First Class Contemporary Design-Atlanta Style

Over the past few years, many of my landscape designs have involved interpreting garden spaces surrounding Giorgi Exclusive home designs in Perth, Western Australia. I have completed four of these high-end gardens in the past two years and so you can imagine how excited I was to check out a contemporary garden in Atlanta during my trip there in September and I was so pleased to see and confirm that my garden plantings are really ‘bang on’ trend with comparable cutting edge designs in the USA.

I will admit it, I do at times question myself, I suppose it’s natural, there have been times when my clients look at me with that “are you serious?, you want to plant that?!” kind of look because they are too polite to say it out aloud and I go back and think and look and check and read and re-read again…I guess that’s a part of any healthy creative process and the mental torture that anyone designing something puts themselves through…probably pretty normal I expect.

Creating a garden space around a contemporary home can be challenging because the Landscape Designer needs to consider what the Architect had in mind and provide a design that is sympathetic to that design while at the same time offering much needed green space for the family. The garden needs to support the family that is going to live there. It’s a significant investment for the garden owner at the end of their build but I must say that for me the garden is the icing on the cake of a new home (I find it hard to get excited about tiles). The work of the Garden Designer is the finishing touch, when that lawn is down it tells the neighbourhood-This House is finally complete, a family is moving in.

Here’s my Top 5 Tips for creating a Stylish Contemporary Garden

  1. Improve the soil. This is probably the most important aspect fo creating a new garden. It makes no sense trying to plant new plants beautifully nurtured by the wholesale grower into builders sand leftover from the build. New soil enriched with mature compost is an essential foundation for any garden
  2. Invest in Large Trees.  I always try and include as many mature trees into the design as I can, the idea is that the new home sits comfortably back into the landscape in as short as time as possible. Mature trees give you this
  3. Mass Plantings for a bold effect. Large drifts of plants particularly when working with hard landscaped raised beds always looks best. Colour, shape and variations of light through shadows by plants against walls can be achieved through careful selection of mass planted foliage plants
  4. Include Edibles. I always try to include edibles in every garden every client needs at least a few herbs to compliment their cooking
  5. Include Flowers Yes, green is a colour and I love it but I am a sucker for flowers. I follow the same disciplined principle of mass planting whatever I choose for best effect. This does not mean I plant a monoculture, just that there is never one or two of anything in the contemporary gardens I create .

Here’s some images from the Private Garden of Robin and Marc Pollack just outside Atlanta Georgia

Bold and Cobalt Blue Contemporary art to compliment the landscape
Bold and Cobalt Blue Contemporary art to compliment the landscape
Even the birds live a stylish life here
Even the birds live a stylish life here
Attention to detail
Attention to detail a place for everything
Foliage provides a pop of colour
Foliage provides a pop of colour

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Challenging variation in heights-note one of my favourite plants Ficus Pumila on white wall
Challenging variation in heights-note one of my favourite plants self clinging, easy trim, Ficus Pumila on white walls
Imagine standing around here with a nice glass of red on a cold winters night
Imagine standing around here with a nice glass of red on a cold winters night
Who wouldn't want to dine here?
Who wouldn’t want to dine here?

 

Mass planting for a stylish effect
Mass planting for a stylish effect
Love the variations of underfoot hardscaping
Love the variations of underfoot hardscaping
A very stylish way to invite nature into the garden
A very stylish way to invite nature into the garden
Groups of three pots in dark charcoal
Groups of three pots in dark charcoal
Stunning outdoor seating for the whole family
Stunning outdoor seating for the whole family
Always room for Edibles
Always room for edibles
Garden Writers on tour
Garden Writers on tour
Every good painting needs a splash of red
Every good painting needs a splash of red
Plants that provide shadows on white walls-living art
Plants that provide shadows on white walls-living art

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Even the Glasshouse offers contemporary style
Even the Glasshouse offers contemporary style
How did they get those post up there?
How did they get those post up there?
A cool place to sit
A cool place to sit

Check out Giorgi Exclusive Homes at their website http://www.giorgi.co

Southern Hospitality…it’s not just for the humans

No doubt about it when you visit Georgia, you will experience as I did, what is known as Southern hospitality, there’s the food, of course, Ahh the food, the wonderful service is absolutely everywhere you go (even a homeless guy was friendly and gave us directions) and those accents…OHH, those wonderful accents….though to be sure I think this is may be true of most places in the USA, if the Garden Writers I have met through GWA are anything to go by but I guess it’s in the South that they are really known for it….but here’s something you might not have known, that delightful hospitality …is not just for humans!

Check out these incredible artisan birdhouses, each one tells its’ own story. These pics were taken during my recent trip to Atlanta and Athens, Georgia….and now that I’m back home, I am experiencing serious birdhouse envy…is that a thing?! I think that my husband is hoping that I find a cure quick smart! Then again…this could be his new retirement plan?! He has about 10 years to create them and build up his stocks before we start selling them.img_1811
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Imagine the wonderful bird parties here!
Imagine the wonderful bird parties here!

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There’s the house and then there’s the incredible pole!

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Thank you to Garden Owners Candy Johnson, Robin and Mark Pollock, Carole McWilliams, Lee Dunn, Arthur Blank, Mary Wayne Dixon, Rosie Davidson, Barbara and Vince Dooley, Bonnie and Mike Dirr and Ann and Joe Frierson for providing wonderful habitat spaces for the birds who come visit your gardens and for the southern hospitality shown to people like me who came to visit in September during #GWA16

 

If I come back as a bird in my next life…I know exactly where I’m headed!

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