Table of contents for Issue #48 - 2020 in Backyard and Outdoor Living

Welcome to the new-look Backyard magazine, which comes with a whole other magazine — Outdoor Living — at the end. Just flip it around and upside down and voila! And don’t worry, two for the price of one doesn’t mean you’re missing out on your Backyard favourites. We’ve still got the latest news, products and books covered, as well as beautiful garden design projects for inspiration and growing tips as well as a weekend project to keep you busy. We’re also casting an expert eye over that perennial flower favourite, the rose, with Gavin Woods picking his top five. In our special features this issue we examine waterwise veggies — those that are the most drought-tolerant and how you can grow them successfully. We’re also looking at decks, pergolas and…

Once your plants are in the ground, or in a raised garden bed or planter, add a layer of organic mulch. This will reduce evaporation by as much as 70 per cent, allowing most of the water to make its way down to the roots where it’s needed — even on the sunniest day. The other benefits are it helps to keep the soil temperature more even, retards the growth of weeds (which compete with your edible plants for water) and, if you choose the right organic mulch (such as pea straw or lucerne), when it breaks down it adds nutrients to the soil. The best time to lay down your mulch is after rain or following a thorough watering of the soil. Keep it loose or it’ll act as…

Which will suit your space? Engineered wood. There are several engineered timber decking products manufactured from timber off-cuts that might otherwise go to waste. DeckSTAR boards, for example, are manufactured from unwanted merbau off-cuts that are finger-jointed and then laminated to form one solid piece. Each board is straight and prefinished with an oil coating, eliminating the prep involved with milled timber. Another option is edeck, an engineered jarrah product made from sustainable jarrah wood waste and shorts. This pre-oiled decking can be complemented with engineered jarrah posts, stair treads and benchtops. As each board is engineered, the problem of random or short lengths is eliminated. Aluminium decking. Timber-look aluminium decking is another alternative. Of course aesthetically they look great, but their durability and functionality are equally prized qualities. Aluminium…

Say hello to your backyard’s new best friend: steel garden edging Aussies have spent a lot more time at home this year, a circumstance which has encouraged everyone to pick up the gardening gloves and shovel. If you’re looking to add something special to your garden, whether that be a veggie patch to supplement the grocery shop, a clear garden path, large-scale feature terracing or raised planters, steel garden edging is a versatile option for many landscaping needs. FormBoss is the benchmark in safe, durable, strong and flexible steel garden edging. Quick, easy to install and available throughout Australia, steel edging creates professional results with strong, seamless lines. Established as the preferred choice in commercial and public spaces, FormBoss has now become a proven favourite in domestic garden design. Steel…

Welcome to your new-look Outdoor Living magazine, which comes with a whole other magazine — Backyard — at the back. Just turn it around and upside down and voila! There’s been no scrimping on fabulous Outdoor Living content — we’ve still got all your favourites, including fabulous designer gardens to inspire your own outdoor makeovers, with beautiful projects from across Australia as well as a particularly funky Californian backyard! There are plenty more overseas ideas for you to swoon over in Snapshot, from p13, and in Plant Spotlight this issue, Brenden Moore spills the beans on his favourite plants and how to love them! Our special feature is an in-depth look at the different room styles you can incorporate into your outdoor space. After all, it’s not just lounging and…

BLUE FLAX-LILY Dianella revoluta An incredibly hardy native plant, the blue flax-lily grows in clumps that explode with lush green native grass. Butterflies and bees gather around the petite blue flowers and the edible blue-purple berries — add the berries to your salad or dessert straight from your very own bush tucker garden. Aboriginal people use this berry to dye material and the leaves can be woven into many useful items. The base of the leaves even makes a good whistle for communication! With the berries and flowers present for many months each year, this is an interesting and beautiful easy-care plant. MAT RUSH Lomandra longifolia Lomandra is an evergreen grass with long and lush fibrous leaves. Drought- and pest-tolerant, it thrives in well-drained sandy soil and clay loam soil.…

• How big should my furniture be? Do I want to create around key pieces, or furnish from scratch? • How many people am I likely to entertain at any one time? • Is what I’m planning in the way of a high-traffic zone into or out of my home? • Where will I stand, and where will I sit? • Will I need space for deck chairs, pot plants, yoga mats, meditation accessories, storage cabinets or hammocks? • Where will I cook, and how far is my cooking and food prep area from my seating area? (You don’t want the barbecue right up against the back of someone’s chair) • Do I need any type of privacy screening, flooring solutions or roofing? • Are there any potential plumbing, drainage…

