The Block 2024 backyard and pool reveal recap: Judges are 'shocked ... in a good way'
It’s one of the biggest weeks on The Block – backyard and pool week. A swarm of landscapers descended early, kicking off a frantic race to transform five blank spaces into lush, dreamy escapes. But with constant deliveries, missed orders, and plenty of surprises, the tension didn’t take long to skyrocket.
The drama began with a nostalgic screening of the first episode of the season, which should have been a nice trip down memory lane. Instead, it quickly turned sour when Maddy and Charlotte found themselves blindsided by harsh reactions to their professional backgrounds – again.
Things only escalated when Ricky stirred the pot at dinner by bringing up the episode. Maddy tried to defend herself, but Kylie wasn’t having it. She stormed out in a huff, leaving the rest to gossip over her dramatic exit. While the others mulled over the situation, Courtney and Grant wisely made their exit to enjoy their winners’ dinner with Block Allstars Dale and Sophie, who were far away from the brewing drama.
Despite the emotional fireworks, the teams pushed on with their landscaping projects, but not without setbacks. The single driveway system – one truck in, one truck out – caused a logistical nightmare, bringing progress to a crawl.
Block veteran Troy Lovett returned to the trenches, determined to secure a landscaping win. However, his winning experience came with a hefty dose of stubbornness, which didn’t sit well with the Nine in Six builders. His refusal to take suggestions led to multiple clashes, even causing House 5 to be temporarily shut down. Meanwhile, Ricky and Haydn had their own battle, working without a landscaper and relying solely on their builder, Duncan.
Still, they managed to snag a couple of victories. After solving a riddle, they pocketed $5000 worth of fishing gear and later bagged an extra $10,000 for being the best at managing their budget. While they might not be the flashiest team, they’re quietly proving they know what they’re doing.
Kylie and Brad’s week, however, went from bad to worse. After a brief moment of joy, winning $5000 in the depreciation challenge, their landscaper, Clay, forgot to order plants – a slight oversight, right? Combined with their tricky location at the back of the block, the odds of finishing their backyard on time were slim.
As the week drew to a close, the Blockheads were not just racing against the clock but against each other, with no clear front-runner and the finish line looming ever closer.
Special guest judge – and Block regular – landscaper Dave Franklin joined the judging panel this week. Let’s see what they thought …
House 1: Maddy and Charlotte backyard and pool reveal
Maddy and Charlotte had a little help from Hi-Pages this week, but that didn’t stop the drama. Their last-minute engineered stone benchtop delivery caused a major issue when they realised the material is now banned in Australia. Cue the frantic scramble for a solution just before “tools down” was called.
Despite the hiccups, the judges are floored by the size of the girls’ backyard. Marty can’t hide his excitement, “Jeez, look how big this is. This is huge. It’s insane. From a marketing perspective, this is incredible. How do you actually do all of this in one week to this standard? We were here last week; this was mud!” – his disbelief in the transformation palpable.
Darren loves it all: “It’s a nice big plunge pool. They’ve got a nice big day-bed here … it’s really quite lovely to be elevated with all the canopy of the treetops.” Nothing says luxury like Darren using the word “lovely” twice in a sentence. If he says it thrice, the real estate genie might appear.
Shaynna is equally impressed by the simplicity of the design, “I love how they’ve kept it really simple in their application here.”
The stone bench disaster proves not to be one at all, with the judges loving the makeshift exterior panelling the girls used instead: “It looks incredible,” Shaynna says. “And it ties in beautifully with the exterior of the building – and it looks good,” Darren adds. Dodged a bullet there, girls.
The barbecue area and deck off the main bedroom are also major hits. Marty imagines himself sitting there with a morning cuppa – bliss.
As the judges wander through the garden, they can’t stop gushing over the entertainer-friendly setup. Marty, a man who clearly knows how to throw a party, is in his element: “When you’re having those barbecues with family, you’ve got that beautiful light coming through. This is a real entertainer’s dream being on this side of the block.” Darren declares it a “party house” when he notices the outdoor speakers and starts doing an awkward jig – dancing, you might call it.
