Perth Designer Paula Kuka Turns Her Backyard Into a Native Sanctuary of 60-Plus Species

Eight years ago, landscape designer Paula Kuka moved into a 1948 brick cottage in Perth with her husband and two children. The backyard she inherited was a patchy lawn with two trees left by the previous owners: a jacaranda and a Chinese wisteria, Wisteria sinensis. Kuka, who runs the design practice Common Wild, had wanted a garden of her own to build from scratch. By her account, she began thinking about the design on the day they arrived and was working on the ground almost straight away.

Her aim was practical as well as aesthetic. She wanted to create a microclimate that would let the family spend time outdoors in the middle of a Perth summer, with enough shade around the house to cut down on cooling needs. She kept the jacaranda and the wisteria, training the wisteria over new structures, and then broke up the open yard into a series of smaller spaces linked by planting.

Those spaces include a seating area, a plunge pool and a children's play area, each immersed in greenery. Kuka says that creating a series of rooms, and obscuring the edge of the garden, makes the space feel larger and richer than it would as open lawn. She kept paving to an absolute minimum so the planting could reach right up to the thresholds.

A studio that opens onto the garden was a central part of the brief she set herself. It is built from recycled brick and salvaged windows, chosen to match the original materials of the house. Bifold doors open onto a path of stepping stones leading to a courtyard, where an overhead outdoor shower sits above a boulder. Kuka describes standing on the solid rock under warm water, surrounded by plants, as very grounding.

The planting is overwhelmingly Australian. More than 60 species grow in the garden, and 90 per cent are natives. Pin-cushion hakea, Hakea laurina, frames the pool, and native violet, Viola hederacea, carpets the courtyard and softens the edges of the stone steppers. Other plants include mat rush (Lomandra longifolia 'Nyalla'), coast tussock grass (Poa poiformis 'Kingsdale'), swamp foxtail grass (Cenchrus purpurascens 'Nafray') and coastal myall (Acacia binervia 'Sterling Silver'). The restrained palette leaves room for the greys, greens and soft blue-greens of the foliage, with unexpected colour combinations coming from the flowers.

The garden also works as a habitat. Different bird species visit the birdbath regularly, including the endangered Carnaby's cockatoo, which the source spells 'Caranby's'. Insects, lizards and frogs are drawn in from a nearby lake. Kuka says she has always loved Australian native landscapes and wanted to show how much variety exists among native plants, and to be able to step outside and feel the rest of the world had disappeared.

It is also a testing ground for her work. She says she uses her own garden to try ideas, watching what thrives where, how a plant responds to pruning, and how much effort it takes to keep it looking good. And she sees it as a lesson for her children: caring for one small patch, she says, can contribute to the broader environment.

After eight years of hard labour, and of waiting for her planting choices to reveal themselves slowly, Kuka says she feels peace and a sense of achievement looking out from her studio. She calls the result everything she hoped for, an unexpected sanctuary behind a simple suburban house.