La Muxlow is an award winning landscape designer working on Wurundjeri country, in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs. She is a self-confessed plant nerd and passionate about thoughtfully balancing the character of the land, the identity of the architecture, and the lifestyles of people who live there. 

Whether designing a contemporary urban garden or informal country acerage, La’s gardens have a reputation as elegant and creative, with a focus on natural materials, low-maintenance but beautiful plantings, and intentional pattern and colour selection.

Select your package…

Knockdown-Rebuild Transformation Package

For Premium new-builds and extensions on blocks under 900m2 looking for a clear path forward out of the mud and into effortless outdoor living.

The Relaxing Retreat Package

For existing gardens under 900m2 looking for a complete transformation – from impractical eyesore to verdant escape.

The GreenWash Planting Design Package

For gardens under 900m2 with completed hardscaping and layouts, looking for low-maintenance high impact planting designs.

We love transforming larger gardens too.
Since they are so unique, these are quoted on a case-by-case basis.

Awarded first place at the Melbourne Flower Show 2024

‘Oasis’ was a creative experiment in reimagining what an arid garden scheme could look like in Melbourne’s suburbs.

3 easy steps to realising the full potential of your property…

STEP 1

Request a call

During your 15 minute chat with La we'll discuss your gardengoals and map out the process to get there.
START HERE

STEP 2

Book a site consultation with La

During your consult we'll discuss your properties unique opportunities as well as your brief. We’ll provide ideas that you can take away from the meeting as well as a clear path forward to creating your dream garden. We charge $275 for our onsite consultations.

STEP 3

Get your dream garden concept plans

We'll dive deep into your project to create beautiful, achievable garden plans that will give you a clear path forward to construction.

Frequently asked questions

We build gardens around Melbournes North-Eastern Suburbs covering:

Alphington, Arthurs Creek, Bulleen, Croydon North, Croydon Hills, Diamond Creek, Doncaster, Donvale, Eaglemont, Eltham, Greensborough, Heidelberg, Hurstbridge, Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe East, Kangaroo Ground, Lower Plenty, Lower Templestowe, Macleod, Montmorency, North Warrandyte, Nutfield, Park Orchards, Panton Hill, Plenty, Research, Rosanna, St Andrews, Templestowe, Viewbank, Warrandyte, Warranwood, Wattle Glen, Watsonia, Watsons Creek, Wonga Park, Yarrambat, Yarra Valley.

Please get in touch if your suburb is not listed here to discuss consultation options.

We see the project through the whole process of design, tendering, construction and then growth/maintenance.

We work with several trusted very experienced contractors and facilitate introductions during the tendering phase.

We do not manage construction for gardens we haven’t designed.

Concepts are usually delivered within 6-12 weeks depending on how busy the studio is.

Provided your garden doesn’t require council permits to achieve, the design, tendering and construction phases can take as little as 8-12 months to complete. Some gardens take many years to complete when they are built in stages.

Just imagine what your garden could look like, this time next year!

As soon as possible. For the best indoor outdoor flow, you need to consider the property as a whole or you will always be making compromises down the track.

Each block and brief is unique so speaking broadly, a landscaping budget of around 10-15% of the current property value  (not including swimming pools or spas) is recommended. Some of our clients spend more than this when they are creating their forever-garden or creating a landscape of significance for future generations.

A number of factors effect how much the landscaping with cost – the more hardscaping required (decks, patios, pergolas, retaining walls, paving, raised beds, paths, outdoor kitchens etc) the higher the landscaping budget will need to be, and naturally, the larger and more sloping the block, the more landscaping is generally required.

We work through your budget early on in the briefing process to ensure your gardegoals and budget are aligned.

  • Prices start at $4,800 for a suburban block.
  • Prices start at $8,500 for properties over 1000m2

Once we know your full brief and we’ve seen your property, we will create a fee proposal and select the right package for you.

As a ballpark allow 5-10% of your landscaping budget for design:

  • For budgets under 100K we recommend allowing 10% for design. Ie. If you’re planning on spending $80K on your landscaping allow for around $8K for design.
  • For budgets over 100K we recommend allowing 5-10% for design. Ie. if you’re planning on spending 200K on the landscaping, allow $10K + for the design process.

Yes! If you want to build the garden over time to save costs, having a solid plan can be invaluable in ensuring you don’t waste time and money along the way. 

We design differently for a DIY construction, selecting different materials and layouts, to make it easier to achieve the intended result.

