Secret Gardens client’s were a young professional couple with 3 young children. The garden design brief was to create an outdoor entertaining area in a small courtyard that was kid friendly.

Design solution:

1. Where there is minimal space, consider a built in bench seat as a space saver. The garden design created a wider section that acted as a day bed. Add some comfortable outdoor cushions and you have the perfect space for entertaining or relaxing and reading a book.

2. Consider the proximity to your indoor areas and don’t repeat everything outside if you are limited for space. The indoor dining area was less than 6 metres away, so rather than repeat a dining zone, an outdoor lounge area was created. This creates a more casual entertaining zone and a great spot for the kids too.

3. Decking and wide steps manage the height levels in the back garden. Wide steps are easier for kids to navigate and decking provides a softer surface. The wide steps also allow extra seating for larger gatherings.

4. A retractable shade cover across the area ensures the kids can play outside during the day and adults can enjoy the outdoors without the hot Sydney sun!

5. Clever lighting extends the use of the outdoor area at night.

The May issue of Outdoor Rooms has a feature on Family Fun that profiles Secret Gardens Woollahra landscape design. The feature discusses options for making your backyard friendly for the entire family.

What a makeover! This garden design before and after shows a dramatic transformation. Located on the North shore at Lane Cove, the garden was not a place that you would want to spend time in.

The design focused on creating structure and defining outdoor spaces the clients could functionally use – an entertaining area; wide lawn area for kicking a ball and a kids zone at the rear of the garden. The central, wide stairs at each level provide a focal point and a level of sophistication to the design.

The May edition of the Real Estate Institute’s Journal featured Secret Gardens Randwick Courtyard Garden. The article discusses how well planned and maintained outdoor living spaces can help to increase the value of your property.

Tuckeroo – firstly what a great sounding Australian name!

This is a great all round evergreen tree, with flushes of bright glowing new growth through Spring and Summer. A medium sized tree ranging between 8-15m tall at maturity it forms a dense rounded shape and offers a lovely shade solution for gardens.

Botanical name:               Cupaniopsis anacardioides
Common name:              Tuckeroo
Family:                              Sapindaceae
Origin:                               From Central Coast NSW, through QLD, Northern Australia

Come Spring time, it bears greenish yellow flowers followed by orange fleshy aril berries contained in showy orange seed pods in Summer. It is a smart selection for a range of locations including coastal exposure, tropical heat and works well as a specimen tree, wind break and street tree. Definitely a favourite of ours at Secret Gardens.

Happy Tuckerooing…

We are hope you are enjoying Anzac Day. Anzac Day is symbolic of the Australian spirit and there are some plants that are associated with this special day that we wanted to share with you… let us know your favourite?

Flanders poppy

This vibrant red Poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day. In World War 1, red poppies sprung up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium. The bright red colour became a symbol of the blood of the fallen soldiers.

Rosemary

Traditionally, sprigs of rosemary are worn on ANZAC Day and sometimes on Remembrance Day. It was found growing wild on the Gallipoli peninsula and is closely associated with soldiers memories from this area.

Lone Pine
These once dominated the Gallipoli Peninsula. The area and following battles became known as Lone Pine. Australian soldiers sent the seeds or cones home and now they are found throughout Australia.

Secret Gardens Autumn Gardening Tips

Roger our expert Horticulturist gives you his autumn gardening tips for keeping your garden healthy and preparing it for the months ahead. If you have any questions on your garden send them to us and we will get Roger to answer them for you.

1. Aerate your lawn and lightly feed it to strengthen for winter. Check for lawn grub, we are seeing a lot of cases of this at the moment.
2. Cutback summer flowering perennials.
3. It’s the perfect time to transplant and move shrubs and plants to a new home while the weather is cool. Always apply Seasol for a speedy recovery.
4. Plant winter greens, such as Cabbage, Broccoli , Coriander and Beetroot. Plant a grafted passionfruit so its established and ready to fruit in summer.
5. Weed, weed, weed. Many summer weeds will set seed now so remove them quickly before the seeds reach the ground and you will have less weeding to do in Spring.
6. Disentangle climbers and cut back leggy summer growth on established plants or train onto wires/frames for young plants. Don’t cut into hardwood as you may reduce flowering in spring.
7. Dead head (remove old flowers and seed heads) your Roses to prolong flowering before winter pruning.
8. Remove fallen leaves from lawns and garden beds and compost, add a sprinkling of manure pellets between layers to speed up the process.
9. Winter flowering annuals such as Pansies, Primula, Cinerarias, or try the hardy native Rhodanthe ‘Paper Daisy’, all provide much needed winter colour but need to be planted now to maximise flowering time.

This week Habitus Living spoke with Secret Gardens of Sydney Director Matthew Cantwell about how to approach a potential landscape architecture project, common issues faced by clients, and how the landscaping component of a renovation or build can interact with the architectural one.

» Read the full article

Did you catch our photos of our photographer shooting this penthouse garden? We love the simple colour palette used, a selection of green plants. Various foliage’s and styles of plants create interest but the overall effect is very calming and cooling. In most gardens there are different colours, flowers etc used but it is refreshing to see the restraint in the design of this garden, and part of our clients brief, to keep it simple. We believe in the busy environment, it is what makes it so beautiful. What do you think makes this garden design work? See more photos »

Ever wanted to get behind the scenes and find out more about garden construction? Like, how do you get a large tree into a courtyard garden in Potts Point?

There are a lot of logistics involved  - such as closing streets, council permits, cranes and good old people power! For those curious to see the finished rooftop garden. [[Show as slideshow]]