I made a small back garden for Sally a long time ago. After demolishing old sheds we cut into the concrete yard, retaining and painting an elevated concrete pad as the central platform for a bird bath. The garden was then paved with salvaged terracotta tiles and planted with fruit trees and ornamentals and a mix of herbs and herbaceous perennials.

Many years later Sally asked me to look at the front garden and the house’s tired veranda, as well as the driveway, carport and a courtyard at the side of the house, three relatively unloved spaces.

The new work paved the three sideway spaces in brick, stone and exposed concrete, and connected them visually with a bold red timber element on the fenceline. I included a fine steel fence and gate between the carport and courtyard to allow this visibility. The red timber recurs on the new verandah come pergola at the front of the house, where fine steel members supporting climbing pepper vines are inset between the verandah’s sets of twin posts.