Don looked at an Adelaide courtyard garden designed by Andrew Quixley. Elaine, the owner, saw the Burke’s Backyard episode that featured Suzi Q’s garden, and gave Andrew an open brief to design her garden. He was faced with a small, tight area with ugly views and lattice screening.
Andrew’s design solution takes the form of an outdoor art gallery with the ‘paintings’ being nine water features, along with the humorous folly of a lion’s head being squashed by a rubber mallet. The courtyard provides a focal point when entering the house, and looks spectacular with LED lighting at night. Copper, brass, stainless steel, aluminium and granite are all linked together in this simple design.
Design features
The courtyard area is like an art gallery, with nine water features running off the one pump as the ‘paintings’.
To reinforce the idea of an art gallery, Yvette Arnold drew outlines of people admiring artworks. These were sent to an aluminium metal cutter who laser cut them, and then they were glued to the wall.
The waterfall itself is made of granite, hand-selected to give natural colour to the water feature. The flow of water can be easily adjusted for different effects.
The main part of the water feature has two caverns lit at night by LED lighting, which uses very little power. As the water falls, it shimmers in the light.
Frosted perspex was used in one of the darker areas to increase the light.
Visitors to the garden smile when they see a lion’s head with a rubber mallet smashing into it, rather than the usual lion’s head fountain.
Andrew’s son, Oliver, showed Don some black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’). Andrew pointed out that when the Manchurian pears (Pyrus ussuriensis) come into leaf and the creepers grow, the area will be encased in a ‘wall of green’.
Further information
Andrew Quixley
The Garden Studio
Green Valley Road
Norton Summit SA 5136
PO Box 174
Burnside SA 5066
Phone: (08) 8390 1875
Mobile: 0418 346 836
Email: [email protected]