Forging a seamless connection to nature, this acreage landscape is sublime
Landscape of the Year Awards Entrant QLD
Both front and rear gardens have been thoughtfully designed to forge a close connection to nature and frame the Hamptons-style home to perfection.
Designed by Matt McMahon, director of McMahon Earth Solutions, the gardens that surround this home, set in an idyllic spot in Queensland’s Noosa Valley, draw heavily on the beauty of the coastal locale to offer the young family something very special.
The front garden is a clever mix of rustic features and formal elements, in keeping with the traditional architecture of the home. The rear garden is a more relaxed affair that feels like a seamless extension of the broader natural environment.
In the front garden, a formal stepping-stone path leads from the driveway, across the manicured lawn to the front door of the house. The garden beds here reflect the formal angularity of the pathway but are softened by the planting and the inclusion of richly-toned Corten steel edging.
The grand retaining wall that snakes its way along the front boundary was built using blonde granite boulders, giving the acreage property that quintessential country feel. To enhance the garden’s connection to its wider natural surrounds, and offer greater privacy from the street, generous planting beds were integrated into the design of the wall, which the McMahon Earth Solutions team then filled with plants of varying heights.
The planting palette is integral to Matt’s design and at the homeowners’ request, the front-garden planting style is what he calls “a little bit Hamptons”. This can be seen in the use of traditional exotic plants such as compact magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Teddy Bear’) and dwarf mock orange (Murraya ‘Min-a-Min’), both of which produce fragrant white blooms. These are supplemented by an array of what Matt describes as “subtropical classics”.
In the rear garden, the focus is on water-wise and subtropical plants. The planting palette features natives — Australian tree fern (Cyathea cooperi), native gardenia (Atractocarpus fitzalanii), hoop pine (Araucaria cunningham), and cycad palm (Macrozamia moorei) — complemented by climate-appropriate exotics, such as Japanese sago palm (Cycas revoluta), natal plum (Carissa ‘Desert Star’), and giant doon (Dioon spinulosum).
“When it comes to the rear garden, the design is very much about family life and enjoying the outdoors. There are level, grassed areas where the children can play, an inviting swimming pool, and a fire pit area where the family can relax and feel totally connected to nature,” says Matt. “To add to the charm, the fire pit is a repurposed Corten steel mining crusher around which we built a semi-circular seat out of blonde granite.”
The result is a landscape, designed and constructed by McMahon Earth Solutions, that forges a seamless connection to the property’s natural surrounds.
For more information
MCMAHON EARTH SOLUTIONS
Mobile 0451 551 776
Email matt@mcmahonearth.com