A well-designed garden can draw you in, wrap you up and transport you to another world. It can be a place of play and excitement, as well as a place of calm and relaxation. “Good garden design should motivate you and your family to be outside, to change your behaviour, to be among nature and enjoy the outdoors — that’s what it’s all about, creating experiences,” says Mark Bell, owner and creative director of Bell Landscapes. This family home in Rozelle, New South Wales, had an average backyard. A levelled, enclosed turf area with a few plants along the fence was about the extent of it. “There was very little interest, nowhere to sit, no shade, and no motivating reason to go outside,” Mark says. The only request from the…

An outdoor area is the place for year-round enjoyment and entertaining. Whether breaking out the barbie in summer or toasting marshmallows around a firepit in winter, one of the most important features in a great outdoor area is the roof above your head. Escape the relentless sun with shading or enjoy a book on your patio while the rain beats down on your garden, all with a customised outdoor area and shelter that’ll keep you comfortable whatever the weather. Pergola Land specialises in custom-designed and -built outdoor living spaces. From pergolas and opening roof systems to decks and alfresco areas, Pergola Land has you covered. Each outdoor area is tailored to the homeowner’s needs, so no two jobs are the same. One of the company’s most popular roofing solutions is…

As the Plant Life Balance simple science report nicely summarises, surrounding ourselves with plants can boost our mood and create feelings of relaxation and positivity. Evidence-based research has repeatedly proven we feel better after spending time outdoors in the natural environment. This can be anything from being in the garden, digging up a veggie patch or simply sitting back in your office chair and viewing green space from your workspace. Nature is a soul food and healer and every bit counts as it has a cumulative effect. For kids, spending time outdoors is both liberating and empowering and their imaginations are enhanced by free unstructured play. Learning in natural environments, such as the backyard or the garden, encourages self-mastery through risk taking, resilience, self-regulation and self-discovery. Not to mention children…

AN AUSTRALIAN GARDEN PHILIP COX THAMES & HUDSON | $70 Forty years ago, renowned architect Philip Cox, along with a group of like-minded friends, bought 80 hectares of land as a private retreat and conservation exercise. This stunning picture-led book is a celebration of the beautiful and diverse landscape that resulted. Through fantastic photography, discover lakes and ponds, bush and gullies, pavilions and garden rooms, accompanied by enchanting descriptions that dispense with flowery hyperbole and simply tell the tale as it should be told. From indigenous flora done right, to stunning sculptures and unique art pieces, there’s so much to enjoy in these pages. A real highlight is the beautiful “branch waves” on page 96. This is a coffee table book to treasure. INCREDIBLE EDIBLES MATTHEW BIGGS PENGUIN BOOKS |…

If you want to ensure optimum water penetration and retention, not to mention plant growth, you need soil that’s teaming with life, not chemicals. “Lifeless soil means plants struggle to grow. Often, no matter how much you water and fertilise the garden, it just won’t come good. We can blame the weather but the real reason why the soil is dry is because it’s lifeless and that’s down to our own gardening practices,” says Colin Johnson of Earthlife. “Chemical fertilisers are toxic to the life in the soil, synthetic wetting agents can lock up moisture (which means plants have to work harder to access the water), while composting organic matter without biology can contribute to the creation of a lifeless, hydrophobic environment.” Colin recommends the use of environmentally friendly, microbial…

The shade from a pergola makes a big difference to the internal temperature of your home. When positioned on the north-facing side, summer sun is kept off walls and windows and, if the pergola is high enough, winter sun still streams in underneath. With some simple calculations, you can add angled blades across the top that exclude high-altitude sun but are exactly right for low-angled winter sun to get through. For example, if you live in Sydney, angle them at just over 30 degrees from horizontal. The spacings, width and thickness of each blade are important too, as the thicker it is, the greater the proportion of winter shade it will cast. To exclude summer sun, the blades need to overlap by about 25 per cent.…

Aussies have many reasons to love the alfresco life, not least of which are our country’s sunny weather, breathtaking natural landscapes and the sheer sense of potential carried on a warm summer breeze. However, the COVID-19 lockdown changed the way we interact with outdoor spaces and the people who share them with us, and we’re now focusing more than ever on evolving our homes and backyards for better “at home” living. Alfresco dining and living areas, outdoor bathrooms, and meditation nooks aren’t just a “here today, gone tomorrow” trend. Australia’s climate and culture are both well suited to “living” outdoors, and this has become an automatic extension and integral part of architecture in the modern-day home according to Dean Herald, managing director and principal designer at Rolling Stone Landscapes. Dean…

