The annual Backyard & Garden Show is the ultimate destination for anyone looking to renovate or transform their outdoor environment. This year the show was coupled with The Pool & Spa Show run by the Master Pool Builders Association. The show involves a host of exhibitors and industry experts offering an extensive and diverse range of gardening & landscaping products, landscaping services and design ideas.

Each year, several exhibitors are approached to showcase a feature garden at the event, and this year we were offered to design and install the major show garden, sized at 135sqm.

The design brief for the major show garden was to create a peaceful, low maintenance, family friendly space that encourages the use of the outdoors. We wanted our design to engage and inspire those at the show, so we incorporated popular elements like an alfresco area, swimming pool, garden bench and lawn, all of which was surrounded by dense, lush foliage.

Entering the garden from the front, you were met with two large paved floating Cinza Limestone steppers, laid in a 45 degree herringbone format. These took you to the main alfresco area, constructed in a composite decking, which facilitated outdoor dining. It featured a curved floating BBQ bench in a thick grey insitu concrete-look bench top with stainless steel BBQ, attached to a raised feature wall & planter, clad with long silver travertine.

Overhead was a custom powder-coated steel arbor in a beautiful Eucalypt colour, with adjoining custom steel pergola finished with 40mm hardwood timber battens. The pergola beam had seven tensioned stainless steel wires installed vertically down into the raised planter, for star jasmine to train upon.

Noticeably, our show garden featured a stunning L shaped swimming pool with a curved edge. The pool was fully tiled throughout the interior and outer face in a 20mm Peacock blend glass mosaic tile. We installed three custom steel water feature spouts in the same Eucalypt powder-coat as the arbor, which aligned with three floating effect Cinza limestone pavers spaced evenly, to create access from the alfresco area to the remainder of the garden.

 

The Cinza limestone pavers continued to run evenly spaced down the length of the garden, with three noticeably cut to curve around the round custom fabricated steel planter box. Between the garden path and the pool, was a Cinza limestone paved terrace, laid in the 45 degree herringbone pattern.

The Cinza is a beautiful contrast against the Peacock pool tile, while the herringbone makes for a unique and high quality finish for the poolside space. To help people fully envision the all-encompassing design, we utilised the area by placing two reclinable sunlounges.

 

As you make your way out passed the pool terrace, you’re met with artificial lawn to your right, which was also installed between the steppers, and to your left a salt & pepper gravel patch with bench seat. The bench seat has three custom fabricated steel legs to replicate the steel arbor, and the same 40mm hardwood timber battens on top. As an added feature, we included a white dome outdoor heat lamp which not only provides an element of warmth when outdoors, but a great aesthetic. To finish, we surrounded the entire show garden with dense, lush foliage, with a final two Cinza limestone pavers installed in the foliage, to act as another entry and exit point.

 

Conveniently situated adjacent to our stand and the seminar stage, the major show garden had an incredible amount of foot traffic. Of the 8,000 people that attended the show over the two days, most would have walked by our installation, generating a significant amount of enquiry. It was truly wonderful to receive such positive feedback on our design, and to meet everyone who stopped by to say hello.
We not only wanted our show garden to demonstrate the high quality construction work that our team execute daily across all of our projects, but we wanted to emphasise the detailed design process that clients receive with Landart Landscapes. Therefore, we had the entire design process for our show garden printed and readily available for people to look through. It included the Master Plan through to 3D rendering, and everything in between such as lighting and planting plans, even material palettes.