From Bare Site to Beautiful Outdoor Living - a Rochford Landscapes Coastal Project in Te Arai.
When it comes to creating exceptional outdoor spaces, success starts long before the first plant goes in the ground. For the team at Rochford Landscapes, the best results come from being involved early in the process—working alongside homeowners, designers, builders and contractors to ensure every element of the landscape is considered from day one.
In this featured landscape project, Rochford Landscapes partnered with the homeowners, designers and builders from the outset. They helped bring a carefully considered landscape design by Babylon Gardens to life, around a stunning architectural home. From earthworks and drainage solutions to natural stone features and low-maintenance planting, every decision was made with both functionality and aesthetics in mind. The result is a warm, natural landscape that complements the home, enhances the surrounding environment and will continue to evolve beautifully for years to come.
We spoke with Alex Gimring, Mangawhai Operations Manager at Rochford Landscapes, about the importance of early collaboration, the challenges and opportunities presented by the site, and the key elements that helped transform a bare site into a beautiful outdoor living space.
This beautiful Te Arai dwelling is set in a stunning rural environment with a coastal outlook, what was the overall vision for this landscape project?
We worked alongside the clients to execute the design of Babylon Gardens, in conjunction with the new architectural build by Nathanial Miller and construction by QPC Build.
The vision was to create a family friendly landscape that opened up the views from the house and matched its warm aesthetic. We wanted the garden to work with the Te Arai landscape and complement those rural views rather than compete with them.
The location in Te Arai has covenants that influenced the style of construction, did this influence the garden design as well?
Not really. We're lucky that on large rural sites like this one, the landscape becomes a bit of a playground for us. There are very few limitations beyond the practical, mostly just a lot of clay to move. It's genuinely fun to work with that much space and freedom, especially alongside a build team like QPC who understand what we're trying to achieve.
Rochford Landscapes were involved in this project from the beginning, what are the benefits of bringing landscape contractors early into a new build project?
Early engagement is one of the biggest factors in a project's success. Our philosophy is simple, the more heads and teamwork go into the outcome, the better it is for the client. It becomes more streamlined, we find the gaps and efficiencies together, which saves money for the client and makes life easier for everyone involved.
When everyone's on the same page and working together instead of in silos, the whole project runs smoother. It also means we can plan around things like material staging on site and drainage well before they become a problem.
The landscaping has warm earthy colours that match the muted tones of the house, can you tell us about the choice of soft and hard materials?
We hand selected warm toned paddock rock from Central Landscape Supplies, a beautiful product where no two pieces are the same. It gave us the option to do more with natural retaining and features throughout the site.
For the hard landscaping we used Waikato Fleck Pebbles with Jakmat Geocell Mats to keep it stable in the heavy foot traffic areas, with the Fleck's warm tones tying back into the overall aesthetic of the design.
We rounded it out with Forest Floor Mulch, a great product for healthy garden beds that's soft and not overpowering, a lower cost Arborist Mulch, and Timber Sleepers, which make a great feature for garden beds or steps in this instance.
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It's quite a remote location, how did Central Landscapes Warkworth assist with this project?
They delivered every time, right on time. We call, they answer, and it's taken care of. Simple as that, and on a remote site like this, that reliability matters more than people realise.
What challenges does the location present, and how does your design mitigate these?
It's a large, exposed site with high winds, so water management was a key focus, particularly keeping water out of the pool and off the property. We were clever with both the build and the planting to redirect water flow, and used planting around the entrance as a wind barrier.
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Hard at work with her planting team, we also asked Laura Remacha, Greenscapes Manager at Rochford, what about the plant selection and practical considerations in a clay heavy location?
The plants are primarily native and hardy with a variety of form - Carex grasses, Muehlenbeckias, Hebes, Chionacloa Flavians with some tones of grey - Corokia Cottoneaster, Brachyglottis Greyi. Some Miscanthus for some height and to sway in the breeze - or heavy gusts.
Planting was on a raised bund with Premium Lawn Mix to help with nutrients and drainage. Along the bund, to create some wind break, there is Phornium Tenax with trees Puriri, Coastal Maire and Pukas.
Laura, we can see that the colour palette is quite contained and the grasses sway beautifully in this fairly exposed environment, but you've also included some pops of colour here and there?
In the original planting - now established and looking great are some Phylica Pubescens (Flannel Flower) and some Rhaphiolepis 'Oriental Pearl' with the Libertia Grandiflora for the Native flowering plants contribution. Not a broad colour pallet but definitely a variety of tones with Pimelea Blue Peter delicately providing its flowers and ground cover. Also some Kowhai trees planted in areas that allow full bird viewing.
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Stage two is underway and we were surprised to see you using premium lawn mix in the planting holes. Can you tell us more about how you ensure young plants get established and thrive?
I based this choice of planting medium on a need to improve drainage, as most of the planting we do is in dense clay soil and have seen great results with Premium Lawn Mix. I believe there is an amount of chicken manure and other goodies that give the plants some vital nutrients to grow well.
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What are some tips for homeowners in rural or coastal areas when it comes to planning a landscape project?
Firstly ask - it's better to take advantage of the previous experiences and knowledge of those that have made the mistakes and achieved the knowledge already.
Make sure that they are suitable choices as well as what you wish to have in your garden. The weather is not straight forward, so plant for the conditions.
When planting - in my opinion its better plants are a little high and you have to water them occasionally rather than they are sitting damp all the time - most of the underperforming and death of plants I encounter can be attributed to wet.
Most people want a low maintenance garden and one that survives, well we have our challenge right there… plants, to look good, do need care, so please get in touch with the garden maintenance team at Rochford!
