“I just thought immediately that we should plant the whole thing,” says landscape designer Jared Lockhart of his first response to designing a garden for architect Jack McKinney and his wife Tracy Lunjevich in Kingsland, Tāmaki Makaurau. “Because it’s really small, so what else can you do? You can’t have a garden and a lawn in a space like this – it’s kind of one thing or the other.”

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McKinney and Lunjevich have lived here for 20 years: 15-odd years ago, they renovated the original small villa, and a studio which occupies one corner of the back garden. Both the extension and studio featured tall, pleated roof forms that drag in northern light. For a long time, the sloping back garden was mostly grass, except for a claret ash tree that they planted. There was a lovely sunken courtyard between the house and the studio, and lots of room for kids and a trampoline. “The kids were little,” says Lunjevich, “and it was really good for them to run around on – you know, a bit of space in the inner-city.”

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Then, about three years ago – after briefly thinking about moving and now with teenagers in the house – they decided it was time for a pool, which McKinney designed to fit into the bottom corner, beside the studio. The trampoline went, and the project became more complex than first intended. They ended up by rebuilding most of the walls of the studio (which started life as a garage, complete with inspection pit) but the result is lovely – a back garden in four quarters that feels like a series of rooms.One is the studio, one is the pool, one is the courtyard, and the final quadrant was for Lockhart’s garden. “Poor Jared,” says McKinney, “he had to make it all make sense, and there’s not really room for a garden.” Lockhart’s response? A flat circle for a table carved out of the sloping lawn, surrounded by garden. “I just felt like you really wanted to be in it,” says Lockhart. “Lots of times you just sit and look at a garden, but on a small site I think it’s important to be in it.”

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McKinney and Lunjevich took a pause when they first saw the design. “We were definitely unsure about the circle, just for a bit,” says Lunjevich. McKinney adds, laughing, “It was a bit like Play School – here’s a square, here’s a triangle, here’s a circle.” But they quickly saw its logic – with planting all around, the circle would be much less strident. It would also provide them with a space to sit in the middle of their garden. “We liked that he’d surprised us,” says McKinney. “And, of course, the best bit is the bit that we weren’t sure about – so that’s the bit we had to do. We just had to commit, which is always the best response.”  

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Lockhart’s planting scheme is dense, and casual, centring around giant taro plants, which are spectacular, lush and green, along with a mixture of stalky Muehlenbeckia astonii and hydrangeas for structure, and Miscanthus grasses – which grow tall in summer, and die down at the end of winter – for height. In spring, Gaura plants create a meadow effect, with pretty white flowers. Phylica pubescens provides fluffy stalks, and heuchera adds a rich purple-red. By mid-summer, it’s something of a jungle. “It’s not a clipped garden, it’s informal and anti-fussy,” says Lockhart, “so it still looks really good even when it’s not perfect. It’s no more maintenance than a lawn, but it’s far more interesting.”

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So much so that when things really get going, you can’t see the pool from the house, and with borrowed views out over neighbouring planting and established trees, the garden expands to feel much bigger than its small size. “I wanted a jungle,” says McKinney. “It’s funny – it feels bigger because of the scale of the space, which is quite counterintuitive. You have a small area, so you fill it with big things, and then it feels much bigger.”

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Now, you wind your way through these distinct outdoor “rooms”. A Corten steel gate of McKinney’s design opens to the pool set underneath the ash tree – the day I visit, in late autumn, it’s a rich red, and the trees are about to drop their leaves. “You come down here and it’s a lovely view back up to the house,” says Lunjevich. “From the pool, you’re looking up through the plants. It’s just so tranquil.”

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