Boundary Booster: Magical Ideas for Garden Walls
Potentially adding privacy, style and structure to your outdoor space, there's no end to the talents of a well-designed garden wall
Garden walls are usually the strongest built elements in a landscape due to their verticality and size. It’s, therefore, very important to get it right when choosing proportions, materials, colours and textures for these walls. In addition, you need to consider whether the walls need to be solid or contain openings so that other parts of the garden and the wider landscape can be seen, or whether they are to merely act as light screens. Also, should they be softened with plants or decorated with an artwork? Connecting walls to other garden structures and the home through materials or colours is very important, too, ensuring everything works in unity.
Rather than focusing purely on the functional qualities of garden walls (privacy, protection from the elements, safety for children and animals, and so forth) think also how they can add vitality, colour and magic to your garden. These fabulous examples are sure to aid you.
Rather than focusing purely on the functional qualities of garden walls (privacy, protection from the elements, safety for children and animals, and so forth) think also how they can add vitality, colour and magic to your garden. These fabulous examples are sure to aid you.
Mixing it up. Continuing the same vertical palings along the entire length of this long rear garden wall would only emphasise the narrow proportions of the space. Melbourne-based DDB Design thought so, too, so they broke it up with a section of square lattice panels with a row of pleached trees in front. This softened the hard materials and provided a living focal point that can be viewed from the internal living spaces. Lovely.
Living decoration. Enlivening a plain wall with epiphytic or air plants, such as these tillandsia, is a great idea. The burgundy of the wall sets off the silver foliage of the tillandsia beautifully. Air plants like tillandsia need no soil around their roots so can be attached with wires or fixtures set into the wall. A light spray with water every week or so will keep them looking healthy.
Playing with texture. For a unified, contemporary look use the same materials for walls and other garden structures but vary the textures and lines. The unevenly fixed battens on this striking freestanding wall in this Melbourne pool garden are repeated in the walls of the cabana, the link between the two strengthened by a row of upright timber posts. The designer also contrasts the vertical walls with horizontal floating timber ceilings.
Fresh frameworks. Freestanding walls can be used to frame views and provide a sculptural element to gardens. Here these low corten steel walls are cleverly positioned to create a sense of enclosure for the outdoor living space while still allowing views beyond to the wider landscape
Feature wall. Though not strictly a garden wall, it’s still facing the garden, making use of what could have been an imposing rear wall of this house. The wall is now a beautiful feature painted in a textured dark purple with hanging artwork. Positioning the artwork off-centre connects it to the contemporary asymmetrical style of the garden designed by Australian company Outside In. The retained planter beds reduce the height of the house wall and the cushion colours both complement and harmonise with the striking wall colour.
Playful colour. Hot pink is not everyone’s favourite colour, but in this children’s zone, using it for the retaining wall is genius. The colour makes a bold contrast with the green foliage and continuing it into the base of the playhouse carries the eye right around the garden, creating a strong visual link.
Natural and man-made balance. The golden brown of this timber battened wall adds a warm contrast to the plastered and tiled walls on either side of this Perth garden. Running the battens horizontally gives the impression the space is wider than it is, and the cantilevered seat turns the wall into a beautiful focal point.
Get with the theme. Garden walls are key elements in reinforcing the overall style or theme of the yard. Painting one wall of this sunny courtyard a hot pumpkin and then decorating it with a panel of succulents creates a Mexican vibe. The crazy paving floor and container planting continues the theme.
Laser quest. Decorative panels turn plain walls into lovely focal points. Laser-cutting technology means you can design your own patterns for decorative corten steel panels like these – perfect for adding interest to plain walls and reducing the visual impact of very high walls. To ensure the rusted corten does not leach into paving the designer has placed a garden bed beneath the panel.
Stone’s throw. Special spaces deserve quality materials. Stone is an expensive material that few people can afford to use for walls throughout the garden. A more cost-effective idea is to use it to define one specific zone in the garden as shown here with the stone wall in this sunken outdoor lounge. A fireplace and wood storage are also incorporated into the wall. All-green planting and white and charcoal seating ensure the eye is not overly distracted from the textured beauty of the wall.
Espaliered plants. Espaliering basically means that trees or vines are trained to grow horizontally against a wall – it’s a traditional technique to encourage more fruit or flowers in a limited space. But here in this Sydney garden it also helps to break up the impact of a high plain wall and creates a stunning outlook from the nearby terrace.
Go for the curve. There’s nothing like a curved wall to create a feeling of enclosure and protection. The solidity of stone adds to the walls embracing appeal. Building a seat into the curve of wall and repeating the curves in the paving and circular fire pit gives the space a delightful sense of unity and seclusion while remaining open to the surrounding landscape.