The World In Your Backyard

The Sunday Age

Sunday October 26, 2008

Graeme Johnstone

Jamie Durie is on a mission to reshape the Aussie garden. Graeme Johnstone spoke to the host of TV's The Outdoor Room

ONE OF Jamie Durie's earliest memories is of his mother cultivating her rose garden in the challenging, harsh red soil of Tom Price, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 1130 kilometres north of Perth. "And me, three years old, watering it," Durie recalls, laughing.

The prospect of getting roses to flourish in the tough, northern WA mining town was a tribute to his mother's skill and her tenacity, says the host of Channel Seven's Sunday evening lifestyle show, The Outdoor Room. He recently launched his Patio by Jamie Durie homewares range, distributed nationally by BIG W.

"Mum was a passionate gardener," Durie says. Further horticultural inspiration for young Durie came from his father, who, when not doing his shift at the Hammersley iron ore mine, "was always working in the backyard".

Now the boy who "grew up on red dirt and powdered milk" has taken the backyard makeover concept to a new level, translating international ideas, many of them centuries old, into Australian suburban properties.

Durie is inspired by Mogul architecture, decorated arches, spill-over vines, brilliant mosaics and the deep, bold colours of India. "There is something so elegant about an Indian garden," he says. "It is like a sanctuary - rooms within rooms."

He also loves Italian design: ochre-rendered walls; detailed decoration; water features; the beautiful, strong colours such as yellows, reds, magentas and pinks; plus iconic statues that illustrate the strong influence of religion in Italy.

Africa provides some particularly potent visions, with its earthy colours, drought-resistant plants, wooden carvings, and the opportunity to employ the natural architecture of the landscape and to use natural materials in unusual roles.

"In Africa, they will pretty much pick up a log and turn it into a bench," Durie says.

"Or they'll use it in such a way to make it a sculpture. They're very good at using materials to bring the outdoors in."

The tricky part of the TV presenter's job is to take something expressive - and often expansive - from one culture and make it work in a standard Australian backyard. The solution is twofold: do not try to replicate everything exactly; and incorporate as many elements of our local heritage as possible.

"It's all about taking the spirit of the place and building a landscape that ties in with out native flora and fauna," says Durie, who has re-created more than 300 gardens for television (see "Leave no stone unturned", page 16).

The aim is to create something tasteful and sympathetic to what the owners want. "We interview the people and we throw up ideas," he says. "We put in the bones and the structure but we don't set the agenda - they are the ones who set the wheel on the compass."

So far in the series, inspiration from India has been used on a family's house that abuts a giant concrete wall and has a freeway on the other side, and the Italian touch has rejuvenated a tired backyard for a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

For another couple - whose backyard plans were thrown into disarray with the news that they were expecting twins - a secret garden of arbors and colourful flowerpots were some of the techniques used to turn a sandpit into a classic English outdoor room.

As the program's name implies, the idea is to enliven the backyard and also make it a mix-and-match extension of the house's living areas. "It's about making the backyard a comfortable place to live," Durie says. "I like people to live in the garden rather than look at the garden."

The 30-minute program features the garden makeover, and also a travel component and a cooking demonstration concentrating on the highlighted country. Durie is supported each week by garden designer Jody Rigby and guest chefs such as Tobie Puttock, Tom Kime and Johnson Njuguna.

"It's the show I have wanted to do since I first started on television," Durie says. "It's a lot to pack in in a short amount of time, and it took a few people a while to understand the concept. It's more of a lifestyle show - Australians love to travel, we love our tucker, we love ideas.

So it's a way of melding together the way we all live."

Durie came to prominence on TV shows such as Backyard Blitz, The Block and Australia's Best Backyard, and his company Patio Landscape Architecture & Design this year won a gold medal at the Royal Horticultural Society's prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London with a native Australian garden.

Have his sustained professional efforts for nearly a decade changed the way we regard our yards? Are we converting the iconic backyard combination of lawn, slab of concrete and washing line into something more artistic and innovative? Is his message getting across?

"Absolutely," Durie says. "People are passionate about their gardens and they are starting to use their backyards as outdoor rooms now - extensions of their own living space."

And there is plenty more to come. "I'm really proud of what I have done over the years," he says, "and I'll continue to green up Australia, one backyard at a time."

Leave no stone unturned

THE AFRICAN edition of The Outdoor Room featured a remarkable yard full of stacked stones, painstakingly prepared in sculptured piles by artist Geoffrey Armstrong and partner Wendy Vincent.

"Wasn't it amazing?" Jamie Durie says. "He's one of the most talented individuals I've come across. I don't think I've ever seen anything as dramatic as that. That really topped it for me."

For the past 12 years, the couple worked on the garden of their mountainside home, just outside Johannesburg, planting more than 500 types of native plants and moving and positioning thousands of stones.

Durie says Armstrong didn't so much create a group of sculptures, rather "he sculptured the whole landscape into one beautiful piece".

"He was sitting on 12 to15 acres (four to six hectares), I think, and there was not a stone left unmanipulated," Durie says. "He brushed his magic wand all over it. It just shows, with a bit of imagination, what you can do."

Durie, who began reshaping backyards on TV in 2000, likes to return to sites and review his work. "We go back and monitor what we have done," he says. "We like to see what was great about a project and also what we could have done better."

His feels his success rate has been pretty high. "We have done well over 300 gardens," he says. "Of that, we have only had two that have suffered. They are properties that have been sold (often), and the owners have not respected them."

Would you like a Durie-designed garden?

IF YOU would like to be considered for a backyard makeover on The Outdoor Room, go to www.jamiedurie.com and sign.

The host has one simple request: "Keep it a secret from your spouse." The surprise element goes to the heart of the show.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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