Reinventing the coastal garden, Bateau Bay

WHEN A HOMEOWNER, ARCHITECT AND GARDEN DESIGNER FIND THEMSELVES ALL ON THE SAME PAGE, WHAT YOU GET IS A GROUND-BREAKING BLEND OF OLD AND NEW, OF NATIVE AND EXOTIC, AND A TRUE EVOCATION OF WHAT COASTAL LIVING OUGHT TO BE.

Terraces allow a gentle rise to the top of the garden with steps marked by gabion walls and Corten steel edging.

An old copper shower gets a new lease on life.

Leonie Grimshaw is the proud custodian of a family property that is rooted in both the past and the future. Her garden is filled with family associations, from the similarities between the original 50s house built by her parents, to the new build designed by architect Dianna Thomas.

I first encountered Leonie’s mid-twentieth century revival house and fusion garden when judging a local garden competition. It struck me then as an ideal blueprint for coastal living. The house was open and bright; the garden designed with accessibility and a sensitive feel for the link between land and sea. The plantings were subtle, restful, calming and environmentally sound.

Leonie inherited the original 1950s house but, after many additions, it was due for renewal. Architect Dianna Thomas’s designs ‘are contemporary and simple, stemming from the tradition of mid-twentieth century modernism, updated for an environmentally aware twenty-first century’. She listened intently to Leonie about what she wanted and also about the history of the house, and delivered in spades.

The house is a series of three separate pavilions linked by decking. Designed as a beach house, every room opens on to a veranda with generous views of the garden. Leonie wanted to keep the character of her childhood home but give it a funky new look and the chosen paint colour — called Pickled Green — does just that: not too bright, not too dull, but just right (to paraphrase Goldilocks). »

TOP LEFT: Flowering gum, ‘Dwarf Orange’, is a summer highlight. LEFT: An old grocers scale makes a vintage birdbath. ABOVE: Angophora and lamp. BELOW: The kitchen garden with the rusty half-drum barbecue.

Decking and steps integrate the house to the garden.

The garden embraces history and revamps long-loved family items. The garden lamp at the rear was previously in the front garden; the outside deck lights were reclaimed from beach cabins that dotted the coast. The garden is filled with family history such as a fire-grate reused as decoration, and an old greengrocer’s scale now reinvigorated as a bird bath. A recycled shower-head makes washing off beach sand and salt easy.

James Headland, whose landscape firm Pangkarra Gardens created the exciting changes of level and planting plan, blended the mature coastal woodland trees into a garden surrounded by national park. Not for him, the hibiscus and bougainvillea approach to coastal gardens, James has selected a subtle blend of native and exotic species with interesting foliage tones and architectural shapes.

Leonie proudly proclaims that ‘the garden, established in 2012, was designed as eco-friendly, flowing, visible, usable and beautiful. I use the garden from every direction all the time,’ she says. And that is true whether it’s socialising with friends, relaxing on a calm day or just enjoying the view from inside the house. Beehives nestle among trees and provide the family with homegrown honey produced by Leonie's partner, John Holland. During the consultation process, landscape designer James asked, ‘Do you like gabions, Leonie?’ Her answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes’. This is a sloping block so the gabions (wire frames enclosing stones), define beds and retain soil while Corten steel edging enables some gentle terracing with a contemporary twist. The garden was constructed by Andrew Noble’s Cornerstone Landscaping.

The kitchen garden is surrounded by walls — both gabion and masonry — topped with timber that double as seating around the gravel-covered flat area.

Both owner and designer insisted on this being a ‘planty’ garden neither minimalist nor low maintenance. The design uses plants sparingly but, at the same time, exuberantly. It contains all the elements of mass planting but with a variety of species in a way that retains an overall cohesion. Partly this is due to using the existing native plants such as eucalypts, angophora and burrawang, and infilling with natives and exotics that work well with the overall texture, muted foliage tones and growing needs. In the front garden, a young flowering gum Corymbia ficifolia ‘Dwarf Orange’ adds a flamboyant touch surrounded by grasses such as Poa labillardieri ‘Suggan Buggan’, which dries to a lovely wheaten tone in summer. These contrast brilliantly with the upright green spires of Hollywood junipers (Juniperus chinensis ‘Keteleerii’) and the bluish foliage of native kangaroo grass Themeda ‘Mingo’ which covers the ground along with blue berried dianella around the edges.

One of the best shrubs here is the little known and muchunderrated Baeckea virgata ‘Nana’ or ‘Dwarf form’. This little marvel is almost perfect. It forms a naturally rounded shape, about 90 cm high; it withstands frost, drought and heatwaves and, to top it off, it is smothered with jewel-like starry white flowers in summer. The foliage is fine and always green, not greyish or olive-y, but clear and refreshingly GREEN. You can mass it or plant it as a specimen; let it go and it still keeps its mounded form and it keeps the native plants looking fresh.

There are so many other plants in this garden that also work as well, from banksias, to New Zealand corokia, the muted orange flowers of Dicliptera suberecta, various Kalanchoe, Rosemary ‘Blue Lagoon’ and gingers. All combine to add architectural vim or subtle flowering. Leonie loves her garden for its variety and the pleasure it gives her. And what’s not to love?

Designer James Headland Pangkarra Gardens 0404 016 237. Architect Dianna Thomas 02 4382 6532. Landscaper Cornerstone Landscaping and Design 0402 530 558.