Down to Earth: Trish Bartleet

“The hard landscaping elements are important but it’s the use of plants that gives a garden a distinctive personality,” she says. “People often don’t understand how landscapes work so it’s wonderful when a client or architect becomes enthusiastic about the planting and the unique effects of gardens that evolve over time and change according to the seasons.”

“All outdoor areas require some maintenance but you can get outstanding effects with very little effort from combining drifts of just two or three different plants.”

Trish had not intended to work in landscape design but stumbled into the profession when working in art and fashion. “Over time I realised that landscaping is quite a painterly sort of experience. Because of my interest in design in general I became fascinated by how plants can be used to create combinations of patterns and textures that lead to a visual reaction,” she says.

Many of her clients have already embraced the notion of building a home that is unusual and pushes design boundaries and they want this feeling to be continued through various landscaping elements. “Most of the people I work with want something different. I don’t get the opportunity to produce boring gardens,” she says, laughing.

A walk around her garden reveals a starting crossover of interior design concepts into the great outdoors. Pebble paving in a tap-style pattern in an entranceway ahs the welcoming effect of a special rug, custom-designed planters have the solidity of furniture, screens separate outdoor areas into rooms and art interfaces with planting.

For Trish, outside spaces offer more possibilities for provoking ongoing responses than indoor spaces. “Interiors are static – once you’ve got the essential components nothing much changes fundamentally. Working on designing outside spaces is exciting because they constantly evolve. The hard landscaping is provides continuity but nothing looks the same for long because plants change all the time.”

“A woman recently faxed me to say how beautiful the patch of lilies was at the bottom of her garden, with the sunlight glowing through the leaves. She was blown away by the different effects that the plants gave the area – it’s great to see people’s awakening awareness of the power of plants.”

Travel is a major source of inspiration. A favourite is the Chaumont Garden Festival in France’s Loire Valley, which is synonymous with showcasing ground-breaking trends, some over-the-top and others thought-provoking.

“I never copy anything or derive particular design elements from Chaumont but seeing other designers experimenting with some pretty wild ideas is liberating and gives you the confidence to push the boundaries a bit further in your own designs. There’s a fine line between cutting edge and ridiculous. I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing some of my landscape designs that seemed really out there when they were first done – the essential structure looks appropriate twenty years later.”

However Trish doesn’t just rely on overseas travel to stoke up her ideas. A recent trip kayaking at the Abel Tasman National Park and travelling down the West Coast really got her creative juices flowing.

“I use a lot of natives in my designs and like to work out how I can highlight their form and texture away from the proverbial bush setting. Seeing the nikaus at Punakaiki pushed me into thinking how I could use them more innovatively in landscaping.”

Trish isn’t interested in “trends” as such but is very aware that landscaping is at crossroads.

“There are a lot of young people entering the industry who are so enthusiastic and many architects who are designing homes for our Kiwi way of life. There’s bound to be a lot of distinctive innovation and exciting exploration of ideas in the future.”

Story: Sarah Beresford Photographs: Gil Hanly (gardens), Sally Tagg (portrait)