Lisa Stafford Design.
Elegantly Conceived Spaces.

For over four decades, Lisa Stafford has crafted gardens that invite joy, contemplation and connection. Her philosophy is simple: gardens should delight the senses, reflect their surroundings, and be shared with others. From sweeping rural landscapes to intimate city courtyards, each design is thoughtfully developed to suit the site, the client and the way they want to live. Lisa’s process is collaborative and grounded in both horticultural expertise and a deep respect for nature. With a base in Victoria’s Otway Ranges, her work spans across southern Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne – each garden an individual expression of place, purpose and personality.

Discover a garden that’s uniquely yours.

COUNTRY

CITY

COAST

STORIES

BIRCH WOODLAND WALK


Just over 10 years ago, this Birch woodland was planted on a bare sloping 0.5acre block below the newly constructed home in Daylesford. It has gone on to flourish in the deep and rich, spring fed volcanic soil to provide a leafy and private outlook from the home above and an engaging and restorative destination from the upper levels. 

Pebble paths and rustic steps weave down from the wooden deck to the lower levels passing through carpets of winter hellebores, euphorbia and spring flowering bluebells, interspersed at various points with old fashioned, romantic garden shrubs such as purple smoke bush, mock oranges, camellias and snowball bush. It is a very seasonal garden which, by design, is easy to maintain. Winter witnesses the ghostly white of the birch copse knitted at its base by a dark green carpet of foliage. From above, this view is loved even as the weather closes in with fog, rain and occasional dustings of snow. A vast range of Hellebores in different petal shades bloom tall and heavy. Spring witnesses a succession of delicate woodland flowers. While in Summer, the space returns to a cool, quieter, shady glade.

A sense of getting lost in this space is instilled by the inner winding and bisecting of paths, the lightness and transparency of an interwoven lacy canopy and the outer backbone of planting. This backbone is created through a full curtaining of Portuguese laurel and evergreen viburnums along boundaries which makes the garden appear larger than it is, even when the woodland lies in winter repose.

HEATHER’S GARDEN KITCHEN


An integral part of the garden at Hanging Rock is devoted to the cultivation of edible produce. Fresh fruits and vegetables are prized for what they contribute to meals and beverages while jams, jellies, chutneys, dried herbs, chilled teas and bottled fruits extend the life of harvests, filling the shelves of the pantry for later culinary selection.

My own pantry currently houses medlar jelly, rhubarb and raspberry jam and cumquat marmalade made by Heather. Swapping food is fun – I have arrived on occasions with blueberries and purple beans from our summer garden while she has sent me home with mild green chillies.

Here, the established orchard at the bottom of the garden provides apples pears quinces stone fruits and nuts over summer. Vegetables are densely grown in raised planter beds inside the bounds of a picket fence close to a refurbished potting and tool shed. Nearby, fruiting brambles are encouraged against walls, while immediately below, a formal citrus garden has been laid out to yield a range of fruits throughout the year including cumquats, lemons and lime.

The old goose shed was re-located to this hub. It has been extended for Heather’s egg-laying hens to be well accommodated close to the home, production and compost areas.