Inside a special Linden Park garden
SALIFE meets a hardworking couple who have spent decades cultivating their eastern suburbs garden into its current glorious iteration, all while raising their seven children and having 19 grandkids.
If you look closely enough, a garden holds clues that can reveal the unique personal values and characteristics of its owners. Take this immaculately-maintained home garden at Linden Park where even the compost heap, chook shed and veggie patch are all meticulously tidy. It’s no surprise, given this is the home of a conscientious pair of gardeners – Helen and Bill Sanders – who aren’t afraid of a bit of hard work, even in retirement.
“The garden is tidy and that’s how we are too, I guess,” reflects Helen. “We are hard workers, but gardening is work that we enjoy doing. We’ll garden for a whole day and into the night. It’s such a peaceful, relaxing space – that’s what we like about it and that’s why we feel we can never move from here.”
Being well-organised has been key to both of their careers, Helen as a cardiac nurse and Bill as an accountant, but also for raising their family – seven children and 19 grandkids. The couple didn’t intend to have a big family, nor a big garden, but they ended up with both. And now, they both relish the reward that comes from a long day working in the garden.
“I find it very relaxing to be out in the garden, enjoying the peace and quiet. It’s good for the mind and good for the soul. It brings you back to square one,” says Helen.
“We do almost everything ourselves, but we do get help to prune the roses at that time of year. We have Jarrod Whitbread who does a great job for us, and we also get help from Fumio and Shinya Ueda, the Japanese gardeners.”
Inspired by English cottage gardens, Helen and Bill’s garden is perfect in spring when the roses bloom – there are about 150 of them. A 20-year-old weeping mulberry creates a point of interest, surrounded by a liquidambar, crepe myrtles and a maple. Garden paths wind through salvias, there’s a small orchard out the front and a wisteria wraps around the home.
Bill and Helen built their home at Linden Park soon after they were married 56 years ago.
“I was 19 when we married, and Bill was 22. We didn’t really have any dream about family or gardening back then. In the beginning, we had a back lawn and a shed. It was very plain,” recalls Helen.
“Our gardening has grown out of the love of plants and appreciation of other people’s gardens. We knew nothing about gardens in the beginning; we’ve learnt along the way. We do enjoy going to the open gardens and particularly seeing the gardens in a similar English cottage style to ours,” she says. “The garden has simply developed over the years. When something in the garden dies, we just replace it with something else and that’s how it’s evolved.”
The couple is grateful for some good luck with neighbours who have sold them land to extend their property, allowing them to expand their garden, and add a swimming pool, tennis court and garage.
The couple has always been motivated by family, says Bill.
“We’ve had our work, our family, and gardening has developed alongside it – it’s just evolved over 50-odd years. Even we’ve changed! Our kids have grown up with gardens, and now all seven of them have their own lovely gardens,” says Bill.
Gardening has also provided a welcome stimulus in retirement for the couple, who both enjoyed their work and found it difficult to give up their professions. “I finished school on a Friday, I started work on the Monday and I worked for 60 years. I enjoyed my work, and I found it hard to give it away,” says Bill.
Helen also misses her work as a cardiac nurse at Calvary Wakefield Hospital.
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“I was a mum for a lot of our married life, and then I studied nursing in my 50s,” she says.
One of the most unique focal points of the garden is a coral tree, but it comes with a warning, as the seeds are particularly poisonous, especially for children.
“The coral tree has bright red flowers that come out in big splays; they’re quite unique. It was here when we bought the block. It has treacherous barbs that must have a toxin in them because when one catches you, it really hurts,” says Helen.
One of the first trees the couple planted was a satsuma plum; now more than 50 years old. It was planted to provide plums for jam, which they still make, and although it’s not looking its best these days, it keeps fruiting well. Meanwhile, a healthy-looking veggie garden and chicken coop are nestled down the back between the tennis court and swimming pool.
The front yard features a rambling spring garden that welcomes visitors down a garden path to the front door. Over to the right-hand-side is a small orchard with a dwarf nectarine, peach, pear, apple, apricot, orange, lemon tree – and another plum – all planted by Bill and Helen. A pomegranate tree produces bucket-loads of produce which are then placed on the footpath for passers-by to help themselves.
“Apparently people do like the pomegranates because they all go. Some of our grandchildren love them because they’re fun to eat. It flowers prolifically and they’re quite pretty,” says Bill.
The garden will be open to the public for one weekend in October – the perfect time of year for the roses which follow hot on the heels of the wisteria blooms.
And while the couple enjoys sharing their love of gardening with the community, nothing beats kicking back at the end of the day with a cuppa and admiring their garden, which has been a half-century in the making.
“We’re not moving,” proclaims Bill with a laugh, “and we’ve decided that we’re staying here forever.”
This article first appeared in the August 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
