Story: Margaret River Secret Garden
Episode: 1
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Air Date: 3rd December 2022
Original Air Date: 3rd March 2018

We are lucky to film in some very beautiful gardens as we travel the country filming the garden gurus. This time, we are visiting WA’s southwest corner this week to show off the Margaret River Secret Garden.

• Designed by leading landscape architect Paul Bangay, the garden is beautifully balanced between natural harmony and old-world garden elegance.
• Set in the heart of a pristine peppermint tree forest alongside the Wilyabrup Brook, the garden features: wisteria-draped walkways, flowering gardens, sweeping lawns, tranquil ponds, and a waterfall.
• The plant selection here is varied and vast. Plants such as the wisteria and weeping cherry light this place up in spring and during the summer the garden is protected by stunning deciduous trees.
• Deciduous trees are a great choice around properties in fire prone areas as their leaves are full of moisture. When fire comes near deciduous trees they tend to steam, and this moistens the fire ground reducing the momentum of a blaze.
• The gardens layout uses the space cleverly, creating avenues and providing different vistas, there’re garden areas defined by clever planting of hedges and trees.
• Margaret River is well known for its stunning wineries producing world famous chardonnay and Cabernets and much of this is due to 2 things:
• a hot dry summer climate
• an underlying limestone base keeping the soil sweet.
• These soils are the key to healthy happy plants, and this is in many ways the reason the garden looks so lush and the plants so happy.