Gardens

The design for this front garden is just as impressive from the house as the street

A tiny front garden is landscaped to suit the house, not the street, in this lush makeover that uses natives and subtropical plants to full effect

Renovations to her Grey Lynn bungalow left Nathalie Morris at a loss as to how to deal with a small but important patch in the front garden. The area could be seen from the lounge and, of course, was on display every time she walked in or out the front door. “So it was really worth putting the effort into this part of the garden,” says Nathalie.

“I think, for a lot of people the front garden is designed around how it looks from the street. I wanted the opposite. We are in a quiet cul de sac and, with the main lounge positioned at the front of the house, I wanted to create an outlook from that room.”

After an online search, she approached landscape designer Kirsten Sach whose ideas impressed her immediately. However, she did have a few initial trepidations. “I think, deep down, I feared that the design would be boring because, after all, what can you do with such a small garden? But when the design came back from Kirsten, it was actually more exotic than I was expecting. I love that I have something quite different to the traditional front garden with a patch of lawn.”

Words by: Carol Bucknell. Photography by: Helen Bankers.

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