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Cammeray Garden
The Cammeray Garden was designed for a busy professional couple who were looking for someone to help them enjoy their large courtyard garden. They had a wealth of ideas and a collection of clippings, colour-boards, samples and ideas they’d been gathering for at least two years.
Design SolutionThe design idea that we embraced for this garden was one of sweeping curves. A ribbon of water, flanked on one side by a generous rendered bench, bordered by two levels of deck and a set of curved terraces as stairs. The deck is built from a small-format ironbark, which will eventually age to a soft dove-grey. So that the water can be enjoyed from both levels and viewed from the lounge room too, a run of pebbles pours down the northern border of the property ending at the pond filled with Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) and Sweet Flag (Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’) that cuts into the lower deck. The trough is constructed out of marine-grade aluminium. The wider end acts as a harbour for spotlights and some African papyrus while the beds beside the water flow are clumped with stands of blue iris echoing the painting the owners loved indoors.
By a happy engineering of dynamics, the water pours into the lower pond in a neat liquid twist of 180 degrees. I couldn’t resist putting in an extra light to draw attention to this perfect mini-drama. Low-voltage halogen lights draw attention to the walls and benches. Pebbles are graded from light to dark giving the riverbed more movement, and black bamboo grows down the northern border.
‘When I look at this garden I see all the basic elements that encapsulate my design ethic: incremental changes of level, water-trails cradling the seating area in sinuous curves, simple upright structural foliage that maximises screening while increasing useable floor-space and finally, a subtle blend of natural and man-made materials.’
Create this look in your garden
PLANTS
1. Sweet Flag Acorus gramineus ‘Ogon’
2. Dutch Iris Iris x xlphium
3. Water Lily Nymphaea sp.
4. Black Bamboo Phyllos
5. Umbrella Sedge Cyperus involucratus
6. Small Leafed Stretitzia Strelitzia reginae var. parvifolia
7. Papyrus Cyperus papyrus
MATERIALS
1. Oiled ironbark decking
2. Walls clad with Natureed sheets
3. Step lights in benches and retaining walls
4. Limewash Boncote ‘bark’
5. Marine grade aluminium trough set into brick work
6. Black polished Chinese pebbles
7. ‘Anvil’ granite pebbles
8. ‘Cowra’ white pebbles
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16 December 2011 |
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05 August 2011 |
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04 June 2011 |
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01 March 2011 |
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02 February 2011 |
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