Join me on instagram for  plant profiles, growing tips & design ideas

 Happy Clients

5/5
  • Nicole Johnstone
    La has been a pleasure to work with in creating a concept and design for our front and back yard areas. She is so knowledgeable and has amazing creative vision! My partner and I didn't know where to start with our garden and were slightly apprehensive to engage a designer as we thought it might be over the top for what we were looking for but after a friend recommended La we decided to give it a go and were not disappointed! La listened to what we wanted and was very comprehensive with site visits and making sure she was getting the design just right. Highly recommend reaching out to La and working with her.
    Nicole Johnstone
    Family Garden, Greensborough
  • Zoe Hodgson
    We are absolutely thrilled with the beautiful garden La has designed for us. La has been so collaborative, responsive and creative in how she got to understand our needs and then provided a design which surpassed our expectations. La listened to our requirements, provided plant options using her expertise of what would work best in our garden and was the perfect mix of creative and knowledgeable. We are excited to commence the construction of our garden and look forward to working with La to complete our dream garden! Thank you La!
    Zoe Hodgson
    Family Garden, Diamond Creek
  • Amy Stancombe
    Once our house build was completed we felt the sloping back garden was largely unusable. A friend who had her garden designed by La, reccomended I have a discussion with her. After speaking with 2 friends who worked with La on their own garden designs (with sloping blocks) we were keen to meet with her in person. She designed us a really usable and pretty garden on a tricky sloping block. I was pleased with the way she maximised space, privacy and light in the design whilst also including space for our children to play. The selection of plants was well considered taking into account asthetics, shade and sunlight. Great for a novice gardener like me! La has a friendly and consultative approach and her designs are just fabulous. I'm very glad I will be able to enjoy my garden after all!
    Amy Stancombe
    Family Garden, Diamond Creek
  • Ilona Tymms
    When we decided to tackle a redesign of our front yard, it was difficult to know where to start and how to maximise the space. We wanted it to be beautiful and capture all we love about out northern italian heritage. We were absolutely thrilled with the designs La has come up with for us. She is a delight to work with, professional and passionate about what she does. She listened to our ideas and carefully incorporated everything we asked for into the plans as well as creatively surprising us with so many new ideas. We are so looking forward to continuing to work with La in making her fabulous designs come to life! Thanks you!
    Ilona Tymms
    Country Garden, Panton Hill
  • Cherry and Sinan Demir
    La is a welcoming and lovely person to work with. Her passion and extensive knowledge of her craft was exciting and infectious. She created an oasis for our garden that managed to not only meet all of our requirements but exceed our expectations. La was empathetic to both my husband’s and my individual requests and she was able to integrate them seamlessly. We were so taken by La and trusted her implicitly with our landscaping, that once she finished her design concept, we couldn’t say good bye so we asked that she stay on!
    Cherry and Sinan Demir
    Acerage Landscape Design, Plenty
  • Jenine
    La has such vision when we asked her to design our garden. We had budget constraints and tricky drainage issues to deal with and La came up with cost effective and simple ideas to remedy, whilst addressing the feng shui principles of house and land. We definitely HIGHLY recommend La.
    Jenine
    Entertainers Garden, Warrandyte
  • Kelly Mcmaster
    La has honestly blown us away with her creativity for our very unique shaped and sloped block. We didn't think something so beautiful would be possible. She carefully considered and maximised every corner and somehow created multiple zones for us all to enjoy. She understood the brief and quickly got a feel for what we'd like and produced some pretty amazing ideas. We are so thrilled and cant wait to get started and watch it all grow and come together.
    Kelly Mcmaster
    Family Garden, Diamond Creek
  • Monica Karst
    I would totally recommend La. She designed my garden late last year and I was just amazed with her ideas, the way she explained it all, and all her beautiful drawings that helped me visualise the end result. The comprehensive, detailed plan drawings in particular really gave me the confidence to go ahead to start building. She helped me pick materials, work with really awkward spaces to make them useful, and to choose plants that were appropriate for young children with minimal maintenance (but still meeting the romantic style I was after). She even helped me choose outdoor furniture, fabrics and exterior colours to get that boho style I wanted. Thanks so much La, the garden is looking amazing already and I’m are so excited to watch it grow!
    Monica Karst
    Family home, Melbourne Inner Suburbs
  • Tracey Maneva
    If i could give this review 10 stars would. I have engaged the services of La Muxlow Gardens and I must say La has been absolutely amazing! She is approachable and very passionate of her craft. She has listened and provided a stunning plan for our front and back garden. Providing practicality with our vision of how we wanted the space used. Nothing is too much trouble and always out to see you with a smile on her face. Thank you so much La! I can't recommend you highly enough!
    Tracey Maneva
    Family Garden, Ivanhoe

As seen on: