Open Gardens Victoria

Last weekend Open Gardens Victoria welcomed Spring and the people of Victoria to its first event at Musk Cottage on the Mornington Peninsula. Rick Eckersley and his design team from Eckersley Garden Architecture have designed and developed one of Australia’s most outstanding gardens, a true expression of modern living in a rural landscape setting.

Visitors stretched on the lawns, wandered through the maze, were amused and engaged by the sculptural elements and looked with wonder at the creative blends of plants. A key theme in the garden is not only the sustainability of the plant material but also the play between contrast form and texture.

A disciplined approach to design is taken at Musk Cottage with merging modern green rooms offering a seam-less transition from one garden zone to another. The build environment is contemporary agricultural and sits proud, expressing a seamless character between internal and external spaces. Living at Musk Cottage would be an very easy undertaking. Visitors certainly had a taste of this comfort over the two open days with beautiful sunshine and the still air offering a lazy opportunity to linger on the lawns and enjoy a glass of local wine in the sun.

The plant selection at Musk is considered and designed to tolerate tough conditions. Indigenous plantings are interspersed with robust farm species and tough but carefully selected exotics. This eclectic mix offers a quality to the Musk Cottage landscape that entranced the many visitors. Plants were on offer from some of Rick’s favourite nursery suppliers and people left the event with new ideas and a project for the coming weekend. A little piece of Musk Cottage has been lingering in the imagination of many of the visitors over the past week.

Open Gardens Victoria is excited to be heading into Spring with a diverse range of gardens learn more www.opengardensvictoria.org.au