Naughty nanna: Designer Richard Unsworth’s ‘sexy granny’ garden

It’s old-school with an edge.

Mission complete: lush colour, shapes and texture. Picture: Nicholas Watt

Richard Unsworth calls the hybrid style of this front garden “sexy granny”. “Maybe that’s not the best description,” the Sydney-based designer adds, as he tries to define the blend of older-style plants enlivened with unusual and bold foliage that gives the garden its edge.

We are standing at the front of a substantial house on Sydney’s north shore where Unsworth, director of Garden Life, was brought in as part of a major renovation three years ago. His client, a businesswoman who runs a charitable trust, chose Unsworth to bring his slightly quirky style to the Spanish Mission-inspired house she shares with her husband and two young children.

The focus was on extending the luxe feel of the home to the outdoors. “It’s a bit glamorous, a bit feminine and it’s big on texture,” Unsworth says. “The client didn’t want bland or formal and was keen to have flowers and colour in the front. Once she trusted us, she just let us run with it.”

The garden features a blend of older-style plants enlivened with unusual and bold foliage. Picture: Nicholas Watt

The front garden contained a large camellia, a few shrubs and a mature Japanese maple – typical for the area. Unsworth brought in three more Japanese maples to punctuate the driveway and beefed up the boundary screening plants. He then overlaid these traditional elements with bolder foliage from gingers, cardamom, Philodendron ‘Congo’, and “some other things that are a bit mad, like the cloud-pruned Juniperus”. A pair of classic Italian urns got a similar offbeat treatment with sculptural Furcrea erupting upwards and Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’ flowing down the sides.

To fill the shady garden beds, Unsworth chose perennials such as plectranthus, Japanese windflowers (Anemone x hybrida) and begonias – “pretty flowering things that granny would have liked”. “It’s harder in Sydney to have the seasonal changes they enjoy in Melbourne, so I value things that pop up and do their stuff occasionally.”

Unsworth had to work with a tiny raised bed along the main wall with almost no soil in which to plant. Picture: Nicholas Watt

It’s in the pool area that Unsworth really shows his mettle. He had to work with a tiny raised bed along the main wall with almost no soil in which to plant. “We came up with a narrow aluminium sleeve that allowed us more soil depth,” he says. Into this he brought a glorious mix of barrel cactus, Euphorbia ‘Cowboy’, Aloe ‘Copper Showers’, and Sansevieria stuckyi, with donkey tails (Sedum morganianum) spilling over the edge. It wouldn’t be out of place in Palm Springs.

Pots at both ends of the pool contain spineless prickly pear (Opuntia ‘Burbank Spineless’), dragon’s blood tree (Dracaena draco) and Sansevieria ‘Congo’. To these Unsworth added aloes for colour, Zamia furfuracea “to soften it out” and Kalanchoe tomentosa for its soft texture. He loves the resulting edgy contrast with the lush front garden.

The focus was on extending the luxe feel of the home to the outdoors. Picture: Nicholas Watt

Q&A

Is mushroom compost or horse manure better as a natural fertiliser to add to containers and garden beds? Heather Hopley, Canungra, Qld

Mushroom compost is usually alkaline and can be extremely so. Check the pH first and use if your soil is acidic. The soluble nutrient content can also be high, making it salty, but this is difficult to test at home. Add no more than 10 per cent by volume and don’t use it in pots. Horse manure is low in nutrients, usually less than 1 per cent nitrogen, but is a good source of bulk organic matter to improve soils. If manure is collected from paddocks it can contain weed seeds; check also that stable manure does not contain worming agents.

Would my birdbath, sitting under an oleander tree, present a risk to birds if leaves and flowers fall in the water? Jess McDonald, by email

The potent toxins from oleander could theoretically leach into your birdbath’s water, although I cannot find any research on this or whether birds would avoid it if contaminated. You should clean the bowl and replenish the water daily anyway for good disease control, but to be safe I’d move the birdbath.

Our healthy, 3m-tall jacaranda, supported by stakes and straps since planting four years ago, has a very thin trunk. How can we help it to thicken up? Dominique Wisniewski, Ardeer, Vic

Staked trees are a bit like having your leg in a cast – immobilisation weakens the muscles. Trees need to flex and move to develop their trunks and anchoring roots. Single stakes alongside the trunk are worst. Use two or three stakes some distance out, with loose ties that permit minor movement in every direction. It’s best to remove the stakes as soon as the tree is stable.

Send your questions to: [e-mail] or Helen Young, PO Box 3098, Willoughby North, NSW 2068. Website: helenyoung.com.au. The best question for April wins the Neue Blvd Malibu faux Phalaenopsis orchid in woven vase, worth $150 from neueblvd.com.au.