Hi Marc, have a look at this new story from architect Dom Bagnato for inspiration: https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/how-to-build-recycled-and-discarded-material-into-your-home-stsetivw-vs~31393879

It always makes my heart sink when a client asks for a "no-maintenance" garden. It tells me they really don't care. In truth, any planting needs a certain amount of care. Plants, like animals, need care. It's true that they're slower than animals to respond to deprivation, but respond they do. And it's not a good look. You might not have a lot of time, or you may not be physically up to a lot of gardening. That's fine - you can choose plants that require a minimum of care and grooming, and if need be hire somebody to do that minimum. But it does require planning. A gardener actively engaged with their garden can (and will!) experiment, try new things, move plants around, notice when things are going right and wrong, and for them a garden is never finished. Contrast that with somebody who wants a garden they don't want to work in or at. They want a garden that is more or less "finished" the day it is installed, rolled out like a stretch of lawn and meant to "behave", to stay static. I can't do a garden like that! Plants grow! They change, the environment around them can change, and what might have succeeded one year is not going to do it the next. It is entirely usual for a planting that just nicely fits a situation to need complete re-planting a few years on because the individual plants have outgrown the site. That's work! It is entirely usual for plants to flower, and for those flowers to set seed and die off. It is entirely usual for some plants to shed leaves as part of their yearly cycle. This "mess" is treated by non-gardeners as a crisis, as a nasty surprise, as something the plants "shouldn't" do. Because it makes work. Well, sorry, but no garden consultant can change the laws of nature. If you want a garden, you've bought work, and if you don't want to do it, you're going to need to pay somebody else. That's fine. Just don't ask for what you can't have.

Hi Azzopardi As previously stated, it's all about your contract.... and the events subsequent. Firstly, I would suggest you post an example ie the details of an item that is being changed that you are unhappy about the most, including the original item specified and the item that is now being installed, together with the background on how that change came about. We can then perhaps give you some advice on that. Also, what type of contract is it? Is it a fixed price / design and construct / cost plus? Thirdly, I suggest you start reading your contract. In it you will find a couple of items you need to look for specifically... They are; 1. Variations - there is a set process whereby any changes to the contract need to follow a methodology. The builder needs some form of approval from you to make changes and it is detailed in this part of the contract. Equally, if you have made changes to the works you have asked your builder to perform then you need to follow the process ie in writing. Have you been having site meetings / progress discussions with your builder? 2. Disputes - there are often disagreements during the building process particularly where one persons recollection of events are different to others. That is why it pays to do everything in writing. That said, there is a mechanism in the contract telling you what to do and how to resolve a dispute with your builder including the use of an independent arbitrator etc. If you follow the steps and put it in writing you will soon find out why the changes are made. Cheers

gorgeous house and will be so much better with some suitable landscaping but, unless you think guests would be comfortable walking up and down the slope, i suggest that entry should be from the driveway with the extra parking area dug out of the slope at the right hand side of the driveway (as seen from the street) and have the gate house to the right of the garage with shade and screening trees and retaining walls stepped up the slope and screening shrubs between the parking area and front garden ...choice of materials and plants should have been suggested in your original landscape plans but an oval shaped lawn with formal symmetrical planting and a wide sunken lily pond in lawn feels like it would complement the house and cool the entry