34 days to go..

The sand dune in the coastal garden will be contained within a wall of old corrugated iron and held up with eucalyptus branches we've found up at the nursery, topped with timber somehow yet to be decided... This retaining wall is going to be created on a steep slope, so the bases of the timber uprights have to be adjustable if we pre-fabricate this wall. Show experience flags potential problems like this and it's just so important to think every section through carefully. Building this wall on site could take a day or more - time we don't have when we're building a garden so large. Stewart has come up with an idea for adjustable legs on the wall uprights that will take a bit of organising during pre-fabrication, but will mean the installation goes quickly. Then we can fill it up with sand and put up the flagpole!


A free form flagpole above the car seat at our 2006 show garden

I like flagpoles, but I also like to make them in a child like manner. Whimsy in a garden makes us feel less serious about life. There has to be somewhere in our lives where we can let go of all the things that worry us, to give us somewhere to recharge. The flagpole will be made from beautiful curvy branches whipped together in a teepee with something yet to be decided. It will claim ownership of that spot in the sand by whoever wants to imagine themselves down the beach amongst this garden, pondering where to paddle the boat to next and what catch might be slung on the coals when they get back.



What's happened to gardens that they are so personality free?

37 days to go

Coastal gardens can be a challenge, but understanding how conditions affect a plant can make it easier. Learning about this and other garden challenges will be something you can actively participate in with our garden 'Imagine'. The purpose of our whopper shed is to host all of you! 12 months ago while this show garden was being conceptualised, the plant growers and I talked about how great it would be if people could walk through this entire, huge garden display. So often at the garden show excited gardeners are kept at a safe distance from the display. It alows inspiration but not education. We wanted to change this, so the idea of a venue built into the garden that would host forums with experts in native plant growing, designers & gardeners was born. The logistical challenges this causes are huge! Suddenly we have to make enormous paths through the whole site, yet try to keep it intimate like your own garden would be. We also have sloping ground and have to make it safe for people of all ages and mobility levels, without putting any concrete on the ground, digging holes or using star pickets. Everything sort of 'floats' above a hessian cover on top of the lawn. That's not so bad if no-one walks on it, but we're expecting hundreds on our site at any one time and can't tell them to spread themselves out evenly over the path so it doesn't tip or flip!

Granite toppings path in a coastal garden

I'm not ever keen on being told I can't do something, so it's wonderful to be working with people who can think outside the square on this one! What better place to find them but at a university committed to breaking the mold in the landscaping arena. Stewart, Mike and Mim have sat with me on many afternoons now, working through every detail and gradually coming up with viable solutions. Now we have to make them happen within a tight budget, but we're nearly there!

We will have our forums, you will learn so much from us all and many others we're gathering together as I write. The best bit is that you can do all that while resting up at our cafe, enjoying the BBQ and coffee with an inspiring garden surrounding you! I don't know what we'll do if you don't want to leave though.. Well, I guess you'll be the experts in your street on native plants and how to use them in your garden if you hang around for a few days!

Back to our path dilemna..

217 square metres of paths wind their way through 3 display gardens, a sales area, cafe and up to our shed. you can build a family house on a block of land smaller than that! 217 m2 means that if I design a path that's 100mm deep, it's just enough to cover the plywood base we'll use to protect the lawn from all that foot traffic. We'll have to sweep and tidy every morning to keep it al in th eright spot, but it should work. Still, 217 m2 at 100mm deep means we have 21.7 cubic metres of granite toppings to move. We have to get deliveries tipped off the road so other exhibitors can get their deliveries too, so 2 large truckloads have to be dumped somewhere that we are probably going to want to get to the minute it disappears under the new mountain. 1 cubic metre takes around 10 - 12 wheelbarrow loads to shift it, so 21.7cubic metres = 261 wheelbarrow loads! If we have 6 energetic young landscapers on this task, they each get 43 or so loads each, just to get it in the area we want. then they have to level it out, pack it down a little and fill in the gaps. Hmmm.

We're going to keep thinking about the paths.

39 days to go

Treasure posts will herald the entrance to the first part of our garden - you'll know you're there when you come across the beached dinghy spilling its plants onto the sand. Buttery patinas of peeling paint give a fresco backdrop to the feathery flowers of my favourite new plant, the Ptilotus (til-o-tuss). Our Coastal garden will paint a picture of beach life, with sand dune plantings of silvery foliage. The treasure posts will punctuate the wander through; a reminder that laughing, carefree children have been fossicking here.

A beachcomber from way back, my treasures were collected and honoured in important places with the reverence of trophies in my childhood home. I discovered delight in client's children when I started talking about making a place in their gardens for treasures, so these posts have become a constant element in family gardens. Our cruise director for the compilation of the 19 treasure posts in our show garden is the lovely Paula Scott, recruited to the position when volunteered by her husband Anthony, our construction team manager. Over the past 4 months, Paula has collected a tribe of local children willing to relinquish electrical entertainment for a while and led expeditions through woodland and coast land, fossicking for materials (also known as treasure!). Embellished lovingly with glitter paint and strung together in ropes, these treasures will drape over eucalyptus posts as markers in time and journey. A garden can't be a meaningful space without personal connectivity to each person who travels through it and belongs to it.

