The Love Of Natural Stone

Here at Geoscape Landscape Architects, we love to use natural stone in our designs. It’s hard wearing, long lasting, feels nice underfoot and no two pieces are the same. However, we do have our favourites, among them are Bluestone, Granite, Travertine & Limestone.

The light colouring of Travertine and Limestone easily lend themselves to formal, classical or coastal styled landscapes. Travertine can be used filled or unfilled, it naturally has air pockets in its structure, creating a pock-marked appearance. Both Travertine & Limestone come in a variety of tones from white, cream, and yellow through to silver.

Alternatively, Granite and Bluestone are excellent for modern designs and for areas in the public sphere - they require less maintenance and tend to be slightly harder wearing than the lighter stones.

A mix of light and dark hard surfaces can be used in the same project to help delineate the functions of various spaces. Lighter stone can be used for main areas and darker stone for secondary zones - dark colours tend to recede visually and therefore won’t catch the eye as much as a lighter coloured stone.

The different colours of natural stone can also set the tone for a space. One recent residential design Tamara completed proposed natural cobbled Bluestone, for the main walkway and the separate driveway out the front to tie the new works into the heritage of the interurban home. While a lighter natural stone was proposed for the more family friendly zone around the pool in the back. The more intimate courtyard off to the side proposed large format Bluestone pavers with light coloured pebble between; designed to slow down the pace of the space and to tie the front yard and the back yard together.

In recent years the development of large format Porcelain tiles designed to look like natural stone or even timber, have created a cost effective alternative to natural stone. Timber look porcelain tiles used around a pool require less maintenance and they are salt-water and chlorine safe.

(Porcelain tiles that look like timber and granite can be seen in the images below, used as a backdrop for the smaller natural stone samples.)

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Beautiful Low Water Use Plants

Many Councils during the DA process stipulate that plants selected for landscape designs need to be plants that do not require a lot of water. With Sydney’s current water restrictions it is a wise idea to incorporate these kind of plants into your landscape.

Below are Tamara’s favourite Beautiful Low Water Use Plants:

Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos species), particularly the ‘Bush Gems’ range. They flower year round and look excellent when mass planted.

Agapanthus, while sometimes considered old fashioned, are wonderfully drought hardy and look fabulous in Classic and Hamptons style gardens. The dwarf varieties such as the one above (Agapanthus ‘Snowball’) shower your garden beds with flowers throughout the warmer months.

Acacia ‘Limelight’ or Acacia ‘Fettuccini’ are new ground cover varieties of our native acacia trees. They rarely flower so allergens are not a problem and they provide a lovely soft textural element to the garden.

Pittosporum ‘Golfball’ is a fabulous drought tolerant substitute for Box Balls as it has a fine leaf and a naturally mounding habit requiring less maintenance than traditional buxus.

Hebe ‘Emerald Green’ is another naturally mounding plant. Smaller in stature than the Pittosporum ‘Golf Ball’ this plant is an excellent border plant and has a great vibrant colour.

Our native Westringia is another excellent drought tolerant native replacement for traditional box; either as a hedge or trained into balls. There are quite a plethora of varieties each with their own green tone from grey, to blue, to green making this plant very versatile.

Rhapiolepis is a great choice for a flowering shrub with a fragrant flower. The differing heights of the varieties allow this plant to be used in numerous applications throughout the garden. Also comes in pink if colour is required.

Crassula plants are succulents with wonderful textural foliage. Excellent in tropical, coastal, arid or even classical gardens. (Crassula ‘Max Cook’ seen above)

Blue Chalksticks or Senecio serpens is an excellent textural ground cover. Its blue tones are fabulous when paired with tropical or coastal planting.

Agave geminiflora while not a native is very reminiscent of our native grass trees (Xanthorrhoea sp.) and fit in well with arid or native style gardens.

Carpobrotus rossii often found at the beach is a great ground cover for a pop of colour and will nicely trails down retaining walls and planters. (Also comes in white for a more classic application)

Earlwood Residential Landscape Concept

Here at Geoscapes Landscape Architects we work with our clients to achieve the desired look in their residential designs.  To achieve this, we can create mood boards & montages to convey our sketch designs and ensure that the concept we are putting together is in line with our clients vision.

The montage attached was created for a client who had a very specific feel in mind for her front yard.  This montage came out of a consultation with her, through mood boards and concept sketches ending in the montage before we developed the design for construction.

In this concept architectural mounds were articulated with the native groundcover Scleranthus. The mounds were then surrounded by fluffy Zoysia grass, accented with natural stone boulders. The tones of the native Breynia cernua (Coffee Bush) is mimicked by the low Loropetalum ‘Purple Pixie’ shrub, while bluestone steppers in organic shapes lead you round to the side access of the property.

Front Yard Montage by Tamara Wilson