This native garden located on the lower Adelaide foothills transforms a formal lawn and rose garden to a celebration of an emerging style of Australian garden design – one that celebrates the art of gardening and which has at its core a deep appreciation of space, Australian native plants, locally-won materials, and the re-introduction of the vegetable patch and home food production into the everyday workings of a garden. This is a people’s garden enjoyed by children and grandparents, immeasurably more important than the house that sits within the garden – a place of discovery, education, experimentation and food production. A place to get hands dirty, play in, socialise, just enjoy. The antithesis to other garden styles that are visual, contrived and ‘artistic’: compositions that are wonderful to look at but not necessarily to be experienced, to get dirty in and to truly enjoy. This garden is organised around terraces that make usable a sloping site that falls 8 metres from top to bottom. Transitions are achieved via corten steel steps that lead and direct. Level spaces are made usable with natural stone setts, timber boardwalks and decks, and sawdust. These spaces are extracted from planted beds which, in turn, enclose and define spaces.