Loving your space and flooring. We recently bought a white unit 2400 long. I had planned to have a cabinet built in at a later stage taking up the whole wall but have now decided that I like the option of having space at the ends for decorative pieces eg: the plant and accent chair. Also there is plenty of storage with the existing unit. I went for white to blend in with the walls to make the floor is more of a feature and I could then add colour accents in the room without it all being too much.

Strong geometry, cool blue and glass and a plain lawn background. to fill the diamond with bush is going to cancel out its strength. But something different to the slightly sterile design compilation … if the finance is there, get two or three massive raw rock slabs and one spectacular architectural tree. resist going vertical .. layer them horizontally to slightly overlap or break the hard lines of the diamond, but not to obscure it. Then choose you vertical with a sculptural tree. There are vertical cherry trees with spectacular autumn colour which would contrast with the rocks (texturally), and be floaty like the water in the pool…. whatever the tree, lift the foliage up from the soil level, and underplant with jut one kind of tight low ground cover, even moss (if your climate can support) or ground hugging juniper that you can train inside the diamond. This combination of elements is rich for the eye, softens the geometry, and adds interest which is lacking right now. The place for shrubs and grasses and palms is to border the lawn.

Thank you so much for your advice, in particular to bigreader and Julie Herbert. Here's a photo but note Im awaiting all that timber to be removed and daughter yet to sweep up the potting mix. I tried a blue one on each side as well but it didn't look quite right. I actually think 2 on each side might be enough. Note, in the big pot on left is a ground cover that will sprawl and out and done pot all going well. Do you think/Any suggestions for anything else I could do in this area? I'm still getting used to colour of mat. Now for the back door. Ive put some pots there that I had painted a light grey. Im wondering if they dont provide enough contrast with deck. Your thoughts? I was going to put a buxus in the one on the right (purely because they're are numerous in garden I can poach).

Hi Laura, I also love your inspiration photo. I think you're on the right track for what you want. It looks like an early summer image due to the jacaranda flowering so I would try and get a bit more colour in the planting and spread your flowering season to be as long as you can by choosing winter, spring and summer flowering plants. It appears that you have the ability to build one side of the garden up as you have a foudation below the fence. You shouldn't build it up in front of the actual fence as it will eventually rust out. If you do build it up in part, you could build seating into this to make two uses out of the retaining. You could intersperse this with the cortens to reduce the cost as that wont work so well for seating. Recycled timber could do the job and maybe mix with some gabions, which you can do on the cheap yourself if you have a source of rubble or stones. C.