Garden for a gardener
— Mount Eden, Auckland
This is a little garden designed for a passionate and experienced gardener. Despite the simplicity of form, the garden is complemented by textural layers of planting with moments of structure and seasonality.
The house is a traditional Mt Eden villa, an aesthetic the clients requested be preserved in the front garden. So, we kept the intervention there quite simple, focusing on the planting which sensitively responded to the architectural language of the house, with a little added spice. The main energy of the design was directed to the backyard - where the addition of a contemporary new pergola designed by PAC Studio - highlighted the need for a more living-focused space surrounded by beauty.
With the back garden being relatively small, and the clients desiring a decent lawn, a vege garden, a garden shed and the necessity of privacy from the neighbours; the design concept became about a simple gesture: softening the boundaries.
The colour and elegance of the house are reflected in the beautiful layers of planting, predominantly white, with touches of yellow and pale pink. These beds surround a central lawn area and create access to the refurbished vegetable garden. Topiary balls are carefully placed throughout the space, adding contrast to the overall softness.
In Summer the garden is alive with frothy white form and floatiness, with gaura and penstemon, punctuated by white pom-pom dahlias. Climbing roses scale verticals, and our native clematis (Puawānanga) grown on wires emphasise the garden views, all framed by the white architectural pergola. Materiality is sympathetic to the era of the house, with recycled brick to edge the garden beds and pave the paths.
We like to think of this design as almost unfinished; only the beginning of a relationship and a constant evolution between the old, the new and the people.
Project Details
Key Plants
Ballerina apples, Carpinus betulus 'Hornbeam', Chionochloa flavicans (Toetoe), Clematis paniculata (Puawānanga), Convolvulus cneorum, Dahlia 'Prime Time', Daphne odora, Gaura lindheimeri 'Geyser White', Helleborus 'White Picotee Hybrid', Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight', Hydrangea petiolaris, Lobelia angulata (Panakenake), Lychnis coronaria 'Alba', Magnolia × soulangeana 'Star Wars', Magnolia stellata 'Waterlily', Parahebe catarractae 'Snowcap', Penstemon 'Snowstorm', Pittosporum 'Golf Ball', Pear (espalier), Pear 'Packhams Triumph', Pear 'Winter Nelis', Rosa 'Graham Thomas', Rosa 'Madame Alfred Carriere', Zephyranthes candida,
Date
Completed: 2018
Location
Maungawhau (Mount Eden)
Auckland
New Zealand
Architects
PAC Studio
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