The Walling family lived in the village of Bickleigh, Devon, before migrating to New Zealand, and then to Australia in 1914. In Bickleigh, Edna Walling's father William had trained his daughter in woodwork and honed her skills in perspective and scale. Father and daughter also enjoyed walking together through the English countryside. Walling's future garden designs were to reflect elements of this countryside, and of the various English gardens they visited.

After completing a course in horticulture at Burnley College in 1917, Walling commenced work as a jobbing gardener. In 1921 she purchased three acres of land at Mooroolbark and built her first home from local and second hand materials. This home was named Sonning after Gertrude Jekyll's Deanery Garden of the same name, which she had visited in England.

In 1922 Walling purchased a further 18 acres of land adjacent to Sonning. The houses she built became the village of Bickleigh Vale. Between the 1920s and 1960s Walling's commissions included designing the lily pond for Coombe Cottage, Dame Nellie Melba's residence in Coldstream, Vic.; Durrol for Mrs Stanley Allen, Mount Macedon, Vic.; and the Cruden Farm garden for Mrs Keith Murdoch (now Dame Elisabeth), Langwarrin, Vic. She also undertook commissions in Hobart, Tasmania, and designed villages at Port Pirie, South Australia (never completed) and Mount Kembla, New South Wales, for Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty Ltd.

During this period Walling wrote four books: Gardens in Australia (1943), Cottage and Garden in Australia (1947), A Gardener's Log (1948) and The Australian Roadside (1952). She wrote articles for The Australian Women's Mirror, The Australian Home Builder and The Australian Home Beautiful. In a letter held by the State Library of Victoria's Edna Walling Collection (La Trobe Australian Manuscripts), Walling declines an invitation to join the Australian Society of Authors by saying:

'Actually, you know, I am not a writer. I merely made a record of the work I had done, which the Oxford University Press published. I also wrote The Australian Roadside as my contribution to conservation work of this country… The books were only achieved through the great help of my teacher friend, Miss Lorna Fielden, without whose assistance I doubt if they would ever have seen the light of day. And so, much as I appreciate the honour you have bestowed on me I don't really think I have any right to be counted amongst the illustrious names appearing in your Society'

Walling's ABC Radio talks include On Making a Garden (1941), Improving the Farm and Curing Erosion and The Farmers' Friends (1951). In 1967, Walling moved to a cottage - 'Bendles' - at Buderim, Queensland. She died there in 1973.

Sources used to compile this entry: Barrett, Margaret (edited by), The Edna Walling book of Australian garden design, Anne O'Donovan, Richmond, Vic., 1980, 144 pp; Walling, Edna, Cottage and garden in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1947, 147 pp.