When Tom and I built our first home together we spent two years going over the details with a fine toothed comb. From the finish on the light switches to the species of grass in the garden we wanted everything to be perfect. Tom’s domain was the main living space downstairs, he had a real vision for the open plan kitchen lounge area and I let him dictate the main building work. My personal baby was the garden. The outdoors is truly where my heart lies and I dreamed of landscape options, water features and flower gardens every night until it became a reality. It all started with getting rid of the scraps of the previous garden, we did quite a lot of tree removal, Oakleigh luckily has an excellent arborists that I’ve used previously so I trusted them with my beautiful land.

We got rid of a few problem stumps fairly quickly but the arborist that had been working on them had noticed we had a small white ant problem. White ants can be a real nuisance and I didn’t want to risk an infestation in the new landscaping design so I arranged for some tree trimming. Caulfield has been known to struggle with termites and I didn’t want to risk becoming a victim to to those little pests. We managed to find the source of the problem in some of the older trees towards the back of the property so we had those pulled down to avoid any further risk. It also massively increased our view so we could see almost infinitely across Melbourne on a clear day. Once we had managed to clear the land of all potential problems the real fun could begin. We went for a tropical jungle vibe and had palm trees and lush flower beds surround a dark slate patio. I spend most of my time outside now while Tom can be found horizontal against the bespoke dark marble lounge floor.