Debs’ first concept plan for our new backyard contained a glass pool fence. She was a little thrown when I rejected it. “Ohh,” she said, “you really meant it when you said you didn’t want anything new or modern." And after that we were away, Debs embracing, in spite of her own predilection for contemporary design and subtropical planting, my lifelong love of European gardens and antiques. I requested a lot of green, abundant layered, pleached hedging, plenty of formal, fragrant planting and a to-die-for pool and spa area, and she delivered. When it came time to do our front garden, I wanted to be a little braver in the plant choice. I asked her for colour - although not too much and in a very specific palette: no yellow and a lot of those greeny-pinks it’s hard to put a name to - and I asked for picking flowers and topiary balls intermingled with useful plants (herbs and fruiting trees), all set in structure but with soft edges. I guess what I really wanted was a front yard people walking past would stop to look at.  I got it.

A formal European style garden with pool and ‘nothing modern’ was the brief for this back garden which in 2018 still had the original sloping rear garden complete with large grapefruit, feijoa and guava trees. I started the design by making the decision to step down from the original ground heights and create a ‘sunken’ pool garden. This involved the use of very large retaining poles on the north-eastern side of the garden.

The emerald green pool was designed by me. It had to be deep but with a ‘shelf’ for lounging and sitting. There is a fully tiled spa incorporated into the design. Topia Design turned my concept plan into consent-ready drawings and Executive Pools built the pool. The tiles were from Middle Earth and were placed using a herringbone pattern often seen in Moroccan pools. The pool coping and surrounds are Antique Shahabad Indian Limestone from Timeless Stone in Matakana. I loved the colour and texture of this stone (and luckily so did my clients). It’s described as ‘a wild blend of the earth's colours and olive shades with splashes of copper – works well with most design backdrops given its naturally occurring diversity’. Also important when choosing a coping stone for any new pool is the choice of pool treatment chemicals. Some stone is unable to cope with salt water. This limestone was perfect as my clients wanted to have a salt water pool eventually, but start with a chemical pool. We wanted grass around the pool seen in so many European gardens, but it’s very hard to keep grass looking good especially around a wet area like a pool and in shade. We opted instead to use TigerTurf in the most natural shade/texture we could find and my clients have never regretted it. It’s nice underfoot and pleasant to lay a towel on. The pool  is surrounded by a wall of tall green Eugenia ventenatii pleached hedging  (in part because the existing garden had some and we wanted to use what we had, if we could), underplanted with fragrant gardenia and prostrate rosemary. A ‘family’ of 5 clipped buxus balls nestle against the water feature to honour the family including their family dog Roxy. Five Cupressus sempervirens Totem are a focal point as you look out across the pool, and two act as sentry on either side of the pool gates as you descend into the pool area. These trees were chosen in part to ‘hide’ the neighbour’s roofline and to evoke Tuscany.

We used a bespoke designed wrought iron pool fencing and gates manufactured by Wrought Iron Products in Glenfield. A ‘hedge’ of citrus frames the pool on the house side and all hedging is underplanted with gardenia and/or prostrate rosemary.

Dave and his team at Nikau Landscapes installed all the hard landscaping including the water feature which is a plastered concrete wall with long flat water spout. Dave sourced and planted the larger ‘hedging’ plants. A team and I planted the smaller, softer plants/greenscapes.

3 years after the pool area was completed the owners embarked on a large renovation which included the addition of a glorious conservatory affectionately known as the ‘glass house’. The owner’s mum Lynne Browning was the designer and Lynne and I collaborated beautifully on all spaces connecting the interior with the exterior. Lynne loved the ‘Antique Shahabad’ Indian limestone from Timeless Stone in Matakana we had used in the pool area so much, she specified the same stone for the floor of the glass house, the external bathroom and mudroom and laundry adjoining the house and garage. It makes the inside and outdoor spaces merge beautifully into each other.

Staying with the European garden aesthetic I designed a very axial formal garden. There is a second story veranda as part of the master suite so the garden needed to be beautiful to walk through, look at from the street and look down upon. I centered the main pedestrian entrance with steps up from the pavement into what felt like a comfortable garden height. Because I was involved at the very initial stages of the design, I was able to get the pedestrian access into and out of the garage moved and ‘centered’ into my design.  The main entrance to the house is not at the front of the house, but down the north western side. A major design challenge for me when designing the front garden, was managing the various levels (pavement, finished floor level of house, garage, pool garden) and ensuring the journey from the front gate (including its position) to the front door and out to the pool garden was interesting and enjoyable.

I designed what I have called ‘wedding cake steps’ from the side path up to the front door and then down again into the back garden. I created a ‘rug’ out of my client’s feature tile set into the limestone pavers. A wooden gate in keeping with one of the original bungalow aesthetics separates the front and back garden. Through the gate you will encounter a utility area which houses a clothesline, air conditioning units and access to under house storage and pool equipment. Incorporated into the front garden is a utility area for bins.

My client’s colour palette called for lots of green and pinky-green flowers. I chose Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ as the central tree and four Cercis chinensis 'Spring Snow’. The Forest pansy is an excellent small specimen tree as it won’t grow taller than 4m. It has a beautiful open habit and the leaves are (in my opinion) more beautiful than the flowers. Purple red heart shaped leaves will appear after the magenta flowers bloom on bare branches in early spring.  ‘Spring Snow’ will only grow to 3m max and is also perfect for seasonal change. Bare branches get smothered in clusters of bright white flowers (like snow) and are followed by rich-green hart shaped leaves. These trees provide seasonal interest and won’t shade the garden during winter.

There are over 45 clipped evergreen balls for year-round structure.Buxus microphylla, Buxus Green Gem, Westringia ‘Low Horizon’, Teucrium fruiticans, Laurus nobilis Verdi and Pride of Provence, Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ and a single Podocarpus Gracilior. These globes give the garden it’s ‘winter structure’. As does the use of multiple varieties of thyme as a groundcover and several perennials which do not die back completely. We then have a variety of perennials to provide a constant supply of cut flowers for my client during summer and autumn.

The treatment of the berm caused much discussion. We ‘landed’ on crimson clover (also called ‘Italian clover’. Nice. It’s been mistaken for red lavender. It’s much photographed. The bees adore it as do other pollinators and beneficial insects, contributing to biodiversity and pollination in the garden. We’re still experimenting but after the first sowing last summer, a top up during autumn resulted in a bountiful spring flush. (Fingers crossed it still looks good in November).

“An enchanting weave of clipped green balls, picking and edible plants with limestone paved paths beneath key specimen trees greets you as you step through the wrought iron rose-clad arch. A portico has seating and table to enjoy the courtyard’s charms and afternoon sun.”