Compact classic: Borrowing from surrounding views helps to make this tiny garden big on impact

摘要

Murray Thompson is his own worst enemy -he has made such an art of indoor-outdoor flow that he keeps losing his guests. "I'd love them to enjoy the house, but inevitably everyone gravitates outside," he admits. And what a garden it is - dropping steeply away, this inner-city site is terraced into two clean-cut levels and continues the native/tropical theme drawn from views of two neighbouring streets. Murray admits he's more used to designing formal gardens with white flowers and topiary but here thesurrounds dictated a looser look. "I certainly don't miss getting out the hedge clippers every weekend, and I just squirt fallen leaves off the decks with the hose and they disappear over the edge as mulch." Certainly the muscular foliage of plants such as griselinia, heliconia and scheffleras coupled with a dark paint finish to make the fences disappear, means that the garden feels boundless.