At NHBB we love having updates from happy clients, and in this case, Natalie, Tristan's Executive Assistant. Be inspired by Natalie, who has written an update. Here it is in her own words:

 "It has been a long while since I last wrote on the happenings of our Hamptons home - exterior garden.

As noted in my previous blog post  'Do you know what you don't know about garden design' we were collecting keys, not quite moved in and knee-deep into the moving house scene where everything was in some sort of ordered chaos, and we were surrounded by a large sand pit which was our exterior!

Nonetheless happy to report that we have since progressed (a lot, thankfully!!) and our garden is looking great. We did previously engage the services of a landscape designer which gave us a huge head start into what direction we wanted to go. With that said, we did take some inspiration from their suggestions and made them more our own (and by that, I mean less maintenance for the husband !!) and modified our plant and tree selections.

By no means was this an easy thing to do, but we took our time to make sure we were happy with the end result.

What we did to achieve our design was to have our unique shaped block separated into different zones with lawn, travertine and paving, something that resonated with our Hamptons style home. We definitely stuck to our guns of having low maintenance plants that still fit the aesthetic of a Hamptons garden yet was still able to be adapted to our Australian climate. We also added some crushed stone to also add a bit of contrast in our entry.

What worked for us in terms of the orientation of our home and what we wanted to achieve all boiled down to our plant selection. Let me preface that we are by no means landscapers or designers just new home owners with an interest in all things pretty! Well me, anyway – ha-ha! After a little bit of research, we came up with our list of the following:

• Orange Jessamine which is slightly fragrant and has some white flowers
• Indian Hawthorn along our fence line and retaining which flower white little clusters of petals
• A crab apple tree that is now bearing some fruit – yay (great for jams but not eating off the tree as they are extremely bitter/sour!)
• Star jasmine for the front garden bed area and some Teddy Bear Magnolias (called this due to the soft furry underside of the leaves)
• An olive tree that doesn’t bear fruit as we didn’t want to have loads of birds hanging around and having extra work picking up olive pips - ha-ha!!
• Some citrus (limes and lemons) and chilli plants. Along the side rear and behind the BBQ we planted some viburnums which will eventually provide some additional sound proofing and screening along the fence line.
• In our ceramic pot we have the traditional and beautifully fragranced French Lavender and alongside we also have gardenias which are also beginning to flower due to the cooling weather J
• At the entry to our home, we planted some of the Indian Hawthorn bordered by some of the crushed stone path (for the lawn mower to go on as well as for our local postie!)

Anyway, that’s it for me on the exterior of our home and hope that you have been inspired to get your garden going and hope this little insight into our journey will provide some handy hints.

Stay tuned for more insights into our Hamptons haven build via the NHBB website as well as our social media handles.

Natalie "

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