Adelaide Hills

Project Overview

Working with the terrain to create and evolving, practical garden space.

Challenges

I first met the owners of this property before their house was built. Their block is on the side of a cleared gully with amazing views which the house site would take advantage of. On completion of their huge dream home for their ever expanding family we commenced what would be the first stage of many landscaping projects. It was clear that with such a large block that we would have to break down the whole job into sections and complete one at a time. This is always the best way of attacking these large projects. It can be very expensive landscaping on such a large scale and l always would suggest to my clients to do each part of the project thoroughly and with detail rather than trying to complete the whole project cheaply and taking financial shortcuts. We have numerous projects throughout the hills that are at different stages of completion and we continue to chip away at them as the budget allows. One of the benefits of doing these jobs in projects like this, is that it allows for the landscaping job as a whole to evolve. This gives myself and my clients the time to plot and plan every stage and make calculated changes and additions as each project unfolds.

Stage one of the landscaping project in the Adelaide Hills was to sure up the significant bank that was created when the cut was done for the house site. We placed hundreds on tons of large Kapunda and Kanmantoo boulders in situ to retain the bank and create a garden at the same time. We installed steps and a ramped lawn through the rock bank as to access the lower part of the garden . In this area we cut and filled two large sections on the steep block to become a usable lawn area  and another  area which  would become a kids zone with a large cubby house , swings and slides . Stage two was a large dry stone Basket Range Sandstone wall that retained the cut side of the property from the entrance to the rear of the house . We also incorporated a bespoke wood shed that l designed , some stone steps that would lead up to a utility area and proposed productive zone . We also built a wood fired oven into the wall at the rear of the house that get a lot of use by the owners. Stage three was completed in 2019 which is an amazing productive zone at the top of the steps we built as part of stage two. The productive zone is retained on the high and low side of the cut by gabion (weld mesh) retaining walls.We used a similar coloured stone in the gabion wall (weld mesh)to the dry stone wall we had already built in stage two so the two were cohesive.  The productive zone has a variety of raised beds to suit the needs of our clients. Our clients had bought out a beautiful porcelain sink from England where they were from  which we built into a potting table within the confines of the vegetable garden .  We also made a bespoke steel gate out of some old rakes, spades, forks and even a rabbit trap. Our client particularly liked the rabbit trap as they continue to battle these little varmints. Beyond the confines of the rabbit proof productive zone we constructed some compost bays and a green house for our client to grow things out of season especially chillies that they are super keen on growing .

Outcome

From the completion of stage one we have also maintained the garden on this property. This has allowed us to let the garden evolve as we had planned from the start. The gardeners have added many plants, shrubs and trees. Some time ago on a neighbouring property, a house was  constructed which was in the main view from our clients main living area which they were not very pleased about. We extended the irrigation and planted a native forest which in a short time disguised the neighbouring house completely and gave our clients back their unspoilt view. The gardeners are able to maintain the English themed garden with perennials nearly in flower all year round as well as advising and assisting in the vegetable garden. Our clients love getting out in the garden and still enjoy gardening on weekends. They appreciate that with our regular maintenances the large garden doesn’t get away from them and they are free to potter around without having to deal with huge weed issues or overgrown  lawns. l will soon be discussing stage four of this ever evolving property with my lovely clients here in the Adelaide Hills.