Darren adds the final tick of approval: “Design, planning, finish, amenity. Tick, tick, tick, tick.”
Maddy and Charlotte turned what could’ve been a week of chaos into a triumph.
House 2: Courtney and Grant backyard and pool reveal
Grumpy Grant finally found his groove this week, flexing his landscaping muscles to create not one, not two, but five separate outdoor entertaining areas. While Courtney had reigned supreme on the interior design front throughout the season, Grumpy held the hose when it came to the outdoors.
And the judges were floored by the results. Marty, never afraid to manifest, is ready to call it a tie between House 1 and House 2, “I literally thought House 1 had hit it out of the ballpark, but I think we’ve got a contender.”
Shaynna is equally thrilled by the level of styling – even in the barbecue drawers, “They’ve even styled inside the drawers! It’s phenomenal.”
And Darren? He has a full-blown love affair with the barbecue area: “That is the barbecue of my dreams. That is sexxxxxy, and I want it.” That’s right, folks, barbecue lust is real, and we’re here for it.
“What’s better than having olive trees, lemon trees and even your bay leaf tree – everything that you need to cook for the barbecue is right here, right in front of you,” – landscaper Dave is loving it, too.
As they move on, Shaynna admires the pool area, “It’s just gorgeous and so much bigger than I expected.”
And then they discover the fire pit and pizza oven. Darren is all in, declaring, “This is just value, value, value, and amenity. There’s so many different functions, from entertaining to just sitting around the fire pit – all the different cooking options, it has a lot of use.”
Marty can’t stop gushing over the space’s size and practicality, “This indoor-outdoor flow. This is what people pay for. This is what gets them emotionally connected to a property, envisaging themselves with all their family and friends feeling at home.”
Courtney and Grant crafted a backyard that is both expansive and intimate. It wasn’t just eye candy – it was a masterclass in functionality.
House 3: Ricky and Haydn backyard and pool reveal
Ricky and Haydn opted for a family-friendly design to complement their “house of fun”, complete with a recycled spotted-gum swing set and plenty of lawn for backyard cricket. And they did it all without a professional landscaper.
“This is a backyard,” Dave says as he steps outside.
Darren, like Alice in Wonderland, after she fell down that hole, proclaims, “Where are we again? We could be anywhere, right? The trees coming from the top of the building all the way down the fence line. Once these Lily Pilly’s grow, you’re gonna just be hemmed in with green, with a green canopy above you. This is like super private, and that is a proper family backyard.”
Cue Dave, doing his best Crocodile Dundee impression: “That’s not just grass. This is Lilydale turf. They’re the best in the business. This is buffalo grass here, so this is tough – cricket, footy, whatever you like on this grass here.” Clearly, he thinks the difference between a good backyard and a great backyard is tough grass.
Marty thinks the layout isn’t a bad move from a real estate perspective, “People can envisage their kids, you know, running around, and if they want to add things later, they can.”
But Shaynna has a look on her face – the one that usually spells ‘lack of consensus’. She’s not feeling it the way the others are. “I’ve just come from two environments that had beautiful shapes to them, and they felt different. It makes sense now that the guys did it themselves … That’s sort of what it feels like for me.” In other words, no professional landscaper, no dream sold.
However, when they round the corner to the pool, things turn for the better, and Shaynna eats her words. “Oh my god. Like, what on earth? I apologise for what I said around the corner. This is insane.”
“The biggest pool is a massive selling feature that separates them from the others,” says Marty.
“It’s planned really beautifully for holiday living. So I think it does what it’s supposed to do just as well as the inside of the house does. It’s not as chic, but it’s fun,” Darren says.
Shaynna adds: “It ticks all the boxes of what a holiday house should be doing … it just doesn’t have the finesse and the finishings. If they had a professional landscaper, they would have sold the dream more.”
House 4: Kylie and Brad backyard and pool reveal
It was a rough week for Kylie and Brad. With the smallest backyard on the Block – at 378 square meters – you’d think that would make things easier. But, thanks to a plant ordering debacle and a stressed-out landscaper, they were well and truly led down the garden path.
