The reason why persistence matters in Gardening | Dream Gardens

Paul and Zoe Mitzi own a fabulous 1920’s art deco home in Melbourne, and they want a garden to match. But creating an ambitious space can take courage and bravery; especially when all of your friends and family think your design plans are crazy. Their dream is made even more challenging by the decision to project manage it themselves, while juggling busy full time jobs and family life with their two teenage kids. “In the words of Alan Bond, bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy” says Paul. The vision is for a design that will create layers of greenery and foliage in multiple spaces that will cocoon the family in a 1920s inspired surrounding. Is it all a case of ambition outweighing ability? Whatever it is, the Mitzi’s are out to prove the doubters wrong.

Welcome to Luxury Living! The channel to view the world of Grandeur and Splendour; from extravagant homes to Magnificent Holiday destinations, we got the content for the aspirational soul within you.

We hope you enjoy living the life of Luxury!

Like, Comment and Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8J-rsJ_xhIIIsrBH6BOV0g

**This film is under non-exclusive license from ABC. All rights reserved. We ask you to please contact us if you believe there are any copyright issues via you_tube@valleyarm.com**

#luxury #gardendesign #gardens

creating a garden takes commitment and energy and vision Above All Else and when all your family and all your friends question your ambitious plans it’s easy to lose Faith so to pull through and see your dream realized you need determination and you need resilience without these the doubters could well have the last laugh [Music] 5 years ago Paul and Zoe Mitsy purchased a towering Art Deco building on a bare landscape in the Melbourne suburb of Balwin it’s now the family home while the renovation of the home’s interior is stylish and inviting the backyard is parched and desolate from the day they moved in Paul and Zoe have been determined to transform this Wasteland into their very own dream Garden Paul Zoe hi Michael really well welcome thank you very much you come around the corner it’s just like wo you know it’s so tall yeah it’s got great Street present should we have a look at what you’re doing around the back absolutely terrific so you guys have taken on a huge project here did you have any idea what you were getting yourselves into no really no it was neglected the garden was overrun with weeds and uh rubbish and there wasn’t a square centimeter that we didn’t need to touch so what possessed you what was it about this property that gripped you and grabbed you I think initially it was the architecture we were attracted to the era the the house itself the house it Street presence was great but it needed a lot of work so you left a good Garden was there real mourning for the Lost Gard was there or very much so there was almost some uh Family Law Court intervention on might a new Garden is months away and having already taken years to renovate the house friends and family think Paul and Zoe are a little bit mad have there been moments when other people’s doubts have truly rattled your confidence because you know it’s you know those doubts were coming from family and friends um I absolutely did plant seeds of doubt in my mind as to whether this was a good idea I started to think about okay maybe we’re not seeing something you start to question you know am I missing something and how how can so many people be so wrong so they’re hoping that a magnificent Garden will prove the doubt is wrong and be the icing on the cake of their family home so how do you want to feel when you step out into this space I mean I love to be outdoors cuz I’m in indoors all day but at the same time because we lead busy lives it was important for me to be able to appreciate the garden from the inside as well I like to think of it as my own sanctuary you know a peaceful place yes what I wanted was a space in the yard where I can sit out the back with a beer looking at the architecture to transform this Suburban Dust Bowl into a sanctuary will come at a price okay so what what about the budget how much is this going to cost a lot a lot what’s a lot we’ll let you know at the end so who’s doing the work oh I’ll be doing most of the work uh doing the hands on Project managing I’ll be in there digging trenches and wow taking the rubbish out yeah in the words of alen bond bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy this Garden is a small space but the design subdivides it further with a tapering lawn pointing down towards Paul’s seat behind us is a pagola a living pagola created of oak trees and beyond that a swing pool against the [Music] fence to the side of the house is another Zone a circular sunken seating area intertwined with stone and decorative hedging and cocooned by small deciduous trees it’s a modern Twist on a garden maze with the design spiraling into a talking [Music] [Applause] point there’s certainly a lot going on especially out the back where Paul and Zoe want multiple spaces within spaces so are they trying to to squeeze too much into a garden that’s only 280 s m this design is trying to make the space feel bigger by dividing it up it’s an old designer’s trick but every now and again it has the opposite effect and I’m really concerned in this case that it could seriously [Music] backfire the excavator has arrived for the first day on the job despite the size of the site it will be a fairly complex dig in order to create the levels required for the formwork and pool after us discussions with the escavator he’s saying about a 10day dig and probably about 30 truckloads of soil have to be removed off the site project manager Paul has already hit his first hurdle the plans lack the detail required to start Excavating so that that one there we’ve got but we don’t have this yeah okay you can’t scarlet no not we’re not good enough time is money so Paul makes the executive decision to press on by leveling the boundaries until further design detail [Music] arrives Paul and Zoe are finally on their way to realizing their Vision taking a w y it’s exciting