Stage Great

A series of terraces, lush planting and enhanced outdoor bathing options have lifted this steep inner-city site to subtropical superstar status.

- Carol Bucknell

Dealing with an “incredibly challenging” steep site, a swimming pool in disrepair and major privacy issues is not an easy ask for any landscape professional. Fortunately, talented designer Kirsten Sach was more than up to the job when software company CEO Nathalie Morris came to her for help. Kirsten had made a beautiful garden at the front of Nathalie’s Auckland home two years earlier and the homeowner was confident the designer could create the private sanctuary she dreamed of out the back. Her faith was not misplaced and now the Grey Lynn resident and her pooch, Pixie, spend many happy hours relaxing in their inner-city paradise.

THE SITE When Kirsten first saw the property, the back area was very steep with a disused old pool filled with dirty water and mosquitoes halfway down the slope. “The lower slopes were not retained and were waist-high in weeds,” she recalls. “It was overgrown, unloved and the access was terrible. There were large trees overhanging the area near the house which made the space dark and uninviting.”