LOOK: NO LAWN

看:沒有草坪

Almost nine years ago, Australian landscape designer Jim
Fogarty and his wife Victoria moved into a brand new house, which gave him a
clean palette to work with from the start. Yet, he needed to take into account
a neighbor’s
two-story house that would look down on his pool courtyard once finished, and a
major community restriction that limits non-penetrable surfaces. “That
meant that at least 35 percent of the space had to remain as garden
beds, mulched areas, but no lawn,” says Jim, whose eponymous firm is based in Malvern,
Australia.

Site
Problems

Small site needed a clever use of space

Water restrictions meant no lawn since there could be
no watering of it

Allowing for a minimum site coverage of 35 percent
penetrable surface, such as garden beds

Needed to position a 2,642-gallon (10,000-liter)
rainwater tank underground

Needed to be smart about how the pool’s safety barrier was incorporated into the small space

Wish
List

Pool

Informal outdoor entertainment

A nice, attractive front garden that alsohelped to
provide shade from the hot afternoon sun

Outdoor bar

Front deck area that was more modern in appearance

Finding
a Professional

The project was the landscape architect’s own home and site.

Project
Challenges

The garden was designed during Melbourne’s tough drought, which added another concern—how would new plantings be watered with stricter rules in
place?

Problem-Solving
Solutions

Because of the drought and the community’s ban on watering, Jim designed the site without any
lawn. He made rainwater a priority to conserve and recycle by installing a
2,642-gallon (10,000-liter) rainwater tank, hiding it under a front deck. To
design a green garden that would appear abundant even during a drought, Jim
used hardscape materials, including reconstituted concrete pavers and
split-faced bluestone cobblestones, all in an interesting pattern whether
viewed at ground level or from the second story of his home. In the pool
courtyard, the cobblestones soften and break up the small space and make it
visually enchanting, almost like a three-dimensional work of art. In fact, he
inserted a wall sculpture by artist Valissa Butterworth, which was inspired by
wet sand at low tide. To maximize outdoor space, Jim “borrowed” his garage as an extra entertainment space. He changed
the garage’s white lights to a more hip, novel red, and at night the
garage looks like a submarine with PVC and copper pipes.

To keep the garage and courtyard separate, Jim designed a
bar that doubles as a safety wall for the pool, cladding it in double-chiseled
lava stone. On another wall, clad in the same material, water cascades down
into the pool, creating a shimmering effect at night under blue LED lights. A
bamboo pool fence works as a second line of defense, important as a backup
since the clients have children. If desired, it can be taken down in seconds as
it’s built in three interlocking panels. Even better is that
it was built using bamboo that grows in his and his wife’s yard, is a good source of mulch, and can be a climbing
surface for other plants in the garden. At night when the couple often
entertains, they can turn on lighting, designed by Light on Landscape, a
company in Melbourne: blue lights illuminating the lava stone under the bar;
red shining down on an outdoor shower. In the front garden, Jim designed a
large bed with interesting green foliage and a black-stained floating timber
deck with benches by Dwell by Jo.

Who needs a lawn? Not these folk. But they did want
additional plantings, which would include ones to screen the neighbors’ house. This was a tough decision because Jim wanted
something that would grow tall but not wide, have foliage at ground level so he
and his wife wouldn’t
have to look just at tree trunks or have precarious limbs

overshadowing their courtyard and stealing sun, and also
not create mess for their pool. He decided on black bamboo, planted with root
control barriers, along with some liriope, ligularia, bergenia, and ajuga as
groundcover to help keep the leaf drop from blowing into the pool.

To make the front garden interesting with lots of foliage
plants and cope with not having any lawn, Jim designed a black-stained floating
timber deck to sit amid the dense greenery. He used clumping bamboo for height
but chose one that doesn’t
spread, and underneath it he planted Solomon’s seal, hellebores, hosta, and more liriope. Lights placed under the
bamboo create a great show at night from the dining room.

Instead of using color, Jim inserted lots of textures and
shapes. He used clipped lineal hedging that contrasts well with clipped balls
of Luma apiculate, Viburnum odoratissimum, and Buxus microphylla. He found
Bamboo Bambini (Pogonatherum paniceum) to work since it’s drought-tough, can be clipped into rough shaggy balls for definition,
and has the most lush lime-green grass—like
foliage that helps fill difficult parts of garden beds. He also planted herbs,
such as rosemary, catmint, chives, tarragon, parsley, and sage for cooking.

Cost-Saving
Alternatives

The use of gravel paths for the side garden would have
reduced costs, as would the use of more pavers for an exposed aggregate surface
instead of flagstone cobblestones.

Budget

The budget was about 15 percent of property’s value at the time, plus a design fee for others.

Challenges
Along the Way

The yard is near a creek, and groundwater from the creek
was seeping down the hill and rising to the surface. When the garden was
planted, Jim used some plants that could tolerate having their root zone moist
until the plants reached enough of a critical mass so they could use up excess
water.

Key
Design Details

Wall feature by Valissa Butterworth that sits
overlooking the pool

Water feature that trickles down the chiseled lava
stone into the pool below

The
New Garden—An
Epilogue

Not only does Jim enjoy the garden, but he and his wife
also love the buzz from seeing so many neighbors and strangers look over their
front fence as they walk past. The clever use of space has added to their
lifestyle. “What I love about the bar is the ability to entertain in
a very casual manner in reflection of my wife’s time spent living in Dubai. We la