Treasure ropes from another garden


Paula's creativity allows each child who has participated in this garden a sense of ownership that will be remembered proudly as they guide parents through on opening day. These elements of reality make a show garden special to all who engage in it - it's so magical to watch delight.

40 days to go..

The construction guys are getting excited - final changes have been made to the design now to reduce the amount of soil and mulch we have to bring on site to level it out. 100 cubic metres was just too much to shift in the short amount of time we have to dismantle it all when the show is over - just 3 days! So, I've given up on the idea of having steps up to our shed the whole way across the front, and now we have one 2.5m ramp only. It makes life much easier and we've saved ourselves some 70 cubic metres of fill. Phew!

Anthony, our construction team manager, has asked for a copy of the plans for all his boys to put under their pillows. They need to be eating, dreaming and drinking MIFGS now.. (also known as Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show) Every Thursday we meet as a team at Swinburne - it's a growing buzz of excitement there that is evident immediately behind the door of the horticulture department, The enthusiasm is testament to the commitment these teachers have in giving their students the best education possible. They are revelling in soaking up every aspect of the design, plotting the daily construction tasks and thinking about how the students might slot into the grand plan. Anthony's boys will work with the Swinburne teachers and students, so now we have to bond the whole team together with some social interaction of the relaxation kind. War stories will be trotted out from MIFGS veterans, and eager MIFGS newcomers in our team will hungrily absorb every word. We develop our culture of mutual respect, professionalism, pride and a common goal during this bonding session - so important to a huge undertaking like this. Planning, planning and more planning.


Likely location of bonding session - all in the theme!

The timber for the frame of the shed arrives today, so by next week some of the floor modules will be taking shape. This 12 x 9 metre shed will be constructed in modules that will then bolt together on site. We've taken levels at the site and they will be replicated on a hill at Swinburne to give a real practise run on this construction. It's where we're expecting things will need adjusting if anywhere on site is going to need it. Constructing the shed beforehand also allows the main sponsors to see how the space will feel and look for their forums to be held during the show.

We've still got some materials to track down in the next week: crushed granite toppings in an Ayer's Rock colour for one section of the garden. it needs to be a toasted orange / red colour and i have no idea where to find it. I've got to find time for a trip to the mudstone people - Transrock - who have kindly agreed to lend us some beautiful new mudstone to construct our drystone wall around the red toppings path. We're getting to the end of the materials sourcing list, but with 40 days to go we're cutting it fine!

42 days to go

In a mere 42 days 'imagine' will stand in 600 square metres of previously inocuous lawn in Carlton Gardens, Melbourne. MIFGS, as we fondly call our once a year flower and garden spectacular, is on again. This year I am lining up for a mammoth effort with a cast of thousands, truckloads of reclaimed tin, tortured eucalypt branches and thousands of gorgeous australian native plants woven into every corner of the design. This blog is the story of a dream as it unfolds in its final preparation phase, into the build phase and finally, the drama of the awards.... will it be good enough?


4 years of garden show experience has given me a healthy fear of disorganisation, a respect for risk management, a love of excel spreadsheets and a resourcefullness that allows me to sniff out a material with character from kilometres away. I like to tell a story with a show garden - I think a garden needs to connect to people who visit in a personal way, so I wanted to find materials to work with this year that celebrate Australia and our rural heritage. My fondness for wide open spaces and the simplicity of a childhood in the country was the seed for this collection of gardens inviting exploration from all. This year our garden is yours to wander through, pause in, learn in and take home. 'Imagine' is for everyone...



So, where are we up to?





Meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings and more meetings. Spreadsheets follow a close second, and this week we may actually see some hammer and nail action with the beginnings of our massive 9 x 12 metre shed starting to be framed up. Swinburne University Wantirna campus in Melbourne are the generous and creative bods making all the pre-fabricated sections of the garden. This week the building students are poring over the engineer's drawings, trying to wrap their creative minds around the difficult structural requirements of the show. There are no holes, no pegs, no star pickets or concrete used to create this garden as we are committed to protecting the beautiful gardens that are heritage listed. So, the floor of this shed is like a miniature stud wall, braced and braced some more just in case we have the gale force mini hurricane that ripped through the site during last year's show.



The old corrugated tin was the starting point for the shed - I just love the range of colours and find myself wondering how many winds strained metal on metal while it stood as a shed on the nursery property. It will be our fresco wall, a painting in itself of hard work, purposeful practicality and perhaps, hope. Our posts are fallen eucalypt trees patterned with lichen and insect trails, bending at just the right places to snuggle a beam or brace an angle. Everything needs to be aged to fit in; the floor a rhythmic patternation of discarded fence palings, the bar a mammoth redgum that fell and was lovingly split to just be. Precious parts of Australia come together to foil a carpet of greenery ready to take on climate change.... We begin a massive task in so many ways.