The story behind Birdwood’s spectacular Bellosguardo garden
Over a quarter of a century, Birdwood stonemason Peter Bellosguardo has painstakingly created a heroic home garden that entwines heritage, nature and artistry, all set against a sweeping vista reminiscent of his Italian heritage, and with a sculpture carrying the DNA of a great Australian artist.
From his back porch each evening, Peter Bellosguardo takes a moment to absorb his verdant three-hectare property in the hills behind Birdwood. The immaculate topiaries, espaliered fruit trees and stone-walled veggie garden are set against a panoramic vista of vineyards and pencil pines that evoke the Tuscan countryside. It is Peter’s masterpiece, 23 years in the making.
“I love the contour of the land with its gentle rolling hills. The sunsets here are just stunning, and they throw such a beautiful hue over everything. When I come out here to work in the garden, it’s just me, the plants and my secateurs. It’s glorious,” says Peter.
It has also been arduous and back-breaking work as Peter, a second-generation stonemason, has hand-built swathes of drystone walls around the property. He has since retired from the trade after multiple back injuries, and now runs local hire business, Stirling Hire.
Destiny has played a hand in the manifestation of this garden, given that Bellosguardo translates to “beautiful view”. The name also refers to the hilly area of Bellosguardo on the outskirts of Italy’s famous city Florence, known for its views across vineyards and olive trees. It is also near where Peter’s parents Pasquale and Paola were raised.
“Both my parents were orphans, and the nuns in the convent there used to give orphans an important name as a bit of a kickstart in life. My dad was given the name of Bellosguardo,” says Peter.
“People often ask me: ‘Did you get your ideas from Tuscany?’ But no, I’ve never been. I never planned the Tuscan look; it just came about.”
Located in the front garden is the formal rose garden Parterre di Pasquale, dedicated to Peter’s father.
As an ode to his father, a stonemason of almost 60 years who loved roses, Peter’s garden begins with Parterre di Pasquale – a formal rose garden framed with abelia, euonymus, rosemary and topiary conifers, which recall classical Italianate symmetry.
Then, dedicated to his mother is the central vegetable garden, Paola’s Patch, inspired by his mother’s love of growing vegetables and colourful blooms. It took Peter 13 years to complete the scalloped stone walls for the raised garden beds, which are centred around a vine-covered arbour. The veggie patch combines practicality and abundance, just as Paola did with her own garden.
You might like
Impressively, Peter has single-handedly transformed what was an ugly, run-down property into a showpiece garden, motivated by the simple desire for an idyllic place to raise his three children and host family gatherings.
“In the beginning, I just wanted a lovely family home for my kids. I wanted to create a garden that the family and extended family would really love, and we could have major birthdays and weddings here,” he says.
When he and his family purchased the property 23 years ago, it had been subdivided from a large farm. It was a mess and included a large ugly shed that housed a potato sorting plant.
“We didn’t even know that there was a dam here because the grass had grown to five-feet high. Harvesters, tractors and irrigators were strewn everywhere on the property; it was just a mess,” Peter recalls.
“It was a dump, so we decided against buying it. But when I walked around the house and saw that view, I thought, ‘I can do this’. I had to talk the family around, but eventually the kids loved it; from riding motorbikes to bringing friends over, it was a really good experience for them.”
Peter tending to plants in his stone-walled veggie patch. The wall took him 13 years to complete.
Peter landscaped the property from scratch, bringing in thousands of tonnes of fill to contour the land. Weekends were spent digging up rocks to build the drystone walls.
“I can only work on the garden on my days off, and everything here is a big job,” says Peter. “Back then, I unfortunately did everything by pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. I dug stones out of the next-door paddock, put them in a trailer, unloaded them and built the walls.
“These days I run an equipment hire shop, and it would have been so nice to have had the equipment back then. It was back-breaking stuff, but I was 40 years old, fit and loved the work.
“I create layers so that the garden is full-bodied and three-dimensional,” Peter explains to SALIFE, while rosellas zip around overhead. “They hoe into all the fruit,” he says.
Peter’s son Steven built the 350-brick sculpture Double Spiral in 2010, in response to a creative challenge from his grandfather – the artist famous for creating The Malls Balls.
The garden’s crown jewel is the 450-brick sculpture Double Spiral, created by Peter’s son, stonemason-turned-artist Steven Bellosguardo. After finishing school, Steven had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, so Peter took him on as a stonemasonry apprentice. He also studied bricklaying at TAFE SA.
Subscribe for updates
The Double Spiral came about in response to a challenge from Steven’s other grandfather – highly-celebrated Australian sculptor Bert Flugelman, best known for Spheres (The Malls Balls) and his large-scale steel spirals that have featured at the National Gallery of Australia.
Bert, who passed away in 2013, challenged Steven to make a spiral out of bricks, which were reclaimed from the historic Adelaide Oval. Taking an entire year to complete and finished in 2010, Steven’s spiral represents the intertwining DNA of his two lineages – a cross-section of stonemasonry and sculpture.
A vine-covered arbour is the central feature of the vegetable garden, named Paola’s Patch after Peter’s mother Paola.
Today, Steven lives in Melbourne where he has established himself as a working artist. Some of his sculptures are boxed up in Peter’s large shed, while a few others are positioned around the property. These include the tall, hot pink Donkaay that was previously installed at the corner of Hindley and Morphett streets.
It was only last year that Peter decided to share the garden with the public after encouragement from one of his sisters. But as an introvert who enjoys the solitude of his property, he was nervous about hosting his first open garden weekend.
“It was a shock to see all these people in my garden, but by the end of the day, I could see their reactions and that they were really immersing themselves. They said: ‘This is amazing, how many gardeners do you have?’ My response to them was: ‘It’s just me’,” says Peter.
“I’d never have opened it up to the public in a fit; I’m quite private. My main goal was to share it with my siblings and my extended family. But once I saw the effect it has on other people and how much pleasure they get out of it, I came around.”
The garden’s Tuscan look came about by chance, but is serendipitous given Peter’s Italian heritage.
Now, Peter’s plans have grown, and he hopes to turn the garden into a wedding venue. He is installing extensive garden lighting, finishing a Wisteria Walk, decking and setting up the shed for functions, pending council approval. He’s also designing a large stone feature wall.
“It would be a lovely spot for people to get married here, if we get that far. But if it doesn’t work out, it’s going to be a great place for my family to have long table lunches and dinners,” he says.
Peter Bellosguardo seemed destined to create his Birdwood garden, given that his Italian surname roughly translates to ‘beautiful view’. The impressive sculpture Double Spiral was built by his son, Steven.
While Peter has given much of himself to the garden, it has, in return, helped him through challenging times, particularly the loss of his mother and the breakdown of his marriage of 40 years.
“It was a devastating time, but the garden kept me going,” says Peter. “I’m on my own and I thought I’d be lonely, which I was, but you get lost in the serenity of the garden and you don’t worry so much about not having someone with you. It’s taken a long time and a lot of work, but I love it.
“Every night when I come home, I wander through the garden, sit on my patio and look out over it and it eases me – it’s cathartic.”
Through Open Gardens South Australia, Bellosguardo Estate will open to the public on March 22 and 23.
This article first appeared in the 2025 March issue of SALIFE magazine.