First impressions were positive, with the judges loving the size of the pool: “That’s a great size pool. It’s a major selling point having this pool area off the living space,” Darren says.
But that’s when the compliments dried up.
Dave isn’t thrilled: “It’s giving me nothing … All this wasted space… It might be a budget thing, but there’s no big trees with canopies.”
Darren questions the lack of decking and functional space, “You have lots of walkways, lots of different types and different materials, but not a lot of function, not a lot of enjoyable space.”
The fire pit area was another small win; the judges could see a lot of time and effort went into this, but it wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. “There’s nothing about this that says, ‘Come and hang in my backyard.’”
Marty’s disappointment is palpable, “There’s no thought to the buyer here, no emotion. They’ve just plonked things in without any consideration to what people throw their hands up for come auction day.”
But ever the optimist, Darren looks for the silver lining: “This house is still amazing, and it wouldn’t put me off buying it. There’s some stuff I’d want to do and change and fix, but it wouldn’t put me off … it’s still a bloody great house.”
House 5: Kristian and Mimi backyard and pool reveal
With the largest backyard on The Block, Kristian and Mimi were under serious pressure to deliver this week – and they did, to an extent.
Darren is all about the high drama of the design, exclaiming, “Wow, that’s dramatic. Another big pool and I love the mosaic tiling around it.” Shaynna is right there with him, praising the choice of textures and colours, “The blue stone, the travertine, the beautiful blue for the pool … it’s absolutely stunning.”
Even Dave is impressed, “As soon as you walk in, you’re drawn to it. It does scream ‘resort’.” Shaynna does point out that while the deck is small, “You’ve got all the grass around there that you could lay on as well and be part of the pool environment.”
They love the boat bar too – Dave especially – and that it was filled with plenty of rum.
But while Kristian and Mimi nailed the aesthetic, the lingering layout issues came back to haunt them.
In previous weeks, they were slammed for placing a TV room directly off the backyard instead of something more functional, like an al fresco dining space. Marty still isn’t over it: “The big issue the buyer will face when inspecting is they see a big dining table and think, ‘Great! Dinner parties or entertaining,’ but it’s such a long walk from the kitchen that this is actually quite a difficult place to entertain people over dinner.”
Speaking of dining, the judges are baffled by the absence of a barbecue. Didn’t Kristian and Mimi win that huge, fancy Wolf barbecue? (Spoiler: yes, yes, they did.) Even Scotty can’t resist pointing it out: “Where is the Wolf barbecue going?”
“On the balcony. On the balcony upstairs,” Kristian says. Not a great choice, mate. A massive outdoor space and no barbecue? Marty is unimpressed, “This is backyard week on The Block – you need a barbecue!”
Dave doesn’t mince words either, delivering the ultimate Aussie critique: “It’s un-Australian.”
Recovering from that grilling (pun intended), Darren points out that the garden delivers on privacy – “Look around. Look at what we’re looking at. We’re seeing lots of trees and lots of sky … It’s privacy. It’s a cracker.”
So, there you have it. Over to the judges …
| House | Team | Score | Place |
| House 1 | Maddy and Charlotte | 37 | 2nd |
| House 2 | Courtney and Grant | 39 | 1st |
| House 3 | Ricky and Haydn | 32 | 4th |
| House 4 | Kylie and Brad | 27 | 5th |
| House 5 | Kristian and Mimi | 35 | 3rd |
Courtney and Grumpy dug deep this week, nabbing a 10 from Darren and Shaynna and planting themselves firmly in first place with their impressive, multi-functional backyard.
Maddy and Charlotte weren’t far behind, pruning back on complexity and letting their simple yet stunning outdoor space blossom. Ricky and Haydn, as well as Kristian and Mimi, got some green thumbs-up from the judges, but a few design missteps kept them from truly blooming.
As for Kylie and Brad, their week went to seed – their unfinished yard just didn’t bear fruit.
As they move on to complete the rest of their homes, can the teams deliver knockout spaces, or will the final stretch prove too much?
This article is brought to you by Snooze. It’s amazing what 50 years of Snooze can do.
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