garden design love...franchesca watson

I have loved Franchesca Watson's designs for years.  She creates the most gorgeous garden rooms, both big and small, intimate and expansive.  The gardens that compliment modern homes are my personal favourite, layers of textures and greens with anything from grasses to succulents.   Had to share, enjoy.

How amazing is this courtyard!  We used to live not far from this home and also had a high wall that created a narrow courtyard at the back of the house.  I created a koi pond surrounded by gravel and bamboo which worked well in the space too.  But I love the green creeper walls and the ancient olive tree.  Dreamy sigh...

Inspired by the ground cover under these grasses I have planted a creeping succulent at the base of our large gum tree and around my grasses.  Hope its going to look something like the path below in a few months.

Love the way this deck is enveloped in greenery.  A very simple and effective planting scheme in a small space, and just shows how you can have lots of greenery in even a small urban backyard.

See more divine garden inspiration here.

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Summer garden...before and after

Don't you love a before and after?  I was admiring my summer borders and it struck me that this garden is not quite a year old.  Looking at the lush border its hard to imagine that this garden was ever not here.  And yet a just over a year ago there was nothing, just excavated sand and lots of rock.  

No trees or hedge, no flowers or grass, no garden beds, not one green thing.  A lot of blood sweat and tears from the Voice of Reason turned the scabby space into a neat lawn with deep beds.  There was a lot of levelling and a lot of wheelbarrows of soil.  A lot!!

13 Months ago: the area is levelled and beds constructed.  Lawn about to be laid. 

12 Months ago:  Exactly a year ago today.  The lawn has taken and the plants are in!  You can just see the small hedges against the hedge, new pear trees, sedum and crocus.  Everything looks tiny!

7 Months ago: the trees colour up prettily for autumn.

3 Months ago: (left) California poppies and red hot pokers light up the spring garden.  The ornamental grasses are in and everything has spring fever and is shooting up.

As it is today (below & above right): The sedums are bursting with flowers, still green but about to turn to pink.  The grasses, crocus and star jasmine are settling into each other well.

The pear trees and hedges have grown about three feet and are giving us privacy from the neighbours.  So satisfying to look out on our green oasis now and think - we did that!
(all images by Eva Burgess)

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Piet Oudolf - master of texture garden grass design

Piet Oudolf is the master of soft textured block planting.  Love the tonal blend through the flower heads and into the grasses - an edited meadowscape.

Our house is very square and very black.  I need the landscape to soften up all the hard lines but still deliver colour, texture and drama.  
I have the main structure, a  backdrop of lilly pilly hedge, a row of gorgeous pear trees for height, seasonal colour and privacy.  I want the beds under the plum trees to be fat with grassy textures, with wild looking flowers adding seasonal colour.

I need to bring the garden close to the house and blur the edges.

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