Don’s Landscaping Tips: Outdoor Entertainment Area For many years pergolas have been fashionable in Australian backyards, either freestanding or attached to the back of the house. In theory if you plant deciduous climbers they’ll grow over your pergola and...
All too often backyards have a boring sameness about them, but recently Don visited a garden which dares to be different. When designer John Happ first saw the house, he knew that it was important to choose a paving colour to complement the strong, mottled orange...
Don’s Landscaping Tips: Window View Windows are essential in houses to let in light and fresh air. But a problem that is common to old and new houses is when a window looks straight out onto a fence or straight onto the neighbour’s house. What do you do to...
Formal Domestic Design The owners of this property did not want deciduous trees dropping leaves, and they didn’t want to spend a lot of time sweeping. Instead they chose a garden in the modern formal style, which makes good use of a number of elements: hedges,...
Global Garden A few years ago theme gardens were very fashionable in Australia. They included cottage gardens, native gardens, succulent gardens, perfumed gardens, white gardens, and more recently, ethnic styles such as Mexican or Tuscan. The latest trend is a blend...
Heather Cant’s Garden Revisit Burke’s Backyard first filmed “Gowan Brae” at Burradoo over four years ago, so we decided it was time to pay Heather Cant another visit. The property is 11/2 acres (0.6ha), and consists of a charming old turn of...
The use of purple foliage in the garden is one of the more difficult things to get right. But it can be a breath of fresh air from the straight green gardens and the key to using purple is to plant more of it. If you only plant one Berberis or Purple Japanese maple in...
We took that classic backyard disaster area, the disused driveway on the side of the house, and transformed it into a tropical jungle fantasy garden complete with ponds, a waterfall, colourful plants, a boardwalk and a suspension bridge. The progression of this...
Even before you open the gate and enter Penny Ruddock’s small Adelaide property, it’s obvious you’re in for a horticultural treat. Penny has planted a street garden on the verge, dominated by a wonderful combination of wisteria and lavender in full...
Instant Garden Michael McCoy has created an amazing garden which has maximum impact in minimum time. A year ago the 0.1ha (0.2acre) backyard lawn was sprayed to kill it off and the whole area was planted out with herbaceous perennials. Within 12 months the garden has...