All hands on deck!

With summer well and truly here, thoughts turn to the great outdoors.

We’re lucky to have a reasonably large block, so we will have a generous back yard, around 400sqm. Our grand plan is to have several zones, each of which will have a primary purpose. Here is the (rough) grand plan, entitled “Forest Moon of Endor”:

Grand vision: "Forest Moon of Endor"

Grand vision: “Forest Moon of Endor”

The “Forest Moon of Endor” title is a reference to the famous moon from Return of the Jedi, in which the Ewoks lived in gorgeous houses nestled in the trees and joined together with wooden bridges.

Ewok-land

Ewok-land

Whilst we can’t live on Endor, or build treehouses to live in, we can attempt to achieve a deck โ€œtree topโ€ effect by excavating around and under the deck and creating aย feature garden bed next to the house.

Anyway, as you can see, many zones. The first “room” I’m posting about here will be the deck.

The deck (extent indicated in tan on the plan) is accessed by the 6-panel sliding stackers off the living room (orange on the plan).

The deck will probably be jarrah, or another similar hardwood. One of the key features of the deck is that it is directly north of the house, and as such it is a significant part of the passive solar design. It will need to have lots of shade in summer but let in the warm sun in winter.

So for that to happen we need deciduous trees close enough to the house to shade the windows. And in keeping with the Endor Effect, we’ve decided that we want them to stick out of the decking, like so:

Trees peeking out

The deck will transition directly into the “tropical loveland” garden on the north and west, providing a lush effect.

Deck abutting planter beds

To the east lies Endor, the enclosed tropical forest garden. Endor completely cuts off access to the alfresco from the deck, a deliberate design feature to enforce the concept of the outdoor rooms.

However to the north of Endor is the Sunken Garden, to which the deck will provide access.

Now, on to furnishing the deck. The intended use for this area is as a lounging around area, very relaxed where you can sip on a drink, read a book, and take in the surroundings.

 

The mood board, of course, features the ubiquitous drinks cart. And a rocking chair, because why not. I’d like random stools and benches scattered around the place for convenience, and we’ll have some pot plants scattered around the place too.

Plant selections yet to come!

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10 Comments:

  1. Loving this blog and so looking forward to seeing the end result.
    I would love to be surrounded by those beautiful big trees – something I can only dream about as we certainly won’t have a garden like that 150m from the beach in Perth!
    Have you decided on your deciduous trees yet?

    • Thank you Deb! However you are lucky that the beach will practically be your back yard! We haven’t firmed up plant selections yet, will be letting our landscaper guide us there, however we will be having frangipanis that we salvaged from our last place. Other contenders are poinciana, bauhinia, and jacaranda (the latter of which our landscaper isn’t keen on but I am!).

  2. Sorry just seen the part about plant selections ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Love it! I’m really looking forward to reading this series as I’m fascinated about the sunken garden! And the gothic garden! And Endor! (ha! I’m looking forward to all of it!)

    I’m surprised your orchard is going to be a dog run. Wouldn’t a chicken run be better ๐Ÿ™‚

    When we were using an architect the deck design he came up with also had trees coming through and he suggested we can even put our koi pond under the deck too and put the shape of he pond in the deck (so underneath it can be any shape) but what appears on the deck is whatever shape.

    • Thanks! ๐Ÿ™‚ Chickens would be cool but our neighbours would complain (we’re in a bit of a nimby area). I love the pond under the deck idea, we’ve tossed that one around too but haven’t quite decided yet. It would be good for the fish though as it gives them a sheltered spot out of the sun.

  4. Lovely tree selection – the Jacaranda is one of my favourites but they do get very big.

  5. Trixee, you continue to surprise me! You may even inspire me to watch Star Wars, but one step at a time. My pop culture knowledge is severely lacking but I love your pictures and ideas. Perhaps you’ll need to buy the rocking chair early, perfect for knitting granny squares.

    • I am a total nerd and so is our landscaper, I fell in love with the design when I saw the title! I can’t wait to get to plant selections, but one step at a time I guess. Meanwhile, there’s always pinterest!
      You know, I totally forgot I wanted a rocking chair until I saw it on Polyvore. I like the idea of getting it early, but our free corner is rapidly piling up with samples, brochures, and other house stuff ๐Ÿ™

  6. Oh my goodness what a lovely vision for the garden Trixee! I can’t say I’m a Jedi fan which probably explains why that pic of Ewok-land reminds me of Avatar. You’ve inspired me to get more creative with our own garden design. I’m really looking forward to watching your house + garden come to life! Happy building in 2015!

    • Thanks Sheilzy! I’m only just realising just how many people need to be introduced to the ways of the Force. ๐Ÿ™‚ It’s going to be an exciting year for a lot of us!

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