The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Parkland-Style Acreage Garden
Have you ever walked through a beautiful park and wished your acreage property could feel just as open, peaceful, and inviting? A parkland-style acreage garden design can turn your acreage into a stunning, natural retreat for your family.
This style blends large trees, open lawns, beautiful gardens and winding paths to create a landscape that feels grand yet effortless. This guide will help you design a breathtaking parkland-style acreage garden which can be scaled-up to suit any size property.
We’ll cover:
What a parkland-style acreage garden is and why it’s perfect for acreage properties in Australia
Step-by-step design tips for open spaces, trees and pathways
The best native trees for parkland landscapes in South-East Queensland
Extra ideas to take your acreage gardens to the next level
Let’s get started!
What is a Parkland-Style Acreage Garden?
Think local botanical garden or aboretum. A parkland-style acreage garden is a landscape that is carefully planned to create balance and beauty. This design style is perfect for acreage properties because it combines wide, open lawns with clusters of trees, shrubs and grasses, and meandering pathways.
Key Features of a Parkland-style Acreage Garden
Large trees spaced out for a natural, airy feel
Sweeping lawns for open space and easy maintenance
Curving pathways that lead you through the landscape
Small groves of trees for shade and shelter
Seating areas like benches or picnic spots for relaxing
This style works beautifully for properties with rolling landscapes and open paddocks. If your acreage property feels empty or unstructured, a parkland garden can bring it to life. You can also integrate parkland style gardens into farming landscapes to provide habitat and food for native animals while creating a space that you want to spend time in with your family.
Step 1: Plan Your Parkland Garden Design
Before planting trees or laying down paths, planning is key. A well-thought-out design will create a harmonious and low-maintenance landscape.
Think about what kind of landscape you want to create and how you might use it. Now is the time to get lost in your grandiosity and crazy ideas. Do you need a big open space for playing soccer with friends and family? Do you want a jetty that you can fish from in your dam? Dream big and then overlay that over your property.
1. Choose the Right Location
Look at your land and identify high and low areas. We use the Scales of Permanance framework to observe and analyse landscapes. In short, you can change where you plant trees and build new fences, but you probably can’t change how much rainfall you get or where the hills are on your acreage property.
Plan where trees should go to provide shade without blocking views. Most nurseries or reference books will tell you how tall a tree will grow and its growth habit (bushy, spreading canopy, weeping etc.)
Keep open space near the house and plant trees further out for a park-like feel. Consider bushfire risk and local recommendations. You can strategically place trees to protect against flying embers, just think about maintaining a defensible permieter around buildings and structures.
2. Design Open Spaces and Tree Clusters
Keep large lawn areas in the center for an open, parkland look. Don’t be afraid to mix it up though - narrower lawn pathways which cut between garden beds or treed areas can give the impression of there being a pathway into a secret garden. Just make sure its at least the width of your mower!
Plant trees in small groups rather than rows to make it feel natural. We love to mix up our planting designs and species selectiion to ensure there’s variety across the entire landscape.
Use taller trees in the background and shorter trees near pathways.
3. Add Paths and Seating Areas
Curved pathways make the garden feel inviting and spacious. On larger scale acreage garden procjets, metal, stone or timber garden edging can get quite expensive. Yes, it looks fantastic and provides a beautifully-defined edge. But hard edges aren’t necessary.
Use gravel, crushed stone, or decomposed granite for a natural look which blends well into an Australian parkland design.
Place benches or picnic tables under large trees for shady rest areas.
Step 2: Choose the Best Trees for Acreage Gardens in South-East Queensland
Trees are the foundation of a parkland-style acreage garden. They provide shade, structure, and seasonal beauty. The best trees for parkland landscapes in South-East Queensland should have a wide canopy, strong structure, and a natural, flowing shape. We are lucky in South-East Queensland to have a great selection of native and exotic tree species that are well-suited to our region.
We’ve picked five below to give you a taste but the list is endless and selection can be tailored to what you want your acreage garden to look like. Don’t forget that fruit and nut trees like macadmia, pecan, mango and avocado can also fit into your acreage garden design while also producing something you can eat. Win-win!
