudehill Gardens is a garden at the top of the Dandenongs in Olinda, and is internationally famous for garden rooms overflowing with flowers and magnificent artwork all year round.

Some 25 garden compartments are divided by stone walls and hedges. They include peony gardens, a spring shrub walk, bluebell woodlands, extensive bulb meadows, and a ‘green theatre’ which hosts the Summer Twilight concert series.

The Diggers Club operates Cloudehill’s nursery and garden shop, stocking heirloom seeds and mature trees, as well as many of the plants to be found in the gardens. Seasons Restaurant provides a unique dining experience using fresh local produce.

Karwarra Australian Native Botanical Garden and Nursery
A well-stocked plant nursery of Australian plants and staff who can assist you with selecting the perfect companions for your home garden.

Kuranga Native Nursery
For Australia’s most extensive range of native plants and an inspirational range of unusual and eye-catching sculptures and garden ornaments – gardens can be more than plants.