Front Yard Landscaping & Garden Design

Glen Waverley Project

Intro

We were engaged to design and construct the front and rear of this newly built townhouse in Glen Waverley. Serge and Olya were open to the design and style but they wanted to make use of the backyard and to create some privacy from their surrounding neighbours. They had built the property intending to sell in a year or so. We took them through the process and helped them each step of the way. A vision board of ideas was created by Andrea to give Serge and Olya a sense of the style that would suit their property while the preliminary design was developed.

Style

The street appeal of this property was the 3 Corten steel rounds to support level garden beds. The main bed holds a mature Crype Myrtle and is a feature all year round. The adjoining steel round was planted out with plants to compliment the modern townhouse.

The side of the house presented a challenge with overlooking issues and a steep staircase. We screened the neighbour with trees to create a green screen. We used large format bluestone pavers as steppers to the side to connect with the backyard. A transition from inside to outside was created with new bi-fold doors. An existing concrete pad was extended and paved with bluestone. Connection to a firepit area is via large format bluestone pavers on a crushed rock and mortar base and finished off with a decorate topping/pebble. The firepit area is framed with a mesh growing frame and planted with climbing Jasmine. The firepit sets were custom built to fit the area and constructed in cypress for longevity. The backdrop of Teddy Bear Magnolias is enhanced by painting the existing fence and retaining wall in black. The synthetic turf is a useful area for sitting and somewhere for kids to play.

The Challenge

The only access was via the garage and down a flight of stairs. All the spoil and materials in and out were done by hand.

Our commitment: Champagne service

To protect assets such as the new driveway, side of the house and staircase, they were covered with builders plastic. Deliveries were dropped onto the front nature strip which was cleaned and re-turfed after the project was completed.

YOUR PROJECT

The Glen Waverley project provides excellent small garden ideas if you need inspirationfor your space. View the before and after images below and feel free to contact us on 1300 262 821, or via our Contact Us to discuss your project.

Before

After

Features

Add comfort

Built-in timber seats around the firepit

Elements add interest

Corten rounds in different height were used to create level garden beds in a sloping front yard

Invite your friends to the fire

Firepit area gives a destination for people to congregate in the backyard

Snippets

“We contacted Foliage shortly after taking ownership of a brand-new build with a very average landscape so we decided if we were to stay here, we needed to invest in re-doing the whole front and back yard areas to raise the level of the whole property. Whilst other landscape firms charge a premium to have just a phone call or initial conversation, Foliage take a more realistic approach to engaging with clients. Andrea was extremely helpful on the phone from the minute I spoke with her. I immediately had a very comfortable conversation, she was helpful and raised some good points to keep in mind and gave some ideas for keeping the cost down and making this work; we decided to have an initial consultation on site to discuss what potential options would look like. After sending through some drawings of our site plans and some ideas around what we’d envisaged for the areas, Andrea and Anthony came to visit us a few days later and we talked through options. Once again, their genuine approach and easy-going nature made us feel very comfortable about their ideas and what it would be like to engage their services. They talked us through their options, timeframes, approach and we agreed to proceed with a design and construction. A few weeks later we met them at their office to walk us through the design, they also had some samples of some materials to show us which really helped visualise the whole plan and get a feel for what the finished product would look like. Construction commenced early January and it was an absolute pleasure having Ben and John for the 5 weeks it took to finish the whole front/back. Ben and John were on-site early every day, tidy and respectful, very professional in their approach and managed a lot of progress in a very short period of time which was amazing to see. They even handled some extra work like doing the nature strip with roll out turf which really made the whole build have that truly ‘finished’ look. Overall, we couldn’t be happier with how everything went, from the beginning right through to the end the whole Foliage team were very professional, diligent, easy to deal with approachable, and realistic. Nothing seemed too difficult or unachievable and whilst I’m sure they could’ve tried to up-sell aspects of landscaping we may not have really needed, they were honest and fair in their approach and their recommendations given our budget and our end goal. If we were to do it all over again for this property we definitely would engage with Foliage again, in fact, we recommended them to some of our friends and we certainly intend to reach out to Andrea for a chat when we move into our next place to consider what outdoor options we may have. We are extremely grateful to the whole team for the wonderful work they did for us, we’ve been enjoying the outdoors a hell of a lot more since we can actually use it. The investment was most certainly worth it to lift the level of our whole property and no doubt has raised the value of our investment a few times over. We’ve had lots of friends over since it was finished who are in absolute awe of the whole transformation and have walked away with some ideas and inspiration on what to do with their own backyards and I encourage you to give them a call and see what amazing suggestions they can do for your own outdoor area. Thanks guys!”