DOs • Be prepared to think outside the box. An outdoor bathroom space is different to an inside one and so doesn’t have to fit the established norms of bathroom design. Be open to recycling vintage products such as baths or mirrors to help create a unique and personal space. • Material selection is critical. If y ou’re looking to install tapware outside where it can be exposed to the elements, particularly in coast al areas with high salt, be sure to look for 316 stainless steel tapware and accessories that pr ovide superior corrosion resistance. • Look to make use of your backyard’s existing natural features. This could include designing your bathroom space around established trees and bushes to provide appropriate shade and privacy. DON’Ts • Don’t forget to…

BRING THE OUTSIDE INSIDE-OUT Think you need soil in order to grow plants? Think again. Designer and plant lover Eran Zarhi teamed up with his entrepreneurial friend Elad Burko to launch the “inside out” hydroponic Terraplanter that uses only water, diffusing it slowly from the inner chamber, through the porous ceramic material, to sustain the plant growing on the outside. Eran was inspired by the way plants grow naturally in rainforests and similarly humid environments. Still in crowdfund stage (on indiegogo.com), the cute, innovative piece is made with 100 per cent natural materials and can be used over and over again, for growing plants as diverse as moss, ferns and grass, and even a Venus fly trap! terraplanter.com UNDERGROUND MARVEL Composting has been around for donkey’s years, of course, but…

“When it comes to designing the layout of your plants in your veggie garden, you have to group together plants from similar plant families and those with compatible water requirements,” horticulturist Glenice Buck says. “For example, lettuce, corn, celery, cabbage and cucumbers all need more water than, say, carrots, beetroots, onions and parsnips. By grouping these together you’ll know how much water each area of the vegetable garden will require and you won’t waste water on plants that don’t need it.”…

Hand-watering your veggie beds or planters can have the advantage of allowing you to observe how your plants are faring on a regular basis (as opposed to an irrigation system that you can set and forget), but it can also lead to significant water wastage and uneven watering. If using a hand-held hose, it needs to have a trigger spray that automatically shuts off when you release your grip. This is a requirement of water supply authorities. To prevent wasting too much water, don’t water when it’s windy and concentrate the flow of water on the soil rather than the leaves of the plants. Water left on leaves will evaporate on a hot day (which is a waste) but in cooler weather, if the leaves are too wet too often,…

Consider space and size; if your pergola’s too big and your garden’s too small, it’s going to dominate the outdoor area and make it feel smaller overall. Placement is equally important; you need to consider what the view will be from every window in the back of the house. Will the pergola obstruct the outlook or disrupt the visual flow of the garden? For this reason, set to the side is often best, but if you want to make it the focal point of your backyard, go for a central spot.…

Toni Salter is a horticulturist and recreation activity officer at The Veggie Lady, as well as a Plant Life Balance advocate. She’s a big believer in the health benefits time spent gardening can provide. “If we look at the Plant Life Balance simple science report, it tells us the benefits of plants on our wellbeing is something that’s been researched for more than 50 years,” she explains. “The studies show that plants have the ability to create feelings of relaxation and positivity. An important study conducted by Deakin University and funded by BeyondBlue, titled Beyond Blue to Green, also confirms the myriad benefits of contact with nature for our mental health and wellbeing.” Tending a garden or potted plants, she explains, helps us to focus on external elements instead of…

Dean Herald uses a tried-and-tested approach when coming to grips with a new design project. It’s a useful guide to consider when planning your own dream outdoor space. “I’ve always said that I work for three clients,” he explains … • Physical client: “This is the actual client and their wish list — they want an alfresco dining area, they want a pool, they’ve given me their big-ticket wish list.” • The architecture: “Whether it’s a full-on contemporary glass box or a heritage home with ornate timber or sandstone work, the architecture will influence the design, so the architecture of any home has a voice as a client, really.” • The environment: “This would be the topography of the land, which way it flows, whether there are overhanging trees, drainage…

For most, our biggest investment is our home. As we move into the hottest season of the year, it’s time to take your outdoor area up a notch to improve your fun in the sun. Cabanas are back in vogue as a way to link outdoor areas and provide shade close to facilities such as a tennis court or pool. Consistent features and materials throughout your outdoor area will create a cohesive whole and make the transition easier from one space to the next. A big trend in cabanas is to design adjustable external walls and floor plans for extra versatility. Sliding and concertinaed doors, movable internal partitions, removable external walls, retractable ceilings and awnings and louvres that can be opened or shut are all features to consider. A flexible…