yeah it’s good to take it off the it is while Zoe is happy for Paul to be in the driver’s seat this project is still very much a team effort and then I’ve already got the spill fixers lined up and the neighbors minor technicality I’ve got a call it with work underway on the design that will create spaces within spaces I’m off to visit a garden on the Mornington Peninsula which I’ve been told has taken this design principle to our whole new [Music] level this stunning private residence has many different spaces in the garden and it’s taken 9 years to build designer Julian Rony is the brains behind it so Julian the scale of this thing is just stupendous I mean I love this massive gesture of 100 met long pagola this enormous design has been sectioned into smaller personalized Garden rooms there’s nine rooms in total and each member of the family has a room of their favorite plants and then one connects through to the other but there’s a different sort of story of planting in each one of their favorite uh collection that they’ve always liked so do you think it looks bigger as a consequence of the division or smaller I think it looks bigger you must explore to see what’s behind that wall or the next wall and to break it all up rather than having maybe one big long lawn you’d see the whole thing from the house and you would even need to go [Music] outside astonishingly the clients built the garden before the house the house was then designed to capture the ocean views and to function as a Windbreak for the garden you can walk down a stone walk and then you’ve got a glimpse of the ocean or you might go to the Western Light in the afternoon light coming through so there’s definitely lots of angles you can take it from so build your garden first and then build a house to match yeah always the dividing up of spaces in this Garden achieves several things certainly it makes it feel bigger but it didn’t need to feel bigger it’s already a big Garden what it ads is a layer of mystery you’ve got no idea what’s around the next corner it’s just a succession of surprises in a smaller Garden you might try and conceal your boundaries to create this greater sense of space and this is exactly ly what Paul and Zoe are attempting to do in Balwin this Garden has a broad plant pallet including euphobia small Cape Rush paper white Narcissus and hedges of Portuguese Laurel what I absolutely love about all these walls and all these rooms is that they completely confound your sense of direction even your sense of location I mean you could really get lost in here and there’s certainly no place I’d rather be lost than in a garden the challenge for Paul and Zoe is to get their spaces to work as harmoniously as the ones in this Garden back at Balwin it’s 1 month into the job despite difficult weather Paul has managed to keep the project on track so we’ve excavated the pool we’ve dug all the footings in preparation for the retaining walls we had some complications during the excavation because we ended up hitting rock uh which was sort of EXP expected sry got to F he’s also managed to keep up with his day job I’ll switch it off and with his wife Zoe I’ll probably get about three or four texts from her every day saying have you done this or have you done that so who is the project manager my wife’s the project manager even with looming Skies the concreters have turned up ready to roll on the swimming pool all up 18,000 L of concrete will be sprayed into the pool shell much to Paul’s relief lot of preparation lot of saving uh a lot of anxiety we’re here now so it’s good to guarantee that it stays watertight the pool must be sprayed and molded in one continuous pore it’s an oddly mesmerizing process that takes the team Just 4 hours to complete and that puts Paul’s Management in good stead when Zoe comes home she’s going to be really excited that the pools being ped um she walks out here every day and just tries to imagine it so now it’s the reality so that’s good see I told you we’d get it done you didn’t believe me did you oh I didn’t think you’d do it well it’s done crack the champagne getting the pool in is a big win for Paul who hasn’t forgotten about his critics my mother-in-law was here over the weekend and I tried to get her opinion on how the how she saw the progress and um this is basically what we’re up against Okay now what’s your view of the house the view of the house was disas when I walk in I thought to grab my son-in-law and strangle him so you can see what we’re up against and where our challenges lie the pool is far from finished but hopefully Zoe can visualize the end result done wow a look oh my goodness it’s my pool no that looks great really happyy I’m glad you have love you okay so we’re on track I’m glad you’re excited look at this you got to capture that small can’t wa it’s 3 months into the build while the curved footings for the designer in relentlessly bad weather and unavailable trades mean the pool shell has been left to gather leaves and water finally with a break in the weather Simon the renderer is on site to begin finishing the pool with Al I spoke to the customer this morning right and just to let him know that Paul is feeling the strain of juggling his job and project managing the New Garden trying to combine this with work has been a bit of a task but we’ve started now and I don’t want to disappoint my wife it’s hard enough working you know 12 hours a day let alone spending all your weekends in her backyard and then coming home to try and coordinate all the stuff around the house and working 24/7 is starting to take its tall is it Simon or Steve is it Steve Simon sorry s m the hours required for project managing have proven a steep learning curve what I’ve learned is the next house that we get going to be finished I’ve been dying to get back and see this wow yeah lots happen it’s really changed I’m loving what’s emerging here shapewise this taper is beautiful isn’t it this you know the fact that we’re pointing down to your spot that you going look back on the house it’s it’s really showing up isn’t it yeah despite the progress I still worry that they’re trying to fit too much into this space including Paul’s prized concrete