Pymble Garden
The owners of this Sydney property gave landscape designer Anne Thomson a free hand when it came to their garden. They only had one request: that the garden should be green all year round. However, Anne was faced with one very large problem – a huge blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) planted close to the house. The local council would not allow the tree to be removed.
Design solution
Anne based her design on the curves of an existing retaining wall. She created circular water features with a stainless steel sheet at one end to give a curtain effect. To add interest the water features were interspersed with square and rectangular areas of paving, and a ‘bridge’ was built to cross the rill of water. Establishing a garden in the compacted soil under the eucalypt would have been very difficult, and the water features provide an excellent alternative. To minimise the possibility of tree root damage Anne made sure the construction was very solid.
Plants used in the design
Only a few species of plants are used throughout the garden, and they have been chosen mostly for their foliage texture and shape. They include dwarf arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica var. childsiana) and dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Compactus’). Box hedging (Buxus microphylla var. japonica) reinforces the shapes of the paving, and mop top standards of ash (Fraxinus griffithii) reinforce the circular water features.
Contact information:
Anne Thomson Garden Advisory Service
Phone: (02) 9983 0111
Fax: (02) 9488 9718
Mobile: 0418 246 997