Table of contents for Issue 13.4 in Backyard and Outdoor Living

While there is a certain retro charm to the brick bungalow houses of the 1940s, they’re not really designed for modern living. Today, families want lots of natural light, bigger rooms, an easier flow and an effortless transition from inside to out. Turning this old-style charmer into a contemporary family home was both a challenge and a labour of love for architect — and owner — Sarah Fitzgerald. But it was a task that was made easier with the help of builder Liam Flood of To the Mil and Peter Fudge Gardens who worked collaboratively with Sarah every step of the way. “Ensuring a natural transition from the renovated house to the new garden was of paramount importance,” says garden designer Peter Fudge. “The connections between home and garden needed…

The passage of time tells on us all. Our “bones” might remain solid but our exterior surfaces … well, a little freshening up rarely goes amiss. When Jane Jones Landscapes was called in, an established garden already surrounded the Victorian house. The rear garden had a swimming pool and deck. It also had a selection of mature trees, as did the entry garden. “The brief put forward by the owner was to give the garden an overall facelift. Some areas were tired and clearly in need of rejuvenation, while the existing rear garden needed softening from the abundant minimalistic hard surfaces,” explains designer Jane Jones. “The owner desired more plantings, interesting garden features of greater depth and complexity, and a small herb and vegetable garden. “Additionally, the existing driveway was…

A smart and well-designed deck takes relaxed outdoor living at home to a whole new level. Decks can extend living areas, create outdoor rooms and transform an uninspiring outdoor space into a showstopper. Whether you plan on building it yourself, or getting the experts on board to do the job, a little bit of know-how will go a long way towards creating your dream deck. It starts with gaining a practical understanding of the basics of what sets one deck apart from another, including material choice, orientation, inclusions and shape. WHAT’S YOUR VISION? Decks can be as unique and as individual as you are. You can go retro with slabs of reclaimed timber or create a beachy, coastal, weather-worn look with timber naturally aged to a blue-grey hue. For a…

Verti-plant from Burgon & Ball is a fabric vertical planter you attach to a garden wall or fence. Each planter has three pockets and takes six plants. Drainage holes in the top two pockets help to water the plants in the bottom row. It won’t last forever but it’s an easy way to introduce some colour … and get the kids interested in gardening. Step 1 Find a structurally sound wall, drill the required holes and screw the planter into position. Step 2 Add terracotta and tub potting mix into which you have sprinkled some controlled-release fertiliser. Step 3 Add the plants. Flowering annuals are a good idea if you want to add seasonal colour. Step 4 Water the planter from the top. A watering can will give you greater…

Developing a healthy lawn from day one all depends on the quality of your soil. If the soil is poor and compacted, no turf will thrive. If the soil under the turf is good, you’ll have a healthy lawn for many years into the future. For best growth, newly installed turf grass needs just four things (each within the proper balance) to grow: sunlight, air, water and nutrients. Reduce any of these, or provide extra amounts of any one, and the grass may suffer or simply die. But with the right proportions, your lawn will flourish. COMMON SOIL ISSUES Grass obtains three of these four essential factors (air, water and nutrients) from the soil, but some soils are less than ideal for growing grass. Some soils contain an excessive amount…

Place the bale (or each bale if using more than one) so that the baling twine is parallel to the ground (that is, smooth straw is on the side of the garden bed) and exactly where it is to go. Days 1–3. Water each new bale thoroughly and keep wet for three days. It’s very important to keep each bale moist as part of the conditioning process. The bale will become very heavy when wet, so it’s imperative it’s placed where you want it before you start watering. As the inside of each bale begins to decompose, it will start to warm up and can become quite hot. Days 4–6. Sprinkle the top of each bale with one cup of organic fertiliser, such as pelletised chicken manure, and water in…

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of sneaking out into our family vegie patch to munch on vine-ripened tomatoes. I just couldn’t believe my luck: little bursts of sweetness right at my tiny fingertips and no one there to stop me. Little did I know it was my parents’ way of enticing me to eat my fruit and vegies. The nameless variety we grew that was handed down from my grandparents was a wild-looking vine that was smothered from root to tip with tiny, sweet, red fruit and had to be firmly staked to keep it from taking over the whole garden. It’s still one of the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. PARENT TO CHILD I love the idea that fruit and vegetables can become part of our heritage;…

STEEL YOURSELF Corten steel is a popular choice for everything from screening and garden edging to plant pots and lighting, due to its strength and stable, rust-like appearance. The family that call this Melbourne property home wanted a raised vegetable garden that would look decidedly modern so Grounded Gardens custom designed and built these raised beds using Corten steel.groundedgardens.com.au WE LOVE  this curved shell home situated deep within the Karuizawa Forest in Japan. Perfectly illustrating the union between art and architecture, the home is by Japanese firm Artechnic. WASTE NOT, WANT NOT Unwanted tyres are a big problem worldwide so a plant pot made out of recycled tyres ... well, that is getting a lot of traction. Made in the United Kingdom, Burgon & Ball's Tyre Plant Pots are flexible…

