Front gardens play such an important role in most streetscapes but especially in suburbia where the repetition of built form and front lawns can become almost claustrophobic. These clients wanted something different to look out on from inside of their home but also a welcoming garden on arrival home from work.

The new native garden replaces a weedy garden bed and houses two small native trees which will provide privacy to the front windows and respite from the western sun. Acacia cognata ‘Lime Magic’ is planted closer to the house to soften the extensive brick, and Eucalyptus ‘Euky Dwarf’ is placed closer to the street to give dappled shade to the rest of the lower planting.

Several large sandstone boulders were placed around the garden, Helensburgh is surrounded by Sydney Sandstone bushland and we wanted to bring some of that into the front as a reminder of where these homes have been built.

Casuarina ‘Cousin It’ and Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters’ can be seen in the image above happily spilling over the brick retaining wall and climbing up it! I also used Grevillea ‘Gin Gin Gem’ as a ground cover and it has happily spread out to cover much of the understory as can be seen in the image below.

This garden is well into its second year and the Conostylis candicans ‘Silver Sunrise’ are in full flower, they provide great contrast with the other grassy mounds of Lomandra ‘Little Lime’.

My favourite plant in this garden is this Olearia languinosa ‘Ghost Town’, I often grow this is shade where it is extremely resilient but here in full sun it is much more stunning. It looks very smart with the sandstone boulders seen below 😉

The front 1/4 of the garden is actually a curved section of crushed decomposed granite ‘Deco Gold’, which meets up with the timber retaining wall, this adds interest when the garden is viewed from the upstairs living room windows.

Another quite spectacular silver beauty is of course Eremophila Nivea ‘Gulburra Bells’ Grafted, if you look very closely you can see the flowers of this specimen are full of native bees.

This native garden attracts many passerby to stop and have a chat, it provides much interest to in the street and is beginning to be a major attraction to the birds and bees.