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Garden designer Mark Vowles has transformed a bare block of land at Deception Bay, Queensland, into a lush, tropical garden. He has travelled widely, and was inspired by the ancient and modern tropical styles of Thailand, Bali and the South Pacific. Mark has a passion...
Greek Style Courtyard When garden designer Matthew Cantwell first saw the courtyard shown in our segment, it was ugly and dated. Quarry tiles, mission brown furniture and a dilapidated paling fence made it a depressing place where the family definitely did not want to...
Indian Goddess Garden In 1996 Julia Wright wrote to Burke’s Backyard asking for help with the landscaping nightmare that she had inherited. The small courtyard at the rear of Julia’s terrace was barren, out-of-date, and completely covered by ugly dark...
Japanese Garden Although many Australians dream of living near the beach, gardening by the seaside can be quite a challenge. Not only are beach sites usually very windy, but the plants also have to cope with sandy soil and salt spray. Don visited a Japanese-style...
Retired opera singer Maureen Williams and her husband Frank own one of the finest Japanese-style gardens in Australia. It was designed and built for the previous owners by Ken Lamb of Imperial Gardens, Sydney. His brief was to create a garden that would be walked...
Don looked at the Taiwan or Formosa lily, a beautiful tall lily that has escaped from gardens to become a weed. It is now outcompeting many of our native Australian plants, and degrading the value of our urban bushland. Plant details Common name: Taiwan lily, Formosa...
Don transformed an ugly, useless part of the garden into a fabulous feature area complete with colourful plants, a spectacular fish pond and a waterfall. One of the most important reasons for this makeover was that a large picture window in the family room of the...
Don looked at a contemporary Balinese-style house and garden designed to work beautifully with the warm, Queensland climate. Architect Paul Clout has opened up parts of the house to take advantage of the fabulous water views and also to blur the distinction between...
The latest trend in garden design in Australia is to create ‘theatrical’ gardens, which often contain elements from other countries and cultures. The inspiration may come from holiday travel. Back home you can create a garden to remind you of your holidays...
‘Environmenta’ is a regional sculpture exhibition held each year by sculptor, Jane Hanson. Jane realised that there are very few opportunities for sculptors, installation artists and landscape designers to show larger works outside a gallery situation, so...