I love Australia's Open Garden Scheme season. It's a peek into peoples' backyards. But not the boring backyards, only the nice ones are chosen to be a part of the scheme. We get to look at different backyard designs and stroll around to see how the space works and feels, how you move around it and how many people can occupy the space comfortably. It's quite inspiring.
It also gave me an opportunity to meet a Perth landscape designer I have admired for some time now. I have read Janine Mendel's books on design and they struck such a chord with me. You can imagine my disappointment that I forgot to take my book with me to have her sign it at the weekend!
Janine Mendel's philosophy is that with our gardens and outdoor spaces getting smaller and smaller in the city, we shouldn't waste outdoor space re-creating a kitchen by putting an eight-seat table, eight chairs, fridge, cook top, cupboards, sink etc in the garden... when we already have a kitchen just a few steps away indoors! It makes so much sense! She is of the opinion that if you design your house well, so that your indoors can open up to your garden, you can sit at your dining table and still feel like you're outdoors by having the plants nearby. People are forgetting that gardens are for plants, not just about the hard landscaping, paving and patios. I won't go on about it too much because you can get her book Urban Sanctuary - designing small gardens and read about it yourself! But, I will say that it makes perfect sense and her garden (shown above) is a perfect testament to good design.
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