If you haven’t heard of Dean Herald or his business Rolling Stone Landscapes, and you consider yourself a fan of great landscape design, then I suggest you track down one of the many publications featuring his work. He is known for bringing a ‘resort style’ to residential projects with spectacular results. He is also known for winning a swag of medals for his show gardens at Chelsea and MIFGS. I first came across once of his show gardens at Sydney in Bloom in 2005. Here he blew the competition away by creating a landscape overlooking the harbor with the help of a large speedboat placed in front of a 6-foot high panoramic image of the harbor bridge. It’s also where I believe his iconic combination glass bench/fountain first made a public appearance ( see photo )

Just threw ‘sustainable’ into Google for 120 million results. While not as many as Justin Bieber at 929 million it still points to a fair body of knowledge on the topic. The question is how does is apply to creating a good landscape design? The short answer is that it should be part and parcel of any design today however that’s not particularly informative so lets look at what I think are three key areas it should apply.

The first is probably the most obvious and that’s build choices. By this I mean what products (soil, paving, plants, lights, stone etc. ) are going to be employed in the realization of your landscape design. Its all about questions such as where did it come from and how were it made? I remember years ago we used to source these beautiful bush rocks until we found out they were ripping them out of the banks of inland rivers. Once you’re satisfied with the product you then need to ensure its built in a such away that it not only lasts but does so with minimum impact (I’m talking to you black plastic laid under gravel!). From build choices the second key area is the maintaining of the landscape, how will it sit within its environment with minimum intervention and impact for the best result.

Dipping into academic waters here, which I never feel that comfortable in but I think it’s worth asking the question. In the quest to create great landscape designs its worth defining what exactly a landscape is.  We explored this no end when I was studying Landscape Architecture, to some it’s a view or a physical setting while others see it as an historical construct or a state of mind. It’s all these things and more depending on your point of view and for me therein lies the best definition, it’s a ‘point of view’.