The design for Gumnut Garden is organised around paved desire lines and entries, decks and outdoor rooms that make usable a small suburban site. These lines organise the garden, defining and protecting the vegetation and spatially enclosing outdoor spaces. A new pavilion was constructed, not as an extension to the main cottage, but on the allotment’s rear boundary, creating the garden in between. The former garden, a conventional suburban yard complete with classic Aussie lawn and Hills Hoist, offered little biodiversity or character – ripe for reinvention. The garden extends living spaces outdoors, creating a conversation between architecture and nature year-round. Carefully selected native plantings have thrived, creating a lush, biodiverse backyard haven for birds and insects. True to its name, the garden’s eucalyptus now produces a wide variety of gumnuts.