Don looked at a rooftop garden designed by Phillip O’Malley in a modern multicultural style. The garden, on top of a six storey older style building, has wonderful views of Brisbane. Originally the terrace featured dark, heavy brick walls and a multitude of different sized potted plants, and although the owners spent a lot of money on the area it still looked unattractive. Phillip transformed the rooftop into a simple, usable space with the accent on colour and texture. Â Â
The design
In this garden Phillip has blended the best of many different cultural influences to create a contemporary Australian design. He believes that people should be daring and try to mix cultures, instead of say, going all Mexican or all Tuscan. The colour and layout of the rooftop garden is basically Mexican.
Pots and planter boxes were painted in three main limewash colours: blue, yellow and terracotta. Before limewashing the terracotta pots were sealed on the inside. A small amount of Bondcrete was added to the limewash to improve adhesion and help with waterproofing.
Handmade Australian tiles were used on the benches, fountain and inserts to planters. Pale lemon tiles were used on the sink area, and the barbecue and cupboard benchtops were tiled in lilac. Phillip’s design also incorporated artefacts belonging to the owners, such as African masks, sculpture from the Philippines, Greek urns used as sculptural elements, and water jars from Jordan.
Planting
Plants chosen for the rooftop garden had to be able to tolerate wind and glare. They include cycads (Cycas revoluta), Moses in the cradle (Rhoeo discolor ‘Hawaiian Dwarf’- sometimes sold as Tradescantia spathacea ‘Hawaiian Dwarf’), Dwarf bougainvilleas (‘Bambino Krishna’), pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) and petunias (Petunia x hybrida ‘Craze’). Bird of Paradise plants (Strelitzia reginae) were put in garden beds along the boundary, because they have beautiful blue and orange flowers and impressive grey foliage, but they don’t grow tall enough to block the view. In the centre planter box Phillip has positioned standard lilly pillys (Syzygium paniculatum) on an angle to give a windswept look and to create an energy or rhythm running through. This is a low maintenance garden, designed so that if you lock up and go away for a month, it will basically look after itself.
Further information
The rooftop garden was designed by Phillip O’Malley. Phone: (07) 5485 2858 Mobile: 0419 332 522 Australian tiles used in the design were from City Tilers, Melbourne. Phone: (03) 9696 0444 The Talavera wall sconces above the wall fountain came from La Niche, Brisbane. Phone: (07) 3245 5711Â