Maroubra, NSW

A lady in Maroubra wanted to look out from her kitchen window onto an archway hung with vegetables — so we built her exactly that: two large self-watering beds linked by a double arch trellis. Over that arch she'll be able to train grapes, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, peas, beans, snow peas, sugarsnaps or sweet potato.

An archway heavy with produce makes a real feature of a Maroubra garden, and framing the view from the kitchen this way turns the vegetable patch into part of the outlook rather than something tucked out of sight. The two big beds give plenty of growing space below as well as above, and a built-in composter keeps the soil fed from kitchen scraps.

Being wicking beds, they hold water in a reservoir in the base and draw it up to the roots, so the whole set-up stays evenly watered through Maroubra's bright, hot Eastern Suburbs summers with very little effort. Raising the beds also lifts the veggies into better light and clear of the sandy coastal soil.

We build from kiln-dried, vegetable-grade timber with a food-safe finish, made to stand years of sun and salt air without rotting. If you'd like a productive feature garden — arches, trellises and all — in Maroubra, Coogee or elsewhere across the Eastern Suburbs, we'd love to help you design it.