I’m Writing a Book – And I Want You to Come on the Journey With Me

For years, people have asked me: When are you going to write a book?

The truth is, I always knew I would – but I also knew it had to be at the right time, for the right reasons, and with the right people. That time is now.

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve signed a publishing deal with Murdoch Books, working with the brilliant Jane Willson, to bring this book to life. It’s a project that draws on everything I’ve learned—from my years in landscape architecture, to creating Oak & Monkey Puzzle, to embracing the deeply personal and intentional life I now live at Little Cottage On A Hill.

It will be a book about gardens, but not just any gardens. It will explore the intersection of beauty and abundance, of design and productivity. It’s a culmination of my expertise as a landscape architect and lifelong gardener, bringing together the art and science of making a garden that works hard, nourishes deeply, and feels like an experience.

What Can You Expect?

I’ll be sharing glimpses behind the scenes—from the creative process to the unexpected challenges, the triumphs, the slow revelations, and the deeply personal moments that will shape the book. There will be conversations, reflections, and invitations to be part of this in ways I haven’t done before.

I have until August to write the book, and it will be released around September 2026 (books take time!). But this isn’t something I want to do in isolation—I want it to feel like something we’re creating together.

So, let’s begin. I’d love to hear from you—what would you want to see in a book from me? What are the questions you’d love answered? Share your thoughts in the comments, via email, or over on Instagram.

This is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to take you along for the ride.

As I step into writing this book, you might enjoy these stories—whether to get to know me better or to spark ideas on what you'd love to see in my writing:

Living Well Spotlight: My Bucket List – A glimpse into the experiences that shape how I live and create.
Connecting with Nature for Creative Self-Care – How the garden and landscape feed my creativity and sense of purpose.
Discover the Story Behind the Natasha Morgan Brand – The journey that brought me here and the values that guide my work.

Or, if you're looking for something more hands-on, you might love our newest e-book: Introduction to Backyard Chicken Keeping—a practical guide to starting your own flock.

And if you’d rather learn alongside me, you can explore my upcoming workshops here: https://www.natashamorgan.com.au/shop

I’d love to hear what resonates with you—let’s continue the conversation!

Natasha xx

For glimpses into workshops, daily life, and my thoughts from Little Cottage on a Hill, you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And if you’d like a more personal update, subscribe to my Newsletter for a monthly note on what’s growing, what’s inspiring me, and what’s next.

Click the links below to stay connected—I’d love to have you along for the journey.

The Verge Garden Story

When moving from Oak & Monkey Puzzle to Little Cottage on a Hill, I was looking for a small space that wouldn’t feel small—a place where I could synthesise the best of the lessons learned over my nine years at Oak & Monkey Puzzle. I considered properties on the edge of town and another near a gully, but when I found the little cottage diagonally opposite the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, I knew it was something special. With its deep volcanic soils and wide verges, it presented an incredible opportunity.

Council constraints became opportunities. The sloping embankment, rather than a challenge, was a chance to create an ornamental buffer to the street while also capturing runoff before it reached the lower planting areas. The guidelines encouraged thoughtful design—respecting setbacks, ensuring clear sightlines, and integrating plantings with essential services. What could have felt like restrictions became a framework for creativity.

Whilst I never created a drawing, everything was down ‘on the ground’. The process of creating the verge garden began with meticulous planning. I measured offsets to ensure compliance with council guidelines, first marking out areas with pegs and string before refining them with surveyor’s spray paint. Removing the grass was the first major task. Given my timeframe, I opted for an excavator to scalp the grass from the designated areas, but for those with more time, solarisation—covering the grass with a tarp or thick mulch for several months—is a viable, chemical-free alternative. I personally don’t support the use of herbicides in any form.

