8 RAISE THE ROOF

Before it was refurbished, this back garden was heavily paved, which made it feel hard, hot and uninviting. The brief to garden designer Matt Leacy of Landart Landscapes was to turn the 18m x 7.8m space into a softer, greener, more liveable space where young children could play. Matt’s redesign involved removing paving, introducing lawn and boundary plantings, building built-in seating, creating an entertaining space, gutting and refurbishing the plunge pool and – the masterstroke – adding a 7.8m x 3.5m green roof on top of the garden studio. “The green roof softens the backyard and brings in more greenery, making it feel a bit wilder and more relaxing as a space,” says Matt. “It also has the effect of extending the space beyond its border, making the backyard seem bigger than it actually is.”

The roof is mass planted with a mix of Miscanthus and Casuarina glauca, both plants with soft, graceful forms that grow to about 1.5m. They’re planted in a lightweight growing medium specially mixed by Matt and his team. “The plants have a soft, free-flowing appearance, evoking a meadow – the opposite to structural plantings, which are used to define a border.

These plants help create a sense of depth.”

Planted along one side of the garden is a row of slender weavers bamboo ( Bambusa textilis ‘Gracilis’), a perfect choice for boundary screening, set behind a cantilevered timber bench. The lawn is Sapphire soft-leaf buffalo. landart.com.au