The key elements you designed into the garden are the deck, pool, the built fireplace, the campfire spot and the kayak jetty. Do you have a favourite section and what do you love about each one?
We wanted a pool, and I liked the pure geometry of the circle. Even though it’s a natural pool we didn’t need it to be a natural shape. That shape was an experiment and a bit of a radical idea, which is hard for me to test with clients but we were prepared to have a crack at it as it didn’t have to be perfect. The circular geometry means it looks like a pond and from up above at the house it reflects the trees. Ducks and kookaburras come in, and the frogs get in at the frog-ladder as well.
We worked with Wayne Zwar and Annika Kvist from Natural Swimming Pools. They use a European system where plants filter the water naturally, without chemicals. And we didn’t want a big bright blue shiny thing, so carefully chose tiles that were more natural and the palette sits in the bush perfectly.
Then there’s the fireplace, which I designed off the chimney ruin that was already on the site. The campfire spot is right at the bottom, quite away from the house, so it’s somewhere we thought the kids would like to hang out as they get older.
The deck is lovely. It’s so easy to sit out and enjoy the garden from there. It’s a long way to the bottom of the garden so most of the time we enjoy it from inside or on the deck while we’re working inside.
Down the bottom we have boats and a jetty on the river that we share with our neighbour. It’s quite a long way from the house but it’s beautiful down the bottom, in the river valley.
Why did choose to bring in landscaper Sam Cox and how did you collaborate on the garden design?
It’s a south-facing, shady site, and hard to plant on a hill. We are used to doing our own gardening but we didn’t have the skills for that so worked with Sam Cox on the landscaping.
We knew we didn’t want to build terraces or retaining walls, so Sam brought in an enormous amount of rocks to create paths and shortcuts through the garden. His plant knowledge is terrific. He has an inventory of plants that he uses to give form and create a natural landscape. Sam took care of the plant choices, planting and rock work and my partner and I designed the other elements.
My partner had also planted a heap of plants before Sam came on board, which continue on now. He’ll just try things by chucking them in and letting them go. He’s put in lots of pretty, spectacular plants. I often talk about having a ‘Margaret Preston garden’ full of waratahs, banksias, kangaroo paws, flowering gums and wattles – flowers that make for a beautiful bunch of flowers to give someone.