Australian Dreamscapes maps a quiet but significant shift in how Australians are designing gardens — away from imposed formality and towards planting that answers the logic of its own landscape, from coastal green to semi-arid inland.
About This Book
Photographer and author Claire Takacs profiles 16 Australian gardens whose makers have drawn on the naturalistic planting philosophies of the New Perennial and Prairie-style movements, adapting them to distinctly Australian conditions and ecologies. Each garden resists the generic: the selections range across climate zones and design sensibilities, united by a commitment to textural planting, ecological sensitivity, and a strong sense of place. The accompanying essays, written by the garden owners and designers themselves, bring an intimacy and authority to the narrative — these are accounts of struggle, revision, and reward, not simply aesthetic showcases. For practitioners and enthusiasts interested in contemporary landscape design and planting design in Australia, this is a rare document of a movement taking root.
Key Features
- 288 pages of large-format photography and first-person essays on garden creation
- Photography and text by Claire Takacs
- 16 Australian gardens profiled across 15 chapters, with essays by the garden owners and designers
- Published by Hardie Grant Books
What You'll Discover
- How Australian garden designers are interpreting the international naturalistic planting movement within local climatic and ecological contexts
- The design thinking behind gardens that range from lush green oases to semi-arid settings, each responding to its surrounding landscape
- First-hand accounts from garden owners and designers on the realities of creating and maintaining highly textural, place-specific gardens
- How the New Perennial and Prairie-style philosophies — rooted in observing how plants grow in the wild — translate into visually compelling, ecologically considered design outcomes
About the Author
Claire Takacs is the photographer and author behind Australian Dreamscapes, bringing both a visual and editorial intelligence to the subject. Her work centres on garden photography and the documentation of contemporary planting design across Australia and internationally.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 288
- Dimensions: 290 x 220 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781743794708
- Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Landscape architects, garden designers, horticulturalists, and design enthusiasts interested in naturalistic planting, Australian landscape design, and the New Perennial movement.