Autumn in April is business as usual in Australia. Why have it any other way? As these gardens show, there is a liberation from being closer to the east than the north.
Here are 10 modern ideas to steal from a continent unhindered by centuries-old garden traditions:
Zero Waste
Above: Farmers Matt and Lentil Purbrick of Grown and Gathered produce zero waste on what they call a "closed-loop farm" on the Tahbilk winery estate an hour's drive north of Melbourne. Photograph via Frankie.
"Sustainability means the end of waste," say the Purbricks. Their waste is so well-organized that they collect even more from elsewhere, using their neighbors' castoffs to feed their farm. Sustainability is about more than waste of course; water conservation and home-made energy are incorporated into the best designs across the continent. Offset by of tall trees and water, solar panels have never looked so good.
Water Conservation
Above: Joost Bakker watering the 5,000 strawberry plants that cover the facade of his home. For more, see A Dutch Eco-Garden Genius in Australia.
When everything is recycled, including water, it can make sense to cover a restaurant or the facade of a house with terra cotta pots. Joost's buildings are made of steel-clad straw bales; the terra cotta softens their appearance but also cools the interiors in summer and insulates them in winter. The plants capture rain which otherwise would be running down the house.
Billabongs
Above: A billabong, recreated as a garden idea in a suburb of Melbourne. Photograph via Sam Cox Landscape.
Known outside of Australia as an oxbow lake, a billabong is an area of water cut off from the river flow. Filling up every year, they also dry up rather quickly and a garden billabong can be an improved version. Surrounded by three stories of planting, a sense of enclosure is created.
Incorporating billabongs into a design approach is a useful way to capture water while creating a happy ecosystem. Frogs, insects, birds, and mammals will be instantly attracted.
Uninhibited Floristry
Above: Florist Katie Marx makes a bouquet from foraged wattle and eucalyptus during a workshop at Butterland, a former dairy-turned-candle-factory that she and her furniture maker husband have transformed into a wedding venue. Photograph via Camellia Fiber Company.
Without the baggage of traditional horticulture, florists, flower decorators, and flower artists (call them what you will) have a freewheeling approach which is admired by people working in the same field, in places like England. Australian flower people also know how to exploit their own visual opportunities and camera talent is closely linked with floristry. See also @afloralfrenzy, @poppies_flowers, @jardinebotanic, all on Instagram.
Gardening on Rock
Above: Garden designer Phillip Johnson's Best in Show garden at Chelsea in 2013. Photograph via Garden Drum.
A human landscape that blends into the natural one is a key concern, though the Australian garden at the Chelsea Flower Show did anything but. Monumental rocks, flowing water (recycled via solar panels), and tree ferns filled Phillip Johnson's creation, mimicking the symbiosis of his own garden Olinda. Built amid the steep hills east of Melbourne, Johnson's home garden relies on rocks to prevent soil erosion. Water is a constant element with Johnson, acting as a barrier against bush fires in this vertiginous and naturally dry terrain.
Recycle and Reuse
Above: Melbourne-based designer Mariana Garcia-Katz at home, where her garden is designed around salvaged finds including panels of corrugated metal and discarded 44-gallon drums (reincarnated as raised beds). Photograph via The Planthunter.
The appeal of corrugated metal grows less mysterious when put in recycling context. Even better when you find old examples pre-painted in black. for more ideas, see Curb Appeal: 9 Facades with Corrugated Metal Siding.
Eucalyptus
Above: Photograph by Phunnyfotos via Flickr.
In an avenue leading up to the former home of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (mother of Rupert), in Victoria, lemon-scented eucalyptus lines the drive. Fondly known as gum trees, 700 species of eucalyptus provide the lofty canopy in Australian landscapes, as iconic as the middle-story tree fern.
No Plant Too Weird
Above: Spires of echiums pierce the foreground and background of this terrace by Landsberg Gardens.
With a prefered emphasis on native, local species in modern Australian gardens, things are bound to get a little unusual. Unlike the highly cosseted and not-always-convincing attempts at tropical planting in northern climes, the plant choice here is a natural partner to vitality and innovation. "We are really lucky in Australia," says Charlie Lawler of Loose Leaf florists in Victoria. "Everything from tropical plants to alpine scrub grows here."
Tropical Jungles
Above: Artist Wendy Whiteley rescued a rundown plot of railroad land in Sydney and turned it into a tropical paradise. For more, see Wendy's Secret Garden in Sydney.
Most of us can only dream of the huge variety of plants available to Australians, subtropical or otherwise. Here, Brachichyton acerifolius, (L), mingles with Elephant Ear or Colocasia and the spiky Sydney native Doryanthes excelsa. The summer humidity and mild winters of the subtropics are ideal conditions in which jungly plant communities can thrive.
ikebana Influence
Above: Loose Leaf Florists. Photograph via The Design Files.
It is clear that Australian horticulturalists take more from their closer neighbors in Japan than they do from their colonial ties with Great Britain. The art of ikebana (and its Korean relation kokozi) is characterized by a use of living plants in arrangements, with an exploration of negative space and asymmetry.
Above: Photograph via Loose Leaf.
"We love using big-leaved plants like Monstera," says Charlie Lawler. "It easily turns any space into a jungle." Lawler and his partner Wona Bae at Loose Leaf have turned these into Monstera "chandeliers", with the addition of fig leaf branches. Their shop and studio space in Collingwood, on the outskirts of Melbourne, is also a venue for workshops and for Wona's weaving. She uses living material on the grand scale, creating wreaths which she could fit into several times, and nests for imaginary giant birds (or humans for that matter). Some of their creations are very small; they are all exquisite.
For more garden inspiration from Australia, see:
- Kidnapped: The True Story of Eucalyptus.
- Stalking the Planthunter of Sydney.
- Georgina Reid: Fixing the World One Garden at a Time.
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