This expansive residential landscape was conceived as a private oasis — a sequence of outdoor rooms designed to soften a newly built home while supporting relaxed family living and generous entertaining. With the benefit of a large site, the opportunity was not simply to landscape around a house, but to create a connected garden experience that unfolds across the property, offering moments of retreat, activity and calm.
From the outset, the client’s vision was clear:
a landscape that felt immersive and green, where built elements were softened by planting and the home appeared to sit gently within its garden setting. The front garden was designed to be simple and elegant, establishing privacy from the street while maintaining a sense of openness. A refined front fence and generous driveway provide functional access to the garage, while layered planting wraps the perimeter and architectural elements, ensuring the arrival experience feels lush rather than hard-edged.
The rear garden became the heart of the project.
A swimming pool was a central requirement, with the brief calling for the largest possible pool within the constraints of existing underground stormwater infrastructure. Careful coordination during design and documentation allowed the pool to be optimally positioned without compromising site services, ensuring both performance and longevity.
With older children in the household, the garden needed to support multiple modes of use. A cabana was introduced as a flexible retreat — equally suited to quiet relaxation, poolside lounging or practical use during entertaining. The inclusion of a discreetly integrated toilet within the cabana enhances functionality, allowing the pool and garden to operate independently from the house during gatherings.
Planting plays a defining role throughout the landscape.
The generous depth of garden beds allowed for richly layered compositions, combining varied heights, textures and variegated foliage to create filtered views and visual depth. Rather than relying on a single planting style, the palette was carefully balanced to feel lush yet ordered, providing year-round interest without overwhelming the architecture.
Side setbacks, often underutilised, became important contributors to the overall experience. On the western side of the home, a raised vegetable garden constructed from Sydney sandstone introduces a productive and tactile element to the landscape. Laid in a square random ashlar pattern, the stonework provides both durability and a sense of permanence. On the eastern side, a retaining wall supports a deep garden bed filled with layered planting, creating a dense green buffer that enhances privacy and softens the scale of the home.
In the rear garden, wide steps connect the alfresco area to the pool and landscape beyond, encouraging effortless movement between spaces. Behind the pool, a deep planted zone establishes a lush backdrop using pool-friendly tropical species that work in harmony with the borrowed canopy of neighbouring trees. This layered approach creates the impression that the pool has been carefully inserted into an established landscape rather than newly constructed.
Material selection reinforces the cohesion between house and garden.
Feature walls to the pool and cabana are clad in stone to match the home’s façade, visually anchoring the landscape to the architecture. The pool itself is fully tiled with a custom blend, developed specifically for this project to evoke the luminous coastal waters of Sardinia — a subtle and personal reference to the client’s heritage. An automatic swim-roll cover is seamlessly integrated into the pool’s structure, preserving clean lines while enhancing safety and ease of use.
Modern technology is discreetly embedded throughout the garden.
Lawns and planting are supported by a fully automatic, Wi-Fi-enabled irrigation system, while LED garden lighting extends the usability of the space into the evening, highlighting key plantings and architectural elements without overpowering the garden’s natural character. Boundary fencing in Monument-coloured mini-orb steel provides a refined, contemporary backdrop that allows the greenery to take centre stage.
Delivered during the challenges of the COVID period, the project reflects careful coordination, resilience and a commitment to quality. The result is a family-focused landscape that balances luxury with warmth — a garden designed to evolve over time while remaining deeply connected to the rhythms of everyday life.
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