Roseville
We first came into this garden’s life in 2003 and for Christmas 2013 we finished its most recent stage. It is a garden of 2 strongly different styles that synergise to create a garden greater than the sum of its parts. Jeckle and Hyde. A game of 2 halves… you get the idea.
The Front Garden, built 7 years ago has a real sense of place. A response to the residence’s heritage and its streetscape, the design has a classic North Shore garden feel. The garden has a soft formality with box hedges combined with a series of layered textures, from Lace-Cap Hydrangeas, Freesias, Hellebores, Salvias all nestled under various species of small flowering trees. The result is colour and interest throughout the year. It is a gardener’s garden.
The front boundary stone wall was added from recycled sandstone and such was the attention to detail in design and construction that you may miss it as a recent addition to the landscape. The crunch underfoot of the pebble driveway creates an earthy sound and is another soft texture of its era.
Upon entering the front door the house transforms from the traditional into modern home, with open living spaces and walls of glass linking the house to the garden. The rear garden style compliments this change in the house starting with the minimalist central courtyard space, with its grass mounds and feature tree as islands in an expanse of concrete.
With walls of glass the garden is viewed from almost everywhere in the house. A recycled sandstone wall along the rear boundary links the two sitting areas whilst also being a feature that is visible from the courtyard and even the from the kitchen at the front of the house.
A hedge of bamboo with stripped stems encloses the garden with a wall of green. A series of custom steel lamp posts create an open screen, that adds a sense of enclosure an intimacy to the paved sitting area off the master bedroom, whilst keeping an open view to the sculpture garden. The sculpture garden features a vibrant red ball set in a gravel area of topiary balls and is complimented by a softly curved white rendered bench seat.
This garden has been featured in a number of magazines and made a TV appearance on Better Homes & Gardens as a garden to draw inspiration from.