This thoughtfully landscaped family property has it all, from a leafy front garden to a made-for-entertaining pool and outdoor living spaces
Landscape of the Year Awards Entrant NSW
Claiming a sloping corner block, this thoughtfully landscaped property ticks all the boxes. The flourishing front garden enhances the home’s street presence, while the stunning rear-garden entertaining areas and swimming pool evoke a resort vibe, summer through winter.
The front garden needed to frame the newly-built home and tame the tricky slope. The result is an expertly tiered garden in which wide steps flanked by built-in planters usher visitors up to the front door, and a lush, layered planting plan softens the hard lines and delights the eye of passers-by.
“The brief from the young family was to provide outdoor areas that complemented the home’s architectural style with clean but not cold lines, and a minimalist palette of plants and materials. They wanted lots of detail but an aesthetic that was calming; flow was also important,” explains Adrian Swain, director of ecodesign, The Other Side Landscapes and AEON Pools.
“The planting approach was to create a relaxed yet structured layout. This involved combining colours, textures, interesting foliage and flowers to create garden areas that offer year-round interest.”
The plants incorporated include English box (Buxus sempervirens) clipped into balls, baby panda grass (Pogonatherum paniceum), New Zealand hair sedge (Carex comans ‘Bronze’), compact magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Teddy Bear’), Chinese fringe flower (Loropetalum), and tussock grass (Poa labillardieri ‘Eskdale’).
“Off-form concrete steps are a feature of the front garden’s modern minimalist design with LED strip lighting for a touch of night-time magic. In fact, considerable thought was given to the lighting design of all the outdoor spaces, which includes accent lights to the feature trees, path lights to the stepping-stone pathway through the rear garden, as well as hanging lights in the cantilevered poolside pergola,” says Adrian.
The pool, its waterline clad in Ezarri Zen Carrara mosaic tiles, is a favourite gathering space. For fun and a resort feel, deck water jets were installed along one side of the pool. For comfort and shade, a custom powdercoated pergola with integrated batten screening and outdoor seating beckons at one end.
Full-width steps stretch across the other end of the pool, with Aria limestone coping flowing seamlessly into the covered alfresco living space that is attached to the house. “That sense of flow and connection was important to the family,” says Adrian. “The pool area needed to feel like a part of the home, not an add-on.”
The alfresco living space leads directly out to a cosy, plant-embraced corner with a fire pit and stools, along with a Buddha statue and a stone lantern for an exotic touch. Access to this serene space is via organic bluestone steppers that navigate a sea of volcanic pebbles, referencing those used in the front-garden planters.
All of the landscaped and outdoor areas were designed by ecodesign, working in close collaborationy with the home designer. The Other Side Landscapes completed all of the external works, including planting, lighting, and construction of the pergola, while the pool was built by AEON Pools.
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