The brief was to create a fairly formal garden with a large entertaining area and a small lawn for dogs to run. It was a high priority to screen the two storey house behind with trees. The landscape design needed to complement the existing home and garden and provide connection to other garden areas. Plants were selected to bring existing beds to life. The client wanted to use materials similar to those existing such as the carport piers.

There were some small trees along the back fence. These were removed to create a raised garden bed which connects to a lovely entertaining area with this low garden bed in situ. There was a natural slope towards the house, so we divided the garden space into three levels. A retaining wall was built in front of the fence, and doubles as seating for entertaining family and friends. The paved entertaining space has matching shrub and perennial gardens on each side. Stepping down the client arrives at the lawn with steppers and steps to access the rest of the garden.

In the entertaining area, retaining walls and wide steps were built using re-cycled antique bricks and capped with sawn bluestone. All paving and steppers were built using sawn bluestone pavers.

The second image shows the building of retaining walls and is a reminder that building a garden takes time and it can look rather messy during the project. The fun day is when the plants are added transforming the landscape. Gardening is a process, and a garden takes about three years of growing to look mature.