With the space cleared, the verge garden became a site for experimentation in three dimensions. Being on a corner block, the garden is split into two aspects: a west-facing section and a north-facing one, each with its own microclimate. This has allowed me to play with espaliered fruit trees, climbing frames, and cloched elements (I use Redpath cloches, which provide protection and extend the growing season). Repurposed materials have also featured heavily—leftover sections of Wattle & Wire fencing found new life in this space. The company has since retired, and the gardening world is poorer for it—someone needs to step in and revive those incredible products!

Edimentals—plants that are both edible and ornamental—play a starring role in the verge garden. From productive fruit trees to herbs that soften the edges and invite pollinators, the plant selection is a blend of beauty and function. This approach ensures that the garden remains not only productive but also a visually engaging part of the streetscape, fostering curiosity and interaction from passersby.

Hepburn Shire’s nature strip planting guidelines have been invaluable in shaping this project. They provide clarity on what can be planted without a permit and what requires council approval (including raised garden beds and small trees). For those considering their own verge garden in the shire, I highly recommend reviewing the full guidelines, which can be found on the Hepburn Shire Council website: hepburn.vic.gov.au/naturestrips.

The verge garden at Little Cottage on a Hill is more than just an extension of my home garden—it’s a public space, an experiment in design, and a statement about how small spaces can be both beautiful and abundant. It’s an invitation to rethink what a nature strip can be.

For anyone considering their own verge garden, my advice is to start small, embrace council constraints as design prompts, and think about how your space can contribute to the broader landscape. These gardens are a conversation with the community—places where people stop, admire, and, sometimes, even share in the harvest.

A verge garden is more than just plants—it’s a chance to bring beauty, productivity, and connection to your street. Start small, work with your space, and let it evolve. Whether it’s a handful of herbs or a tapestry of edimentals, every planting adds to the richness of the landscape.

Thinking of transforming your verge? I’d love to hear your plans—share them below!

If you’re new here, welcome! You might enjoy these stories:

Documenting Little Cottage on a Hill – A garden shaped by hand and heart.
Gardens, Growth, and Community – My journey in landscape and garden-making.
Garden Tour — A closer look at the spaces I’ve created.

Or, if you’d love to learn alongside me, explore my upcoming workshops here: https://www.natashamorgan.com.au/shop

I’d love to see you there!

Natasha xx

Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or visit my website for more insights into gardening, sustainable living, and the quiet magic of growing.

Designing for Expansiveness: Small Space Garden Strategies at Little Cottage on a Hill

When working with a small garden, every decision counts. Thoughtful design can transform even the most compact spaces into ones that feel generous, multifunctional, and deeply connected to the landscape beyond. At Little Cottage on a Hill, I’ve applied a series of design strategies to maximise space while ensuring a sense of expansiveness and flexibility. These approaches go beyond aesthetics; they create a garden that feels large, layered, and rich in possibility.

Here are some of the key design strategies I’ve employed to make the most of my small garden:

1. Reimagining the Driveway: A Hybrid Driveway-Courtyard

A driveway is typically a single-purpose space, but I love interrogating and reimagining utilitarian elements (remember my potato composting towers?) and spaces. And so, I saw an opportunity to make my driveway work harder. By widening the driveway slightly and gravelling the entire area, I transformed it into something far more dynamic—a courtyard or forecourt that can function as both a practical circulation space and a social hub.

Now this space seamlessly transitions from its everyday function to hosting a long communal table or a fire pit, making it an extension of the garden rather than a leftover or in-between space. The choice of gravel as a surface material contributes to this sense of adaptability—it provides a structured yet informal quality, making it feel like a garden in its own right rather than merely a thoroughfare.

2. A Visually Permeable Fence: Borrowing the Landscape Beyond

Fencing can make a small space feel even more confined, but by choosing a visually permeable material, I’ve allowed the eye to travel beyond my garden’s boundary. This strategy creates a borrowed vista, extending my narrow front yard into the verge garden and further still to the rolling hills beyond. The result is a garden that feels far larger than its actual footprint.

