Open Gardens Victoria marks the launch of its 2025 Spring Season with a weekend double feature in the leafy eastern suburb of Surrey Hills, showcasing two exceptional gardens. Ngamudji and Creekside are located just a short stroll apart, each brimming with native plantings, sustainability features, and a deep connection to place.

Ngamudji is designed and built by award-winning landscape designer Phillip Johnson and planted out by owner David Lightfoot. With its landscaped meandering creek, wildlife-attracting plantings and a rooftop garden featuring over 100 low-growing, sun-loving native species, Ndamudji is a striking native garden wrapped around a sustainably designed home.

The garden emphasises sustainable design principles and water conservation. Highlights include a cascading waterfall feeding into a pond (home to native fish and Eastern Banjo frogs), pollinator and bird-friendly planting, a central copse of Callistemon, a propagation shade house, and an integrated rainwater-fed dripper system, all demonstrating how beauty and function can flourish together.

The name, Ngamudj, is a Woiwurrung word of the Wurundjeri people, meaning ‘bright colours at sunset’, a fitting tribute to the garden’s vivid plant palette.

The rooftop garden will be open to visitors at intervals throughout the weekend.