"…the garden had been terribly dried up and rain at last has (sic.) come. Father immediately donned his rain-coat, bowler hat and gumboots, hurried into the garden, and we would watch him from inside, standing enjoying the rain, rejoicing with the plants as he could almost see them grow."

Memoirs of Frederick Sargood’s daughter, Clara Webster.

Originally developed in 1868 in the Gardenesque style with geometric beds and paths, the garden was re-designed for the Sargood family by William Sangster in 1882. The Picturesque garden layout, with its irregular design and rustic devices such as the lake bridges, asks the viewer to see the garden vistas as a picture. This Romantic notion, part of the Picturesque aesthetic, encourages the visitor to use associations and ideas when viewing the garden.

To establish and support his exotic European style garden, Sargood constructed a stormwater harvesting, collection, storage and recycling system, which pumped water from the surrounding suburbs into the lake and then, throughout the garden. The National Trust is in the final stages of reinstating this system and intends to return the gardens to being a self-sufficient user of water.

During the early twentieth century, the property experienced many changes - major subdivisions and new owners. Fortunately for Rippon Lea the last owners cherished the garden and made, in keeping with fashionable planting styles, only minor changes to its character. Louisa Jones, who inherited the property in 1935, stayed true to the memory of her father Benjamin Nathan - a keen garden and orchid enthusiast – and much of the nineteenth century garden that we enjoy today, has been retained.