Glenora Customer Vision

• Customer was hoping for a modern and simple design to complement the long narrow line of their home.
• They wanted to incorporate existing large trees.
• A space for entertaining that was accessible from their outdoor kitchen. This space should be big enough then for a fire pit with built in seating.
• Entertainment space needed a veil of privacy but nothing too dense or severe.
• An area for a dog run.
• Space for a basketball hoop directly off the driveway.
• Garden lighting at the front door and patio areas.

The Challenges

• The garden had an awkward space to deal with. There was along narrow front that then turned the corner in to a large slightly curved shape.
• The need for some privacy was a challenge due to the amount of foot and vehicle traffic along 2 sides of the home.
• Removal of existing landscaping would impact on the raised beds in the neighbour’s garden.
• As an infill there were grading issues that needed to be addressed to ensure regulations were met at the neighbour’s fence line. This grading would also be an issue as we planned on siting a concrete seating wall close to the slope of that grading.

The Design

• The over-riding principle of the design was to clone the long, narrow footprint of the house and create long rectangular spaces. These would then become almost corridors of lawn.
• To prevent the garden from looking too fussy and ‘over-designed’ this strong linear approach would have to fade away as the lawn became larger. However it had to include some of those features to tie the overall space together.
• The planting was minimal and simplistic to help embolden the effect of the rectangular lawns. The beds were sited to include existing trees. Ornamental grasses were used to create screens of privacy without being too dense.
• Once these dimensions were created it would be easier to develop considered solutions to small areas of space left after the new home was built.
• The patio was long and narrow, in keeping with the overall design ethos.
• The patio spurred in to a concrete walled seating area which incorporated wooden seating cantilevered in to the concrete. This seating area then had the firepit at its center.
• The dog run was given over to a long and narrow side garden as access to this area was through a mud room. Artificial lawn for Dog Runs was used to make the area easy to maintain and clean.