A Touch of Country in the City
Before: A pretty tired space with shabby paving that had dropped over time - there was nowhere to relax and the space emend small and uninviting.
After: We created a couple of zones, which in fact made the space seem much more open and usable. A covered area provides dining options and an open lounge area offers another zone away from the barbecue. Both areas can be seen clearly from within the house, so we had to ensure that the design captured the essence of what they were after - a semi-rustic country garden feel, but with modern amenities.
We saw right away that we could incorporate a lot of the existing planting (at least the screening plants and trees) and were able to do that by giving them some TLC and pruning to give them a better shape. Underplantings were chosen to compliment these existing plantings and to create an easy-to-care-for, relaxed feel.
Small pockets of drystone work greatly added to the semi-rustic feeling - bluestone capping ties it all together with the paved areas and the bluestone typically uses in the streets and paving of the surrounding area.
Plants were chosen with foliage that would compliment these hard textures.
A relaxing lounge area is nestled into the garden bed to create more open space.
It's the detail that make a difference with smaller gardens - every element must seem a natural fit and be pleasant to feel and to look at.
Before: The front yard and entry path had also seen better days and were in dire need of rejuvenation.
After: We carried the rear garden design palette into the front garden area, which made for a cohesive transition from outdoors, to indoors, to out again! The drystone and bluestone walls and bluestone steps work very well with the surrounding streetscape and are appropriate for the era of house.