seat so it sort of starts from this corner here right goes all the way through to there right and then it goes out and ends where that Garden is wow it folds all the way around it folds all the way around there’s a party there just in that seat yeah for me the jury is still out although Zoe is feeling much more confident I feel as if the space looks larger now and I felt that when the back retaining wall went up and when the pool went in it’s coming along really nicely really pleased right now this space feels bigger and I think it’s because of all this detail that your eye kind of plays over and it lingers in the space but there’s so much detail yet to emerge there’s concrete walls there’s a glass pool fence there’s a row of trees down here and with all that division the real question is whether it’s going to still feel bigger at the end what I do know is that the weather won’t be playing ball today Paul’s team have unloaded the sand for the pool render but it’s too wet for it to be applied the rain will just wash it straight off the walls it won’t hold up all that’s it wrap it up and go home beer clock it’s a setback for project manager Paul will’ll have to wait until the weather clears to rebook the trades I mean there’s not much we can do about the weather it’s this time of the year you haven’t got enough influence to stop the rank I wish I did but no unfortunately not six months in the garden is at a standstill bad weather and delays with contractors have plagued this project while the pool has been tiled it’s now Gathering slime and weeds have reared their ugly heads amidst the concrete footings and then they’ll start next week doing that yeah they’re starting next week yeah and Zoe are at an all-time low often questioning if they should ever have started this project at all there’ve been many many days we think would we do it again probably not it’s been months it’s not just days you know it’s been months of having to look out the window and think will we won’t we ever get there it’s taken both a financial and emotional toll you’ve got to be smart about this because you can as a relationship get yourself in a situation where you you’re both upset you both get frustrated and you both can’t see the forest through the trees I don’t know of any renovation whether indoor or outdoor that runs smoothly I think the fact now is we’re just a bit older and less patient perhaps more impatient are their critics friends and family who doubt the project will ever succeed they haven’t been here they’re still down here they’re still down it they haven’t bothered to come and look at progress they they think we’re insane family gatherings are frustrating for me because all I hear about is you’ve taken on too much you know what for and you just got to you know silence your critics by the end result it’s almost like the 16 Chapel it’s like when are you going to finish it’s that scenario it’s become an almost impossible question to answer Paul is relying on trades to turn up but the papers were meant to begin 3 months ago at his Wit’s End Paul has sourced a new contractor so work can finally progress yeah that should take us a week I think yeah the design calls for crazy Paving which will create a haphazard look along the pathways it looks good it’s it’s very effective very um labor intensive but but it looks great when it’s done this intricate jigsaw puzzle has pieces weighing up to 5050 kilos well just trying to get as many natural edges to meet up as we can without having to cut them we’ll put that one in behind me and if we can get all the big ones to fit we’ll put them in but obviously we need a few small ones just to fill in the gaps looking really good Chris yeah looking really good yeah we getting there it’s a lot it’s a lot more dramatic than I thought yeah good few more days few more days good a couple of big days and we’ll get close yeah it looks really good it’s great news once the paving work is done plants can finally arrive on site in a gray World Greenery is [Laughter] good it’s nearly 1 year since this Garden started the site is a buzz with Tradesmen renderers are working on a feature wall and landscapers are preparing for the arrival of desperately needed Greenery Hey Zoe hey Paul hey there’s some real action going on around here yeah there is and everything changes today yeah everything changes today BR the person implementing the change has arrived designer Carolyn Blackman is here to meet the plant delivery oh wow first off the truck are three fabulous Plateau pruned pin OES is this what you were thinking uh not quite I can see a lifetime of Ting birch trees will create a small forest in the backyard The Birches po I love Birches Carolyn is setting out the bay laurels in the back bed to enhance the garden’s tapered look so this is just forming a green wall at the back here car it is so you’ve got big deep beds and you’ve also subdivided the spaces is there any chance this is just going to feel crazily overcrowded that to me zero risk the deeper the planting beds the more layers you can get in layers equals generosity it’s about minimizing the materials that you inject into the space and still trying to make sure that the spaces are visually linked so that you don’t run the risk of just compartmentalizing the space even more with Paul choosing to manage the project himself Carolyn is delighted to be finally getting her hands dirty how good is it with the yeah it looks fantastic as a designer there’s a degree of anxiety about the moment of hand over isn’t there but in this case you’ve had to hand over much earlier in the process it’s it’s tough to watch someone else implement it but we have to hand them over anyway Michael we whether we hand them over sooner or later and we need for these clients to be really invested in the space because their investment in the build of the garden is going to have massive knock-on effects with how the garden looks in 5 years time so is Project managing something like this harder than it looks it’s harder than it looks it’s bigger than it looks and it’s not been without its stresses for Paul and Zoe I don’t know how you do it but they so deserve to have every scrap of happiness that