All gardens require patience, perseverance and hard work — but in the extremes of outback Queensland, even that can sometimes fall short.

On a cattle station in central western Queensland, one couple has worked tirelessly to keep their oasis alive through years of drought.

"We're on Dumfries Station, south-east of Blackall, about 70 kilometres out of town," grazier David Hardie said.

"It's 32,700 acres freehold."

Twenty years ago when David and wife Lindy Hardie first bought Dumfries, there was virtually no garden. Now, the lush green garden stands in stark contrast to the surrounding countryside in central western Queensland.

"I was lucky, David gave me a little John Deere tractor, and it had an accessory of a deep ripper," Lindy Hardie said.

"So I used that to rip up the garden, which was absolute bliss."

The couple moved to Dumfries permanently in 1999, when Lindy turned creating her dream garden into a full-time job.

"I wouldn't like to say how many hours, but at the beginning, when I first came to the district I didn't really know anyone, and I had arrived with a truckload of plants that friends propagated for me, and that I had propagated," she said.

"I was really keen to get them into the ground, and I would work in the garden all day from dawn until dusk."

What the property looked like when David and Lindy began. ( Supplied )

From the old tennis court turned secret garden to the croquet lawn complete with a bridal walk, the garden at Dumfries has evolved into something special.

It has won awards, been the backdrop for family weddings and other special occasions, and has even attracted attention from gardening bus tours and film crews.

David credited his wife for designing their impressive patch, but he has also played a part.

"Lindy has the mind to do all those bigger creative things, I don't have a creative bone in my body," he said.

"I just love the blower. I love putting out a little bit of roundup."

Lindy said the biggest influence on her garden at Dumfries was her childhood experience of weathering the extremes of outback Queensland.

"I went through the 60s drought and, I was at boarding school most of the time, but you'd come home and here's this brand new house, just like an eyesore and just bare earth all around it," she said.

"So I always vowed that I would have a big hedge around the garden so I wouldn't see out through drought.

"That has stuck with me all my life."

David and Lindy's children Andrew and Nina help out in the garden when it was being created. ( Supplied )

That "big hedge" has come in handy over the past five years.

When drought set in across vast areas of Queensland, including around Blackall, the extreme dry made it almost impossible to keep the garden surviving, let alone thriving.

"Droughts are slow," Lindy said.

"You don't know you're going into a drought until two years down the track or three years down the track, when you start realising that things are getting worse and worse."

When the house dam ran dry last year, Lindy turned to bore water to keep her garden going.

Bearded Iris and Larkspurs in the garden at Dumfries. ( ABC News: Lydia Burton )

But with their cattle competing for the little bit of water there was to go around, eventually something had to give.

"I have to be honest, I found it really tough, seeing things die and I did go through a stage where I didn't go out into the garden at all," she said.

"I found it too hard."

Luckily, David did not find the plight of plants with no water quite as debilitating as his wife.

When the couple was eventually forced to de-stock their property of cattle, one small silver lining was that David was then able to step in and take over the care of the garden.

"We just had to keep it going for our own purpose," he said.

"Lindy has put a lot of effort into it and I just wanted to make sure that it would continue over the next decade.

"Yeah sure, we did lose plants and I didn't know a lot about it, but it was important to me and I just sort of hopefully stepped up a little bit."

Lindy Hardie in the garden at Dumfries. ( ABC News: Lydia Burton )

While David found respite from the bare, brown paddocks by being in the garden, Lindy weathered the drought by writing about it.

Beyond The Dust chronicles her experience of keeping a garden in the west alive, under the most trying conditions.

"It kept me really busy, working on it, and so I lived my garden through the journal," she said.

"I suppose I'm proud of it … but it was done more as therapy."

No matter how depressing the Hardies found it to see their plants wither and suffer during the drought, both still considered the garden an invaluable asset.

"Personally, I think they're extremely important, especially in the times of drought," Lindy said.

"It gives the men something to come home to, just a break from that barren earth outside."

David has come to share his wife's perspective.

"I really found it was another way of taking my day forward, trying to be that positive person," he said.

"Particularly in the afternoon you'd come back here and just walk through this green oasis and think 'oh thank goodness, I'm home'."

David Hardie works in the garden at Dumfries. ( ABC News: Lydia Burton )

This past winter, unseasonal falls has helped take the edge off the drought, which is now entering its fifth year.

Although most of the interior of Queensland remains officially drought declared — the rain that did come has made a difference.

"It's been a big response and it's good to just go out and feel positive and see that the season's changed for us," David said.

"It's put a smile on everyone's face and it's given everyone a little bit more pep in their step to get out there and do things."

The garden has become something of an oasis in the desert. ( ABC News: Lydia Burton )

For the Hardies though, their time at Dumfries is coming to an end — they have sold the property.

Lindy admitted it was not an easy decision, and she said the thought of one day leaving her garden for good was even more difficult.

"If you asked me three years ago I would have said no, I don't want to go," she said.

"When you create a garden, you put so much of yourself into it, you really do.

"It's what you've created, and worked hard in."

The Hardies are hopeful their next garden will bring just as much joy as Dumfries has.

"It was part of the family," David said.

"Yeah sure there's been a lot of work and the kids haven't liked it all that much, including myself, but I've grown to like it and it's part of us and it's particularly part of Lindy.

"That's what she stands for."