Cremorne- Landsberg Garden Design

10-11 March 2018

The lovely bungalow house felt suspended high above the garden, disconnected and perched on top of the garage.  The garden was a grassed, fenced pool enclosure adjacent to and accessed only from the driveway.  Finding the front door entailed navigating around the driveway and pool fence, then skirting the walls of the house.

We needed to create a garden and settle the house down into it – and provide for the family and family dog, a garden in which to rest and play.  The pool needed an environment that was both beautiful and fun.  Critically, the journey to the front door needed to be through the garden, generous, comfortable and legible – while still holding a little mystery and delight. 

Now it has become a secret jungle of luscious beauty, interest and fun.  Inspiration was based on the naïve jungles painted by French post-impressionist painter, Henri Rousseau. On an over-scaled and monumental pergola, the garden has lifted to meet the house and can be enjoyed from the verandas of the house.  The path to the front door now threads under the pergola, through luscious planting – it is a walk with garden overhead as well as on both sides.  The garden is mystery and magic from the first arrival at the old Indian gates where you are greeted by a beautiful African stone sculpture. The pool is private and shielded from the driveway with a suspended deck providing space for seating and lounging.  Planting is tropical and subtropical using big-scaled leaves of Alcantarea, Alocasia, Raphis and Philodendron to create the sense of generosity and jungle.