Glebe 2037
Artist’s impression of the proposed garden
A luxury tropical garden in historic Glebe
By Jasper Green
An exposed, empty backyard becoming a sheltered, layered tropical garden.
Status: under construction. Demolition began in October 2026.
Project facts
- Location: Glebe, Inner West
- Garden: open backyard of about 100 m², with a patio off the kitchen, a lawn and a side path
- Services: landscape concept, working plans, trade sourcing and construction support
- Year: 2026
The brief
The backyard was largely empty: a patch of lawn, a dilapidated concrete tile patio and little else, and a space the owner rarely wanted to be in. She asked for a layered, tropical ‘resort’ garden with high-quality finishes, and more shade and shelter from the wind, so that the garden could be used comfortably through the year.
What shaped it
- Exposure: the yard is open to full sun, hot and dry in summer and cold in winter, with little to moderate either.
- Wind: prevailing southerlies and hot, dry winds cross the garden, which makes it uncomfortable to sit in and hard for plants to establish.
- What’s underground: existing subsurface drainage lines run beneath parts of the yard and limit where large plants can go.
Key decisions
1. Keep the patio, change its shape. The patio off the kitchen was already in the right place for how the house is used, so it stays. Its outline was reshaped to make room for deeper garden beds around it. The trade-off: a little less paved area, in exchange for beds deep enough to grow screening and canopy. Some lawn was also lost in order to make way for garden beds.
2. Plant for shelter first. Species were chosen to slow the wind and cast shade before anything else, then layered with the lush foliage the owner wanted. 2 clumping Cabada palms (Dypsis cabadae) provide shade and shelter, and will go in as the most mature plants on site. A Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) will give the most protection from the afternoon sun. Beneath them, Heliconia ‘Kawauchi’ adds foliage texture and shades the variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’) and Xanadu (Thaumatophyllum xanadu).
3. Work with the subsurface and the timeline. The drainage lines fixed where the larger plants could go, so the layout of planting follows what lies below ground rather than an ideal on paper. The Bangalow palm is planted as a younger specimen because of the nearby drainage lines, so it will take longer to give shade. The Cabada palms provide shelter from the start, and because most other plants grow quickly, smaller stock was used throughout.
Tropical garden progress
Demolition is under way. Updates will follow as the garden is built and planted.
Prior to demolition
The Concept
Artist’s impression of the proposed garden
Demolition under way in the Glebe backyard, October 2026
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