What an opportunity! A newly constructed property on multi levels offering a wide spacious feel within. The garden at the rear was wider than it was long and with little more than an existing color bond fence holding all the importance.

Where to start? It was important to develop a design which reflected the main property so the following is the vision which was designed.

From the moment you enter the house your attention is caught by the bright and airy lounge. Your eye has little time to rest as the garden is seamlessly connected from the foresight of installing a full floor-to-ceiling, frameless, glass set of by-fold doors. Initially you can see a sunken entertaining area. As you get closer you appreciate it holds a day bed recessed within raised planters supporting dark caned bamboos, facilities for a multi purpose built-in outdoor kitchen allowing for a full family dining experience. From here the presence of generous sized steps offer you to the upper garden whilst doubling up as seating with contrasting seat cushions dotted about. Slowly going up the steps, you can see the sun glisten off the large urn, spilling water quietly whilst connecting your eye to the distressed timber totems behind, pushing their way up through the soft shiny flowing leaf of the Liriope. Their placement strategically draws your eye through the garden, past feature plantings around the pool to the cabana.

With your eye transfixed, you are drawn towards the cabana seemingly out of reach due to the pool. The Cabana is set back, having a water channel around its access points; the wet-edge defining its boundary forcing you to step over. This channel doubles up as a great place for the kids to safely sit in and feel the water jet behind. Having stepped over into the cabana, the seating just calls for you to rest. From here you simply soak in its sparkling colours and sounds from where you have just come. Water flows effortlessly into the pool creating sound, giving it that fun appeal by means of the cascading spa edge and unique totem water spouts. The wide shallow underwater steps, leading into the heated pool off the cabana, enticing you to swim to the sunken seating ledge under a large specimen ‘Aloe barberae 'Tree Aloe', or to laze in the shallow beach pool.

The partially sunken spa with its glass-sided walling creates an effect which can be appreciated throughout the garden and lower entertaining space. At night, the garden takes on a completely different ambiance. With the fully interchangeable lighting system you can create a plethora of moods to suit your evening and individually draw to the fore the various features placed throughout the garden. The central light source to the garden would be the glass-sided spa. The lighting within the spa causes the glass to shimmer and create a blue band of light, purposely to call on you to enter and relax under the night sky, while listening to the soft tones of music drifting through the air from the discreet audio system. Plantings in the garden, still young, have been chosen to provide a framing to the various spaces yet ensure that maintenance is at a minimum. As time goes by they will start to fill their space and complementary secondary plants shall be introduced to compliment and add colour flashes throughout. It was an absolute pleasure to be involved in the creation of this garden and I wish to thank my clients for their involvement in its creation. Collectively we have transformed an ordinary back garden into a fully functional entertaining and fun space. One that will just improve with age and mature to suit the client’s lifestyle.