Garden of the Week: A Tropical-Inspired Entertainer's Garden

See how a pool area was connected to an outdoor entertaining space by stairs, plants, colours and tiers

Carrol BakerJuly 5, 2020

Houzz Australia Contributor I'm a freelance journalist, I'm passionate about living well, good design, and creating beautiful, inspiring spaces.

In a Q&A format, we talk to the designers – and examine the creative thinking – behind some of Houzz’s most loveable rooms.

Growing Rooms

Images by Chris Warnes
Answers by Oliver Sizeland, company director at Growing Rooms

Who lives here: A family with four teenagers
Location: Bellevue Hill, NSW
Purpose of the space: The garden is designed for family entertaining; there’s an inviting entrance at the front, while the back offers privacy and a backdrop for the swimming pool. The newly created lower area, with a fire pit and lawn, adds an extra outdoor room by providing additional entertaining space.
Landscape design: Growing Rooms
Architecture: Luigi Rosselli Architects

Growing Rooms

Brief
The owners of this property, designed by Luigi Rosselli Architects, wanted a durable, low-maintenance outdoor space with a tropical feel for the whole family to enjoy.

Keen to make the most of your outdoor area? Find a landscape architect or designer near you on Houzz to revitalise the space

Growing Rooms

Starting point
We wanted to work with the structures that were to be retained. The new curved sandstone stairway, following the curves of the existing pool, connects the pool terrace at house level – which is the main entertaining area – to the lower garden. A cantilevered floating bench in spotted gum wraps around the space.

Stepped retaining terraces flank the outer side of the stairs and are filled with textural planting combinations where foliage reigns supreme.

Growing Rooms

Key design features

A fire pit area, where the Robert Plumb Angelina fire pit is the main event in the lower garden. A spotted-gum bench continues the dramatic curves.
An outdoor kitchen, which functions as an entertaining area with a built-in barbecue and spotted-gum cabinetry. It includes everything you could need when cooking up a feast.

Growing Rooms

Plant palette

Slender weavers bamboo.
Dracaena draco (dragon tree) standing boldly upright are justifiably the family’s favourites. Viewed from the upper levels and uplit at night, they are a spectacular sight.
Xanthorrhoea johnsonii (grass tree) adds further foliage and provides contrast.
Myoporum parvifolium.
Agave attenuata.
Phormium ‘Bronze Warrior’.
Senecio mandraliscae (blue chalksticks).
Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii Spathiphyllum ‘Sensation’.
Acanthus mollis.
Aspidistra elatior.
Philodendron ‘Rojo Congo’.

Growing Rooms

Challenges you worked around
Linking the upper area, which has a pool and an alfresco space, to the lower garden level, which was unused until this makeover.

Growing Rooms

Key principles behind the planting design
The planting scheme combines a range of styles to create a dynamic mix of contrasting colours and textures throughout. Different shades of blue, green and grey move around the property interlinking each garden bed and level change.

We used low-maintenance plants chosen for their sculptural qualities and foliage colours. In the back garden, we were able to take advantage of the steep gradient to tier the garden beds, offering a close up view of the plants as they follow you down to the lower level.

Your turn
What’s your favourite feature of this garden? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, like this story, save the images for inspiration, and join the conversation.

More
Take a look at last week’s Room of the Week: An All-Black Streamlined Kitchen