The brief for this garden was to introduce a contemporary and usable space around the architectural addition at the rear of the house that connects with a re-imagined front garden.
The challenge was to make a stylistically cohesive space that feels modern but with a nod to the historic character of the facade of the villa owing to the street. The garden is in three main parts.

The space to the west of the house provides a pool garden with a small terrace of decking set within planting. Porcelain tiles were imported from Italy to clad the pool wall. Existing Nikau palms were retained at the north end of the pool and a hedge of Chamadoreacostariciana planted behind the pool wall to create a textured and lush surround.

The garden running down the north side of the house provides an external living space adjoining the kitchen and living room. With limited width to the space between the house and the boundary the length was used to create a linear garden interrupted with planting to create two main sitting areas, (outdoor lounging and dining) with niches for BBQ, herb garden and benches. A combination of bay hedges and pleachedficus give an evergreen backdrop with a collection of pots and planters playing host to small trees, orchids and perennials.

The front garden sought to maximise the size of a central rectangle of lawn for the kids to play on. Planting around the lawn includes deciduous flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses and shade tolerant plants selected for their texture and varied shades of green. The plant palette here aims to be consistent with the rest of the garden while including some perennial flower as a nod to a tradition of gardening perhaps more associated with the former life of the villa.