Valcluse

Television personality and funny man Wil Anderson and his partner Amy Williamson contacted The Labyrinth Garden after their original landscapers, who were unlicensed and unprofessional, created more problems than they solved. “The original landscape design was not practical and the selected materials unsuitable so we had to totally redesign the backyard,” says designer and contractor Troy Paschini from The Labyrinth Garden. “Wil and Amy were great to work with, leaving the design and selection of materials up to us. All they asked was that we fix up the mistakes caused by the old landscapers, create a year-round entertaining area, and upgrade the existing pool.” Troy’s modern contemporary design features a deck built with 140mm-wide hardwood blackbutt boards. The same timber was used to clad the new raised garden beds and retaining wall. The natural tones of the timber work with the warm hues of the bookleaf sandstone retaining wall and the charcoal colour of the 600mm x 600mm concrete pavers. Picking up on the colour of the paving, The Labyrinth Garden painted the existing timber fence in Woodland Grey. The plants were chosen for screening and colour contrast and include Bambusa textilis ‘Gracilis’, Cordyline rubra, Liriope muscari ‘Evergreen Giant’, Philodendron ‘Xanadu’, Syzygium australe ‘Resilience’, and Viburnum odoratissimum. “Taking over a landscape from another contractor was the biggest challenge as we inherited all of the old contractor’s problems,” says Troy. “There were missing stormwater, sewage, and pool pipes, unsafe wiring, and a pool full of black water which had stained the pool surface. There were also large granite boulders around the pool, which had been put there when the garden was first landscaped in the 1980s. “To overcome these challenges, the first thing we did was to pump the water out of the pool. We then engaged our good friends at Nepean Pools to replace the filtration system, add gas heating, and resurface the pool. To remove the large granite boulders we used jackhammers to break them up into smaller, more manageable pieces and to match the pool surrounds to the paving, we installed charcoal concrete pool coping.” Adding to the amenity of the backyard, an outdoor shower was built and a raised sun bed constructed around the tree. Although the original brief was to landscape the rear garden and revitalise the pool, as the project neared completion, Wil and Amy also asked Troy and his team to redesign the backyard cabana and revamp their front garden