This contemporary home required a thoughtful garden design to address diverse challenges: cooling and softening the northern courtyard and pool areas, creating low-maintenance edible gardens, and concealing close fences while adding interest and privacy. The design also needed to transform a sloped front garden into a striking, inviting space without traditional lawn.
Front Garden
The sloped front garden was designed to combine practicality with aesthetics:
Cor-Ten steel retaining walls create levelled platforms, allowing for layered planting close to the house. Trees such as Prunus cerasifera ‘Oakville Crimson Spire’ (Ornamental Plum) and Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez’ (Crepe Myrtle ‘Natchez’) provide privacy and shade from the western sun, protecting the home in summer.
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A gently ramped pathway, crafted from organic bluestone steppers, integrates native violets between the stones to replace a traditional lawn. This cooling, textural feature is both sustainable and visually appealing.
Long, deep aggregate steps provide a welcoming entry to the home, wrapping toward the ramped steppers and connecting the garden's tiers.
Combining exotic species with hardy natives, the terraced beds feature drought-tolerant options like Kangaroo Paw, Lomandra, and perennials, ensuring year-round beauty with minimal care.
Northern Courtyard and Pool Area
The courtyard and pool zone focus on cooling, softening hardscaping, and enhancing privacy:
A large planting bed frames the lounge room, anchored by a Cercis canadensis (Forest Pansy), offering seasonal interest and shade. Surrounding evergreen Raphiolepis and colourful Agastache add layers and soften the adjacent hardscape.
Vertical frames along the fenceline are adorned with Star Jasmine, forming a fragrant and dynamic "green wall" that visually lengthens the space and provides gentle movement.
The utility garden incorporates functionality and beauty:
A timber and steel rod frame was installed to espalier a lemon tree, creating a living artwork visible from the butler’s pantry.
A ramped, exposed aggregate path provides smooth access from the garage to the garden, eliminating steps for practicality.
Curved Cor-Ten steel planters add sculptural interest while housing herbs and vegetables in a compact, low-maintenance format.
To address the close proximity of fences outside the bedrooms, Star Jasmine was planted on vertical screens outside each window, creating fragrant, flowing green walls. These add movement, texture, and scent, turning what could have been a stark view into a soothing, natural one.
By combining thoughtful hardscaping with layered, functional planting, this design creates a harmonious, low-maintenance garden that enhances the home’s architecture. From a striking terraced front garden to a lush courtyard and practical utility areas, every space contributes to the client’s vision of a modern, inviting retreat.
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