Newtown

This garden is a pleasure to watch unfold.  Planted out with a mixture of young and mature plants it has been quick to establish, attracts native bird life and is already home to a family of frogs!

An extensive industrial style renovation designed by Nick Hibberd Architect, converted an old stable structure at the back of the garden into a studio, and modernized the rear of this traditional four bedroom Victorian terrace.  

The clients wanted to link these two buildings with a garden to view and enjoy from inside, as well as a garden to relax in.  The tallow wood deck, reading nook and seating framed the space to accentuate a garden as the centrepiece. 

The brief included highlighting Australian native plants; attracting wildlife and increasing the bio-mass of the outdoor area to compensate for the extra building now on site.

The design includes a deep corten steel drum to offer both planting depth for the main feature tree, the grafted Eucalyptus ficifolia ''Wildfire', and link with elements of the industrial style renovation. A mound was created around the drum for further plantings such as kangaroo paw, dwarf banksias, wattle, native grasses and soil binding ground covers such as native violet and creeping purple wax flower.  Raising the ground level in this way also served a dual purpose to give better drainage for these plants on a clay  based soil. Cut logs from a special fallen Eucalytpus from site were reused as seats in the garden.

An edible garden was  positioned in the sunniest part of the outdoor area, opposite the garage doors, whilst paving here allowed for continued off street parking when necessary, and a patio area for the studio.