A blank backyard turned into somewhere to sit

The back of this property was open to the neighbours on three sides and had nothing in it but patchy grass. The brief was simple: make it private, and make it somewhere the family would actually go and sit.

A cedar privacy fence went in first and set the edges. We planted beds along the boundary to soften the run of the fence, laid a stone path through the middle of the garden, and finished the lawn so there is still open ground to use. A deck off the back of the house connects the whole thing to the door.

Backyard makeovers are the job we get asked for most. They usually take three or four trades, which is exactly why we handle the fencing, the planting, the hardscaping and the carpentry ourselves rather than handing parts of it on.