Imagine settling back into an Adirondack chair, the warmth of sandstone beneath your feet, a cool coastal breeze on your face and luxuriant garden beds stretching out before you. Sounds like bliss, doesn’t it? Well, it is, but this is a front garden we’re describing, which makes it all the more remarkable. After all, when you feel the need to unwind, the front garden is not usually the first place that comes to mind. As this house has no rear garden, all the outdoor living is done in the front and side gardens. This worked well, though, for Brandon Wallis of SiteDesign + Studios Landscape Architects. As these gardens face east and north, they collect all the sun, which made it possible to create lush, leafy environs for the outdoor-loving…

Home to landscaper Michael Bates and his large blended family, Albert House is a rare find: a peaceful, country house-style retreat just a few minutes from the madness of the Sydney CBD. Built a century ago using convict-hewn sandstone salvaged from one of North Sydney’s earliest pubs, the original Albert Hotel, the house is embraced by a terraced garden that teems with plant life. This is a garden designed to be admired from various vantage points and one that offers several outdoor dining spaces … even a hangout just for the teenagers. The North Sydney street upon which Albert House sits had been gazetted to become a road. As this road failed to materialise, the Georgian-style house was able to retain its private location and secret hideaway feel, which Michael’s…

Green walls and vertical gardens offer a host of benefits. For starters, they allow you to introduce plant life into small spaces — if you don’t have room for a ground-level garden, you can attach a garden to your courtyard wall or the exterior of your house. They reduce the ambient temperature in their immediate surrounds, clean the air and encourage biodiversity, making them an eco-friendly option. “With more than 50 per cent of us now living in cities worldwide (the percentage is even higher in Australia), our metropolitan areas are becoming more crowded and our gardens ever smaller,” says Karen Sutherland, horticulturalist, garden designer and founder of Edible Eden Design. “More of us are living in apartments and townhouses and may only have the tiniest of spaces to grow…

Outdoor spaces are made up of two elements: soft and hard landscaping. Soft landscaping features include flowers, foliage, trees and grassy lawns, all of which offer vibrancy and life. In contrast, hard landscaping is about functionality, for example driveways, retaining walls, pathways and alfresco flooring. Paving is the hard landscaping material of choice for DIYers and industry professionals for many reasons. Paving products can be beautiful, affordable, hardwearing and are offered in a myriad of colours, sizes, textures and, of course, finishes. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT Whether you’re planning a small DIY job, or a larger project and calling in the professionals, you need to choose your paver materials, colour, finish and laying pattern. Paving products are broadly defined as natural rock (granite, travertine, sandstone etc), a composite, cast concrete, brick…

You might love your lawn, but so does the pesky little white curl grub. To check for white curl grub, place some wet hessian on a patch overnight. By early morning, the grubs should have surfaced and will be easy to spot. They are plump, C-shaped, whitish grubs with orange heads. Their bodies look segmented and their three pairs of legs are near the head. These lawn beetle larvae infiltrate lawn and feed on roots, damaging the turf. Egg-laying lawn beetles can be a problem year-round, particularly in warm, wet weather from November to May. If white curl grubs have infected lawn areas, the telltale signs are: general yellowing, then browning of the grass, followed by patchy death of lawn areas. You may also notice green or brown droppings on…

Pocket method: Create holes or pockets about 7–10cm deep. Do this with your hand, loosening and removing a small amount of the straw. Fill each hole with organic compost or potting mix. The number of “pocket pots” will vary, depending on what crops you intend to grow and the spacing needed for those crops. Water each pocket lightly. Flat straw-bed method: Create a flat garden bed on top of the bale by spreading a soil/compost/aged-manure mix on top of each bale — up to 10cm deep is good. Work this growing medium into the straw in readiness for planting. Using a watering can or gentle hose spray, lightly moisten the whole surface, being careful not to dislodge the soil. You can plant either style of straw-bale garden using seeds or…

FEELING CHIPPER Mulching is a great way to reuse existing green materials, such as prunings, to promote healthy growth in the garden. Enter Rover’s 5cm Chipper shredder unit, which will help you make an easy meal out of all your unwanted branches and debris. With its 205cc Briggs & Stratton engine, two chromium steel chipper blades and 12 replaceable cast-steel flares, Rover’s 5cm Chipper shredder is durable and high performing. The 5cm Chipper shredder has a reduction ratio of 10:1 converting all your offcuts and debris into easily reusable mulch, and the bushel collection bag makes redistribution back into the garden a breeze. rover.com.au VERTICAL ADVANTAGE The PAPS vertical garden system is ideal for balconies, courtyards, decks or even larger backyards. The system comprises a slimline frame and pots, which…

