Digs
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BY LISA CREGAN
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Long popular in Australia, Jamie Durie’s show, “The Outdoor Room,” has become a huge hit in the U.S. since its debut on HGTV in January. Fans tune in to watch the hunky landscaper turn backyards from boring to alluring.
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What do you think people get wrong when they try to do outdoor spaces?
“Making gardens to just look at. You need to create ‘rooms’ that pull people into the garden to live. You’ve got to seduce people into the garden by creating functionality.”
What’s your idea of functionality?
“Having an outdoor place where you can read after work or one with a daybed for an afternoon nap — maybe even a tub for taking an outdoor bath with the wife.”
Wow! That sets the privacy bar high.
“I don’t think people make their gardens private enough. You should position trees and shrubs to create privacy. I always tell my team if you’ve created a yard where our clients can walk around naked, then you’ve succeeded.”
You’ve said you want people to “fall in love with their yards again.” What’s the most romantic installation you’ve done?
“I just did an outdoor room for three single girls where I designed a waterfall on a 28-foot wall of white granite, but then instead of just putting a drain at the bottom to recirculate the water, I built a dining platform in 4 inches of water. People take off their shoes, put their feet in the water and have a glass of wine. It’s such an evocative thing to do, and it’s so bloody simple.”
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Growing up
There’s new interest in vertical gardens afoot, instigated by French landscape designer Patrick Blanc, who’s been applying his murs vegetaux (“walls of plants”) to blank spaces on office buildings and hotels. San Francisco-based landscape designer Flora Grubb has discovered Americans are mesmerized by the idea of going vertical. Not all plants work, but Grubb recommends the Woolly Pockets system. “It’s totally DIY, it’s affordable and it gives instant gratification in any weather or light condition. You hang the pockets on a wall, plant them, water them and if something doesn’t make it you just replace that one plant.”
Supplies are available at floragrubb.com or woollypocket.com.
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