Gardening Australia John Patrick, Bickleigh Vale, 6th September 2008

Edna Walling was Australia's greatest garden designer between the 1920s and the late 1950s.

Edna Walling studied horticulture at Burnley Horticultural College during the years of the Great War.

Although Edna Walling focused on Victoria, designing many gardens for example in Melbourne, the Western District, the Macedon Ranges, and the Dandenong Ranges, she actually designed gardens over the greater part of Australia.

Edna Walling's greatest achievement is the wonderful collection of houses and gardens at Bickley Vale, east of Melbourne, where she not only designed the gardens but the houses too.

Edna Walling believed that the garden should be viewed from every window in the house, effectively bringing the garden inside.

Edna Walling used basically English cottage plantings such as hellebores, azaleas, Daphne's, Berberis's, viburnums, and trees like oaks and beech for good autumn color, with birches added for the qualities of their trunks.

The community at Bickley Vale is unique because it follows Edna Walling's hopes for a close community of like-minded people. The residents have enduring respect for Edna's gardening principles, support each other, and there are no solid barriers between the blocks, fostering a sense of connectedness.