Dream Gardens: Aug 6

ABC screens the season final of Dream Gardens this Friday.

In Morpeth, New South Wales, aspiring farmers Sarah-Jane and Luke are building a whole new life on the land, while host Michael McCoy visits Moving Water, a suburban garden on the Mornington Peninsula.

At the centre is Sarah-Jane’s dream of a sprawling country garden; sweeping corridors of native foliage that will meander across an expansive five acres. But with the couple’s funds already stretched across the construction of a new homestead and their bourgeoning bison herd, they will need to do most of the hard work themselves, from excavation to mass planting, despite possessing little horticultural knowledge.

Landscape designer Ryan McMahon is the man tasked with guiding Sarah-Jane and Luke in their first botanical foray. Ryan’s plans outline sweeping garden beds that will gently traverse the property, lending a sense of elegance and fluidity to what will essentially be a working farm, by softening the vast rural setting and enveloping the house.

Meanwhile, host Michael McCoy visits Moving Water, a suburban garden on the Mornington Peninsula born from a special collaboration between Aboriginal landscape consultant Charles Solomon and landscape architect Jim Fogarty.

The site showcases curving, repeating forms that tell a story about the land, while serving the space in a literal sense by guiding and collecting the rainwater runoff. Planted with culturally significant native botany that can tolerate both the soggy winter rains and arid summer conditions, Charlie and Jim’s cultural inspiration unite aesthetic and practical considerations.

This is something Sarah-Jane and Luke need to embrace themselves. Land is money on a farm so, the garden too will need to earn its keep; planted with natives like tea tree and finger lime, it will double as a bush tucker orchard the pair hope will one day turn a profit. But with all their grit, will the couple be able to contend with drought, flood, and their own inexperience, to see their dream for a beautiful, productive garden bear fruit?

8pm Friday on ABC.