Backyard Ideas Book

Backyard Ideas Book’s 2017 annual pulled two ideas from our work in Bondi, spotlighting how a vertical garden and a built-in bench can turn awkward space into a feature. The green wall story explains how we solved a storage shed that was eating into the outdoor living area: instead of a single planted panel, we built a stack of custom troughs from treated recycled hardwood, fully waterproofed and fitted with their own irrigation line so watering stays simple at height. They spill over with Ctenanthe, Blechnum ‘Silver Lady’, Nephrolepsis, Tradescantia zebrina, Vriesea, Aechmea, Philodendron ‘Xanadu’, Liriope muscari ‘Just Right’, Peperomia obtusifolia and Syngonium podophyllum, their mixed greens set against warm spotted gum decking and timber.

The seating story covers a cantilevered bench in the same garden: aluminium framing core-drilled straight into the retaining wall and clad in spotted gum to match the deck, with LED strip lighting hidden underneath so it seems to float after dark. The wall itself, built from steel-reinforced, core-filled block, rendered and texture-coated, doubles as a planter, with foliage tumbling down to soften the seating area. Both features show the same thinking: solve the practical problem first, whether that is a shed or a bare retaining wall, and let the planting and detailing turn it into the best-looking part of the garden.