A permeable fence also changes how light filters through, creating shifting patterns of light and shadow throughout the day—adding another dimension to the space. I chose to use Wattle and Wire for this purpose (unfortunately now recently closed after its owner’s retired! Someone please take this on as a new business idea as it’s left and huge gap in the garden design materials market!), a fencing style that blends beautifully with the landscape while providing visual openness. The delicate interplay between the woven wire and machined timbers creates a soft and organic effect, yet crisp and designerly, subtly defining the space without enclosing it. This method of fencing not only enhances the aesthetic of the garden but also supports biodiversity, offering a framework for climbing plants and a habitat for small wildlife.

3. Gravel to the Edges: Blurring Boundaries

Instead of a traditional garden bed layout, I removed the existing long boundary garden bed and extended the gravel right to the edges of the driveway space and planted clipped buxus balls and fastigiated Malus trilobata (Lebanese Crabapples - more on that below) directly into the gravel. This subtle shift in approach does two things: it visually leads the eye further, making the space feel broader, and it introduces a strong structural rhythm.

The clipped buxus balls act almost as sculptural elements—holding the space, adding year-round interest, and reinforcing the sense of considered design. The fastigiate Malus trilobata (Lebanese Crabapples) trees create verticality without adding bulk, a crucial component in small-space gardening.

4. The Power of Fastigiate Trees and a Lifted Canopy

Fastigiate trees—those with a naturally narrow, upright growth habit—are invaluable in small gardens. They provide height without sprawling, allowing them to be planted closer to boundaries without overwhelming the space. In the driveway-courtyard space, I specifically chose the fastigiate Malus trilobata (Lebanese Crabapples) for their strong verticality, drawing the eye upwards and reinforcing a sense of expansiveness.

By lifting their canopy—the uppermost layer of branches and foliage—I’ve created clear definition between the ground plane, understorey, and tree canopy. This separation not only ensures that each planting layer has its own presence but also allows more light to filter through, reducing the sense of enclosure often felt in small gardens. The canopy also plays a crucial functional role; its elevated branches provide shade while maintaining openness at the lower levels, making the space feel more generous and accessible.

This separation gives each layer of planting its own presence, reinforcing a sense of clarity and structure. It also makes the space more functional—car doors can be opened without interference, and there’s a feeling of openness rather than crowding. The fastigiate form also allows these trees to be placed closer to the fence line without encroaching into the usable space, maximising both beauty and practicality.

5. Black Fences and Green Walls: The Art of Disappearance

One of the most effective tricks in small-space design is painting fences black. Dark tones recede visually, allowing fences to ‘disappear’ rather than enclose the space. A boring raw timber paling fence can instantly be sharpened up and brought into the design language of the garden simply by painting it black (or any other very dark colour—though my preference is always for black). This transforms what could be an uninspired backdrop into a considered and elegant design feature that frames the garden rather than competing with it.

To amplify this effect, I clad my black-painted fences in reinforcing mesh (reo), using it as a trellis for Parthenocissus henryana* and Clematis to climb. The result is a living green wall that softens the boundaries of the garden and creates a lush vertical element. In small gardens, using vertical space is essential—climbers, espaliers, and green walls all help to add richness and depth without sacrificing footprint.

* Parthenocissus henryana (Chinese Virginia creeper) is a deciduous climber known for its attractive foliage, which features silvery veins on deep green leaves that turn brilliant red in autumn. It is well-suited for creating green walls and is an excellent choice for training on fences, trellises, or walls.

These strategies are just the beginning. Designing for small spaces is about making every element work harder—creating not just beauty, but flexibility, depth, and a sense of generosity in even the most compact of gardens. By implementing these techniques, I’ve transformed Little Cottage on a Hill into a space that feels far larger than its 515 square metres suggest, and I hope they inspire you to do the same in your own garden.

Thanks for following along on this journey. If you’d like to dive deeper into small-space garden design, join me for an upcoming workshop or explore my online resources.

Natasha xx

Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or visit my website for more insights into gardening, sustainable living, and the quiet magic of growing.