Simplistic in its landscape design, our Camberwell Soldiers project located in Melbourne’s leafy inner-city suburbs embodies the quintessential family home of our dreams.
In the front garden, we opted for a simple planting palette. Two citrus trees framed the entrance up onto the front verandah. They were underplanted with Stachys ‘Silky Fleece’, Liriope ‘Just Right’, and Rhaphiolepis ‘Cosmic White’. We introduced a beautiful Lagerstroemia ‘Natchez’ tree for a burst of white blooms in late summer. Travelling along the boundary fence and into the rear garden is Trachelospermum jasminoides underplanted with Liriope.
The rear garden comprises three main features: the show-stopping Eucalyptus tree, the curved concrete path and bench seat and the polished concrete panels covered with Boston Ivy. And while three key design elements may seem like a lot for one garden space, the three marry together perfectly to create this contemporary yet retro feel.
We designed the pool area to be level with the extension of the home and the existing outdoor entertaining area. The concrete panels travelling across the pool area match the house’s architecture, providing a sense of continuity from the home’s design into the landscape. Parthenocissus tricuspidata – Boston Ivy will eventually creep up the panels, covering them entirely, creating an army of what we like to call ‘green soldiers’ before travelling across the wire at the top to create this lush wall of green separating the pool and lawn areas.
Our design team envisioned a sunken garden feel in the lawn area that sat beneath and featured the Eucalyptus tree. We designed the floating concrete bench and walkway to provide ease of access to the pool area from the lawn and allow underplanting to achieve the sunken look. Planted underneath the seat are Ajuga reptans while Stachys ‘Silky Fleece’, Liriope ‘Just Right’ and Rhaphiolepis ‘Springtime’ fill the rest of the garden bed – mirroring the planting palette in the front garden for consistency.
