Of boxes and bowers

A swathe of lawn may be the typical suburban approach to landscaping the front of a property but as this project shows, there are other ways to introduce colour and greenery.

The owners of this recently renovated Victorian-style house chose to plant out the front of their property. A variety of traditional English trees and shrubs is contained within large gardens bordered by clipped box hedging.

Landscape designer Simon Marks says several of the specimen plants, including liquidamber, birch and mulberry trees, are many years old. Due to their size, they provided a substantial framework for the landscape refurbishment.

"The main garden beds were already in place, but we introduced the box hedging to formalise the landscape," he says. "The original stepping stones that led to the front door were also replaced with Indian sandstone paving laid in a geometric pattern."

Marks says the new paths form a cross that bisects the garden beds, providing visual structure and making the beds more accessible. The paths and hedges are stepped to accommodate the steep slope. One of the paths culminates at a sandstone bench seat.

"Rather than having a path leading to nowhere, the bench seat provides a focal point, and a reason to wander to the end," says Marks.

The refurbishment also transformed an outdoor terrace, creating a classically inspired grotto. Existing timber pergola supports were wrapped by plaster moulds to create round columns. And a water feature was added to a stone statue this now stands on a plinth in a pond.

A bower of Boston ivy and grape vines provides dramatic autumnal colour and shade in summer.

Another newly paved area just below the terrace is bordered by a clipped Myrtus luma hedge, which is underplanted with dwarf agapanthus.

Story by: Colleen Hawkes