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When landscape designer Paula Kuka, of Common Wild, moved into a 1948 brick cottage in Perth eight years ago with her husband and two children, she relished the opportunity to design her own garden from scratch.
‘I started thinking about the design the day we moved in, and we started working on the garden almost straight away,’ she explains.
‘I wanted to create our own little microclimate so we could still spend time outside in the middle of a Perth summer, with enough shade around the house to reduce cooling requirements.’
The original garden was a patchy lawn with a jacaranda and a Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria) planted by the previous owners. Paula retained these plants — training the wisteria over new structures — before transforming the previously open backyard into a series of smaller spaces connected by greenery.
A key part of the brief she gave herself was to create a studio that opens to her garden.
The light-filled workspace is built from recycled brick and salvaged windows to match the home’s original material palette, and its bifold doors open to a path of stepping stones that lead to a courtyard where an overhead outdoor shower sits above a boulder.
‘There’s something very grounding about standing on a solid boulder underneath a warm water shower surrounded by plants,’ Paula says.
‘I kept the paving to an absolute minimum so the planting could come right up to the thresholds.’
The rest of the garden is made up of small sections — a seating area, a plunge pool, a children’s play space — all immersed in greenery.
‘By creating this series of rooms and obscuring the edge of the garden, we have made something that feels much larger and richer than if it was kept as open lawn,’ she says.
This restrained palette gives the greys, greens and soft blue-greens of the foliage space to shine, alongside unexpected colour combinations from blooming flowers.
‘I love using my own garden to test ideas. I get to see what thrives where, how a plant responds to pruning, and how much work it takes to keep it looking good,’ Paula says.
More than 60 plant species appear in the garden, and 90 per cent are Australian natives, providing food and shelter for the garden’s wildlife. Different bird species regularly visit the birdbath (including the endangered Caranby’s cockatoo), and insects, lizards and frogs are attracted from a nearby lake.
‘I’ve always loved Australian native landscapes and wanted the garden to show how much variety there is in our native plants. I wanted to be able to step outside and feel as though the rest of the world had disappeared,’ she explains.
Hakea laurina (pin-cushion hakea) frames the pool, while Viola hederacea (native violet) forms a green carpet in the courtyard and softens the edges of the stone steppers. Other plants include Lomandra longifolia ‘Nyalla’ (mat rush), Poa poiformis ‘Kingsdale’ (coast tussock grass), Cenchrus purpurascens ‘Nafray’ (swamp foxtail grass), and Acacia binervia ‘Sterling Silver’ (coastal myall).
‘It’s extremely important to me to pass on my passion for the environment to my kids. The garden gives me a way to show them, on a very real and personal level, how caring for our own little patch can contribute to the broader environment,’ she says.
After eight years of hard labour and waiting for planting selections to slowly reveal themselves, Paula feels a sense of peace and achievement looking out from her studio at the garden she’s created.
‘It’s everything I hoped it would be, and I love that it feels like a totally unexpected sanctuary behind our simple suburban house.’
