Heide Museum of Modern Art sprawls across 16 acres of parkland in Bulleen.

But while it already felt like somewhat of an escape from the daily grind, it’s just opened a healing garden inspired by the founder’s passion for gardening.

“For Sunday Reed, who founded Heide with her husband John, gardening went hand in hand with art, poetry, cooking, love and life,” Heide artistic director Lesley Harding said in a statement. “Her garden was a creative outlet and a place of respite and rejuvenation.

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“Like Sunday, the Heide team today recognises that gardens and nature can help improve people’s wellbeing and restore a sense of equilibrium, something that will be particularly important now and in the coming months.”

While we’ve left lockdown behind – hopefully for good – many of its effects still linger. Returning to normality, while exciting, can be daunting, exhausting and even anxiety-inducing. So, if you need to slow down, take a breath and find your Zen, do it here.

The rambling circular garden, designed by talented landscape-architecture firm Openwork, is split into six sections, many beneath lush, towering eucalyptus trees. And it builds on the existing kitchen garden planted alongside the Heide Cottage.

You’re greeted with Scented Entries, a cluster of sweet-smelling plants that are fragrant year-round. Then there’s a sensory kitchen garden; a play garden with a field of textural plants and a big geological water table; and a bush harden filled with indigenous edible and healing plants. At The Meadow, you’ll find a herbaceous selection of plants, while inspo for The Wild Garden was drawn from the cottage, its wall climbing with roses.

Pathways meander through each of the sections, but there are also plenty of places to sit, include benches made from limestone leftover from Heide’s construction.

heide.com.au