Greg Vale has always been a keen gardener, but several years ago he moved from a house into a unit. The tiny apartment balcony (1.5m x 2.5m) was bare except for a few miserable, half-dead plants and some kitty litter. Greg set about transforming the balcony into a garden, outdoor eatery and a storage area for tools. His design makes clever use of painted lattice, fibreglass panels and low maintenance plants.
Design features
Greg has kept the number of plant species to a minimum: standard weeping figs (Ficus microcarpa ‘Hillii’), a hedge of Japanese box (Buxus microphylla var japonica) and a sago palm (Cycas revoluta) planted in a decorative urn. Donkey’s tail (Sedum morganianum) tumbles down from a wall planter.
Square fibreglass pots are painted to look like sandstone. The decorative panel hanging on the lattice is also made of fibreglass. All are sitting on a timber platform painted to look like sandstone.
Concealed underneath the platform is a storage box for Greg’s tools and the kitty litter.
The storage box, lattice, timber planter boxes and balcony wall are colour-matched in Wattyl ‘Pinewood Green’.
The circular glass table has a timber overlay, also painted in ‘Pinewood Green’.
Corner shop collection
As a boy, Greg worked at a grocery store after school. It was his job to wrap up pound portions of sugar scooped from hessian bags on the floor, and fill brown paper bags with goodies from the Arnott’s Biscuits tin. He used to stock the shelves with Aeroplane Jelly, Marmite Cubes, Rosella Tomato Chutney and other names that are now regarded as Australian icons.
When Greg purchased his house in the 1980s, he wanted to add warmth to the stark kitchen, so he began to stock it with corner shop collectables. Before long, the kitchen was choc-a-bloc with memorabilia, which reminded him of “quiet, safe, happy days”. When he moved into the unit the collection was put into storage.
Greg’s complete collection has now been sold, and will be housed in a museum in Nundle, near Tamworth, New South Wales.