Top 5 Best Native Trees for Acreage Garden Landscapes in SEQ
🌳 Queensland Blue Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis)
✔ Iconic large gum tree with a straight trunk and spreading canopy
✔ Provides habitat for koalas and native birds
✔ Excellent shade tree, ideal for open areas
🌳 Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys)
✔ Long-lived hardwood tree with a dense, spreading canopy
✔ Attracts birds, bees, and other pollinators
✔ Ideal for creating shady parkland spaces
🌳 Weeping Lilly Pilly (Waterhousea floribunda)
✔ Elegant tree with soft, weeping foliage
✔ Works well along pathways or near seating areas
✔ Produces small, edible berries for wildlife
🌳 Small-Fruited Grey Gum (Eucalyptus propinqua)
✔ Hardy native tree with a smooth, grey trunk
✔ Provides food for native wildlife, including koalas
✔ Thrives in a variety of soil types
🌳 Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii)
✔ Majestic, ancient tree with a tall, straight trunk
✔ Produces large, edible nuts loved by wildlife
✔ Creates a striking focal point in a large landscape
Tree Planting Tips
Space trees 1.5-3 meters apart for an open, park-like effect. Close plant spacing better emulates how a forest will naturally establish with benefits including faster height growth, weed suppression and nutrient cycling. We can then select the best trees to keep over the next 10-20 years and use the rest for firewood or fencing!
Water deeply and less often to encourage strong roots.
Use mulch around the base to protect soil and reduce weeds.
Plant tubestock not advanced trees. Advanced trees are expensive, can struggle to adapt to their new home, and require a lot more work to maintain. You could have 50 tubestock planted for the same price and effort as one advanced tree.
Step 3: Add Extra Features for a Stunning Parkland-style Acreage Garden
1. Flowering Shrubs & Native Grasses
Plant native shrubs which will add bright, seasonal colour to your acreage garden design while supporting local wildlife.
🌿 Pink Euodia (Melicope elleryana)
✔ Soft pink flowers in summer, attracts birds and butterflies
✔ Great for understorey planting in open parklands🌿 Golden Penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus)
✔ Stunning golden-yellow flowers, loved by bees and birds
✔ Thrives in both open areas and shaded understories🌿 Native Fuchsia (Graptophyllum excelsum)
✔ Small red tubular flowers that attract nectar-feeding birds
✔ Compact growth, perfect for mixed shrub plantingsDon’t forget native grasses which provide soft movement, habitat for wildlife, and a natural meadow feel.
🌾 Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra)
✔ Rust-red to golden tones, excellent for open landscapes
✔ Provides food for butterflies and insects🌾 Lomandra (Lomandra longifolia)
✔ Hardy, clumping grass with fine, arching leaves
✔ Excellent for stabilising soil and blending with shrubs🌾 Native Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides)
✔ Soft, feathery plumes that sway in the breeze
✔ Adds movement and texture to large open areas
2. Water Features
A small pond or winding stream adds a peaceful touch and great habitat for native frogs. If you have a larger dam on your property, this can be strategically included into your acrege garden design and planted out with suitable shrubs and grasses to help slow the movement of water down across the land.
A bird bath or fountain attracts native wildlife. Birds will love it.
3. Outdoor Seating & Entertaining Areas
Benches and picnic tables under shady trees make great rest spots.
A fire pit creates a cozy gathering area in winter.
Step 4: Maintain Your Parkland Garden
A well-designed parkland garden is easy to maintain once it’s established. There’s typically no formal hedges, fancy topiary or annual flowers. Here’s how to keep it looking great and to keep the costs of ongoing maintenance down.
✔ Mow the lawns regularly, but don’t be afraid to leave some areas to grow longer wild for a natural feel.
✔ Prune trees once a year to remove dead branches and shape their growth. The best mantra to follow is ‘every tree, every year’. If you trim small branches frequently you probably won’t have to spend $20,000 for a local arborist to come in to trim overgrown trees!
✔ Water new trees until they establish, then let nature take over. You will definitely lose some trees but that’s okay. Remember you planted 50 tubestock instead for the one really expensive advanced tree.
✔ Reapply mulch around trees and paths to keep weeds under control. Aim for a depth of 5-7cm of mulch. You can get cheap bulk forest mulch from local tree companies for cheap and sometimes free.
Conclusion
A parkland garden design transforms your acreage into a resilient and beautiful landscape which you’ll want to spend time in. By choosing the best trees for parkland landscapes in South East Queensland and carefully planning open areas, paths, and seating, you can create a relaxing, grand environment that feels like a private park.
With the right trees, open lawns, and thoughtful details like native grasses, water features, and picnic spots, your property will become a natural retreat you’ll love for years to come.
🌳 Ready to create your dream parkland garden? We can help with design, tree selection, planting, and ongoing maintenance. Contact us today to get started!