can come from this space because they’ve worked harder for it than most plants that’s mature will certainly transform the atmosphere but the instant gratification comes at a price this is all pretty good yeah just cut that but let’s just cut that bottom beard the impressive pin OES are worth over $22,000 each but they’ve been cultivated in a nursery for years to achieve this look oh yeah the sh just that instant feeling of sh yeah so too many people make the mistake of thinking small garden small plant but we’ve got limited ground space very often the overhead space is unlimited and this is where trees work so well but these trees take it to a whole new level these have been clipped and formed into an absolute flat plane so for a fraction of the price of a pagola you get this lovely canopy overhead and this beautiful shade instantly with it all coming together Paul is more than happy to hand over the rains today I could only get it so far but you really need talent people around you what this whole exercise demonstrates to me that you’ve got to put your faith in talented people and that’s where you get a lot better result I would have hated to gone through you know all this money and not be happy with it and now I’m finding myself really happy with it really happy Paul has another reason to smile the concretors are finally pouring his enormous floating seat so this is your baby this is my baby and it’s going in yeah I couldn’t believe it so you’re one step closer y to having that beer out here yep how many more steps are left um 15 15 I’ve counted them can you see the end goal I can see the end goal the funny thing was it took 18 months to get here yeah but one day to make it look like there’s something here and therein lies the power of plants no matter how clever the built form as a gardener and as a plant lover what I want to see is nature dominating ultimately having the upper hand so to be here inv veloped in Greenery swallowed in it is for me sheer Joy let’s hope it’s a sign of great things to [Music] [Applause] come it’s been just over a year since I first met Paul and zoee they knew that project managing an ambitious Garden would require hard work and determination they’ve had their doubters and given it their all will it be enough wow it’s really it’s really graphic you know I wasn’t expecting this and you so rarely get it from a garden where you’ve got this amazing contrast of the black and the white and the [Music] green I’ve always been concerned that this design would feel too crowded now complete it feels surprisingly open the separate zones combined to create a greater sense of Interest and from inside the taper design focuses the eye it’s just sliding on out my favorite built feature here is that floating cyle white seat it is so striking it looks heavy but organic it’s really smart I’m not a big fan of crazy Paving but this takes it to a new place for me and I think it’s about the size Vari the fact that there are big big Stones lots of them and then just these veins of smaller Stones running through texturally it’s beautiful as is the pool’s curvaceous feature wall I think the white is a Triumph this wall sliding up the side there it’s just a sensation and around the corner is another space yet [Music] again it could so easily have been overlooked and underused now it’s transformed into a real [Music] highlight the maples will grow to 3 m High creating an intimate [Music] Retreat what do you think well I mean it’s just so amazingly welldeveloped straight away isn’t it these trees are fabulous I love it I just just so happy we’ve got this beautiful garden so Paul you must be exhausted well I am but have a look at the end result it’s just [Music] fantastic I’m just loving your Delight in this space what is it that most Delights you um for me it’s um it’s peaceful we’ve got the various spaces and they all serve a point of difference and that’s what I love about the design as well I haven’t been into a garden that looks like this or feels like this and I think our personalities are quite unique and it reflects who we are so we’re not coming out into this space I feel like I belong here there’s this sense of belonging and if that’s the end result it’s a perfect garden for [Music] us so you guys decided to take charge of the project management do you have any regrets yeah there were periods where I thought we probably stuck our neck out a little bit too far and there were periods where I thought of giving up but as long as you know that there’s going to be a result you work towards it so what were the gains I think you become more invested in the garden when you you become more attached you know I know every piece of this Garden you know every meter of concrete every stone all the little details you know in some way shape or form I had something on Zoe to do with it so we become really attached to ENG go to the Garden right at the start of this process I asked you how much this was going to cost and you said we’ll tell you at the end the budget was a lot and we stopped counting once we got to a lot but truthfully um you don’t get a lot of change out of 200 well I’m not at all surprised by that figure I mean there’s a lot of built form here and it’s all very very [Music] intricate so from the outset you were surrounded by doubters what does this Garden say to them oh I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised you know there were doubters but we we were also doubting ourselves as well Michael you know but I think that they will be very very happy to see the end result the big lesson is never give up it’s basically persistence persistence persistence it’s as simple as that right the minute you get give up it’s a wasted [Music] opportunity for this family realizing a dream hasn’t come easy but it will be all the more rewarding because of [Music] it [Music] the decision Paul and Zoe made to project manage this job themselves made it slower and tougher than it really needed to be but it also made them so much more connected with the end result and this highlights to me one of the superpowers of gardens that whatever we put in big or small we get so so much more in return [Music] fantastic [Music] drink