Explore The Untamed Charm Of This Tim Pilgrim Garden

When lawyer Ganga Narayanan first stood on the deck of her newly built Modscape home in Glenlyon, she was met with a breathtaking panorama – rolling hills, open fields and the distant curve of Victoria’s Mount Franklin. But while the interior of her home was a showcase of warmth and sustainable innovation, the exterior remained stark. “The view of the countryside from the house is beautiful,” says Ganga. “However, the house needed some outside spaces to relax in… It needed some complexity and layering.”

Tim Pilgrim garden in Victoria with naturalistic planting — Tall grasses border the fire pit. “The straw colour of grasses highlights the dark seed heads of Veronicastrum virginicum and Verbena bonariensis,” says Tim. *(Photography: Simon Griffiths)*

That’s when a chance Instagram scroll led her to landscape designer Tim Pilgrim. “A photographer I know posted photos of one of Tim’s gardens and I started following him – I really liked his style,” says Ganga. “I love the free-flowing, natural look of his gardens. While there is plenty of structure, you have the feeling that the garden is a bit wild and seamlessly blends into the surrounding landscape.”

From their first conversation, it was clear that this wouldn’t be a typical garden makeover. Ganga, who spends time at the house intermittently, needed a drought-tolerant landscape that would sit lightly in its environment while offering a sense of richness and refuge.

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With a few visual references and plenty of trust, she handed creative control to Tim. “I showed Tim some pictures from Pinterest, pointed out a couple of his past gardens I liked, and let him go from there,” she explains. “Most decisions were left to Tim.”

It was installed in the winter of 2021 – in what would turn out to be the wettest season recorded in the Central Highlands. So the garden’s journey began with mud and weeds. “It got off to a rocky start. We were planting into water, essentially,” recalls Tim. “It nearly drowned before it grew!” agrees Ganga.

Around 30 per cent of the plants were lost that year, while the weeds somehow thrived. “With so many garden beds, it was a lot of work to keep under control,” she says.

But the vision was strong: one of naturalistic grace, movement and seasonal beauty. “We picked some colours from the landscape and the shapes of surrounding tree lines, and brought that into the design using topiary forms and block plantings of herbaceous perennials,” says Tim. “We tried to aim for three flowering or focal points at any time through the year, and we celebrate dry seed heads, autumn colour and decaying textures into winter. It’s about working with the wind and the light, letting things move and glow.”

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Central to the scheme are ornamental grasses – chosen not just for their drought hardiness but for their movement and visual poetry. “I love the wild grasses in front of the deck,” shares Ganga. “They sway back and forth with the wind and give you the feeling that the garden is truly alive.”

“We used the rural outlook as inspiration for the naturalistic, grass-dominated plantings”
Tim Pilgrim, landscape designer

Nestled on a dead-end road and surrounded by paddocks, the home once stood isolated. Now, with the garden embracing borrowed views and echoing the forms of the broader landscape, it feels anchored – like it has always belonged. “You get these amazing sunrises and a beautiful play of light in the evenings,” says Tim. “The view of Mount Franklin from the main deck is just unbeatable… When you have a long view like that, you want to treat the site well.”

“I try to reuse and repurpose what’s on site instead of bringing anything new in.”
Tim Pilgrim, landscape designer

Fittingly, the property is called Omaroo – an Indigenous word meaning ‘beautiful view’. And as Ganga now spends more time outdoors, sitting by the fire pit or watching the wind ripple through the grasses, it’s clear that the name couldn’t be more apt. “It’s continuing to develop and mature, and it’s constantly changing,” she says. “I absolutely love it.”

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“When you have a view like that, you want to enhance it, not take away from it.”
Tim Pilgrim, landscape designer

Source Book

Landscape design and construction Tim Pilgrim Gardens, tpgardens.com.au

Writer Rebecca Hooton Features Writer

Rebecca has 17 years of experience in the magazine industry. She worked as an intern at Cleo while completing a Bachelor of Communication at Western Sydney University. Following that, she was employed in writing and copy editing roles at titles such as Dolly, before becoming the features editor at Cosmopolitan Australia. She’s since had features in publications such as ELLE Australia and is currently a features writer across Home Beautiful, Country Style and Inside Out. You’ll most likely find her manifesting a cottage in the Cotswolds or watching Bluey (with or without her kids).

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