The second project for the same clients.
Many of our clients return to us again and again. The first home we did for these clients was a semi-detached home from when they first met. The property featured here is the second Mosman home we have helped them with as their family grew. They have since sold this property, making a suburb record when sold. Their children have left home, and they have now downsized to a smaller property which we also have designed for them with level walking to the town centre.
The home itself needed a light renovation, but the external spaces had not been touched in over a century ago and required major upgrading.
The best way to describe the external areas in real estate agent terms would be ‘in an original state’ which effectively gave us free reign as the clients knew our work from their previous project and trusted our judgement.
There were to be four very distinct external areas to be developed, one a formal lawn pedestrian entry area and period style driveway, two, a tennis court in the lower area of the property, three, an elevated pool and poolside entertaining area and fourthly extensive sloped garden areas to the sides.
The driveway was originally designed for horse drawn carriages leading to stables and the front of the house sloped quickly up you the roadway so that the home had no presence to the street. We designed and then excavated out over 100 m3 of material to achieve a formal gated pedestrian entry area with sandstone based dressed timber boundary fencing, a formal lawn together with a sandstone & special brick paved driveway.
Traditional garden plants were used in the formal lawn suitable for the homes style, including formal hedges of Buxus japonica (Japanese box), Magnolia 'Little Gem' (Gem Magnolia) and Buxus sempervirens (English box) plus Artemesia 'Powis Castle' (Artemesia), Salvia 'Mystic Spires' (Mystic Salvia), Salvia Pink Spires' (Pink Salvia), Clivea miniata (Clivea), Gardenia florida (Florists Gardenia), Michelia figo (port wine magnolia), Agapanthus orientalis (Nile Lily) and Juniperus conferta (Shore Juniper.
An old lawn tennis court was pre-existing on the property that evoked visions of ladies in lace, parasols, garden parties and cucumber sandwiches. The lawn was replaced with a modern artificial turf and the existing chain-link fence replaced and reduced in length. Garden sculpture was placed in a sea of ivy and a tennis house designed and installed. Vegetation surrounding the court was replanted using a hedge of Elaeagnus macrophylla (Elaeagnus) with Juniperus x media 'Pfitzeriana' (Pfitzer Juniperus), Hederacea canariensis (Canary Island Ivy) and Rhodendron 'Pink Pearl' (Pink Rhododendrum).
The old pool had structurally failed and was replaced with a new pool in a more traditional shape. The fully tiled light blue pool and uniform coloured sandstone surrounds create a peaceful and relaxing area in which to take a dip or sit under the flowering Jacarandas ensuring that the external spaces are in keeping with the stately. New low plantings between court and pool include clipped spherical Teucrium fruticans (Bush Germander) and Rhapiolepsis 'Oriental Pearl' (Dwarf Hawthorn) plus Juniperus Horizontalis 'Douglassi '(Waukegan Juniperus), other plants include the unusual Hydrangea quercifolia (Oak Leaf Hydrangea), rarely used Corylus avellana 'Purpurea' (Red Hazel) and Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'.
The extensive sloped garden areas to three sides of the residence create a series of rooms, each with a different planting style. One area with existing endemic Angophora costata (Sydney Redwood) suggested the use of native such as Grevillea servicea (Spider Grevillea), Hakea teretifolia (Hakea), Doryanthes excelsior (Gymea Lily), Actinotus helianthi (Flannel flower), Banksia ericifolia (Heath Banksia), Correa reflexa (Common Correa), Elaeocarpus reticulatus (Blueberry Ash), Grevillea speciosa ssp. speciosa (Red Spidery Flower) and Callistemon citrinus (Crimson Bottlebrush).
A dry creek bed with assorted sized rounded river pebbles through which runs a water drainage easement that occasionally floods has been developed through another part of the garden. Here native plants such as Viola hederacea (Native Violets), Dendrobium speciossum (King Rock Orchid) and Blechnum nudum (Fishbone Waterfern) have been used and are in keeping with an adjacent bush reserve.
At nighttime the tennis court is lit with spotlights for night-time play, the poolside entertaining areas are well lit with LED down lighting for functional purposes which, together with energy efficient LED lighting in the swimming pool, creates mood effects with washes of light and dancing shadows. All gardens are heavily lit with lighting for highlights and accents.