This plant-filled show garden amply demonstrated how “leftover” spaces in a city can be transformed into attractive and functional green pockets. Aptly named Left Overs, the Ian Barker Gardens creation featured a converted shipping container that functioned as a pop-up cafe, which, in a real-world setting, could work as either a temporary or permanent commercial installation or as an unusual outdoor room in a large backyard. The container-cafe opened out onto paved areas, small groups of seating and lawn, all of which were surrounded by a cornucopia of plants to create an inviting place for people to meet and socialise. Left Overs, which won a Silver Show Garden Award at last year’s Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, featured a highly naturalistic perennial planting scheme to show new ways of…

Bold and elegant with strong seasonal interest, this Melbourne garden is not just a pleasure to spend time in, it is the perfect frame for the extensively renovated Victorian residence. Designed by Lisa Ellis Gardens and dubbed the “Red, White and Blue” garden, it places a strong emphasis on the softening effect of plants, which is just what the distinctive two-storey dwelling needed and precisely what the owners, a professional couple with two teenage daughters and a cat, wanted. “They were keen on using old-fashioned plants but in a daring manner, and they wanted a sophisticated garden,” explains Lisa Ellis. “As the house is imposing, creating a garden that will, in time, bring the right scale to balance out the house was just as important.” When planning the garden, Lisa…

One of the most revered styles of Japanese design is the traditional hill-and-pond garden. A semi-formal style that is often repeated in the West, it typically features an artificial (though utterly natural-looking) hill, a pond and waterfall, an arched bridge and stone pathways. Just such a garden can be found in the Sydney suburb of Longueville. Designed by Ken Lamb, managing director of Imperial Gardens, this is a garden that, in best Japanese tradition, doesn’t show itself all at once. From the uppermost part of the garden, granite steps lead down towards the covered patio that wraps around the house. As you make this journey, many wonders are revealed: a large koi pond, a waterfall and a meticulously landscaped mounded (hill) garden. For Ken, the waterfall, above which hovers a…

When buying turf, there are many variables you need to take into consideration as not every variety is best suited for all conditions. Everybody has individual requirements for their lawns and each location has different needs. These factors all need to be taken into consideration when making a decision on your lawn type. Before deciding, there are some integral questions you should address — does the grass need to be shade or wear tolerant? Should it be low maintenance? If you need to avoid using pesticides, should the grass be resistant to lawn grubs? Does the grass need to be drought or salt tolerant? Once you have established the requirements of your new lawn, you will then need to decide which turf variety will best suit your needs, so you…

If you want a lifestyle-enhancing garden, you need an innovative designer THIS WEEKEND ORGANISE A GARDEN DESIGNER Good garden design is about more than complementing the architecture of a home. It’s about reflecting just what it is that makes the owners of that property unique: their lifestyle, their interests, their tastes. Upon finding someone who will design with your individuality in mind, the next step is to ensure they have the experience — and willingness — to equip you with the knowledge you need to make informed decisions. Natalie Watts of Brisbane-based Branat Designs couldn’t agree more. “Our goal is to help people bring their ideas and inspirations to life by creating innovative spaces that enhance people’s lifestyles and give their home’s character and value,” she says. Branat Designs, which…

Microgreens are a foodie phenomenon, with chefs using them like confetti to decorate plates and flavour delicate dishes. But why let the chefs have all the fun? Microgreens are easy to grow and simple to use in your everyday cooking. And you don’t even need a garden to grow them. Microgreens are essentially very young seedlings of edible plants, grown en masse in a small container or pot. Once seeds have sprouted (this can take up to a few weeks) the sprouts will be ready to harvest in another couple of weeks (again, this varies on the seeds being sown). Harvest microgreens by snipping off the leaves as you need them. They are a single-harvest crop so once you’ve harvested all the leaves from your pot, tip the leftover seed-raising…

With its many and varied uses, including mulching, composting and more, straw is a useful commodity in the organic garden. Straw bale is preferable to hay, particularly lucerne hay, because hay bales are likely to contain weed and grass seeds. When buying straw bale, check that it’s tight and held together with two or three strands of plastic baling twine. It should look clean and fresh and not smell mouldy. Below are some tips for effective straw-bale gardening. MULCHING WITH STRAW Straw can be used to blanket-mulch garden beds, particularly in the edible garden. Keeping in moisture is one advantage, but the straw also attracts beneficial creatures — the tiny earth-living organisms that are vital to soil health. You can “pat” biscuits of straw (the individual sections) onto the soil…