The site presented a number of challenges including exposure to high winds & coastal sea spray, and access difficulties, with everything having to be carried through the house. Plus, the existing lawn garden was built on top of a garage roof which meant the existing soil depth was a mere 13cm. Not ideal for hosting plant life!

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The main priority for our client was to create a privacy screen along the railing to block out the new development that was to be built right in front of their view. While the water views were lovely to have now, they were soon to disappear once construction was finished.  

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The other main function of the garden was to create a relaxed and casual seating zone for reading and chatting with friends, as well as a small lawn area for the clients dog to use.

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With the privacy being such a high priority, we built the design around this. As privacy hedges require a decent amount of height to achieve a block out, we need to use larger trough planters to hold enough soil volume to support the plants required for the hedging. We choose bay trees as the hedge species, as they are super tough and can handle bv the harsh winds, salt spray, full sun and will happily live off rain water in pots throughout most of the year.

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To connect the garden to a supporting deck space, we created two large stepping circles to form a pathway through the garden and filled them with gravel which we raised up using metal edging. The metal edging also provided us with the opportunity to bring in more soil, so that we could increase the surrounding soil depth to support plant growth.

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The planting theme included lots of Mediterranean style plants that could handle the windy and dry conditions, along with a small patch for growing herbs. For the colour scheme, we went for the complimentary colours of purple and yellow, with a few shades of light orange. These work well together to create a relaxed feeling with just enough vibrancy to make the space pop. 

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