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SGA Does MIFGS!
Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show 2007
Site B83 'Savewater Garden'
'It's time - before we run out of time to do something positive for the environment'
Created by Sustainable Gardening Australia
We thought we'd share some of the sense of fun and excitement (without all the hard work!) of building a display garden at Melbourne's famous International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS).
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in just 8 1/2 days!
And that's Dean Speldewinde (Hardart Landscapes), a brilliant stonemason and landscaper who worked with us during the entire set up (without pay we must add), proudly holding our award - yes, that's right - WE WON AN AWARD!!! It's the Premier's Waterwise Garden Award and if you think we're never going to stop bragging about it - you're right!
Planning for the show started many months before of course. SGA's Frances Saunders developed the design during December 2006 and January 2007, and we contacted nurseries in January and February to organise plants to be grown on for us. Frances' interior design friend Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan (Blankcanvas Interiors), who has recently been shortlisted for the 2006 Interior Design Awards, came up with the ideas for the interior furnishings and vine woven orbs. Shaynna also worked without pay (amazing how we drag people into our web!). The orbs are round wire frames that we spent a couple of weekends weaving with Hardenbergia (Happy Wanderer) vine.
(With thanks to landscaper John van de Linde of Jay Vee Landscapes for allowing Frances to totally fill her car with prunings. She is still removing the odd weevil, bug, beetle and spider from her car!)
From left, Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan, Frances Saunders and ElaineShallue sitting under Frances's carport on a very warm March day weaving orbs. By the end of making several different sized orbs we all decided we weren't into craft anymore - we were 'over it'! Then the fun really started. On Monday 19th March we began building. The show opened on Wednesday 28th March, so we scheduled everything as well as we could to run like clockwork and be finished by Monday 26th March. It sort of did - we finished by midday on the 9th day, Tuesday 27th March!
Day 1The hessian is laid over the entire site to protect the lawn. Dean and Frances measure up and set out the site in readiness for building. The Castlemaine stone for the walls and the paving is delivered. |
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Day 2Dean and his assistance Regan McGregor begin work on the drystone walls. |
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What a beautiful position we had right in front of the fountain with the magnificent Royal Exhibition Building as a backdrop. In the foreground the construction of the rain gardens commences, while Dean and Regan continue work on the walls. It's amazing how much time is spent selecting just the right piece of stone for a particular spot! |
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Day 3Oi Dave, you can't stop for lunch! Carpenter Dave Sutton, who was another great lifesaver, assisted with the building of the pergola structure and the portico. |
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Swinburne TAFE landscape apprentices graciously lend a hand with laying down the granitic sand paths and the paving. |
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The crazy paving paths begin to take shape. |
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Day 4The crazy paving is virtually completed. |
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Day 5The quirky picket fence is erected. This did poor carpenter Dave's head in, especially when Frances kept saying, 'no, it's too straight, it has to be wonkier'! |
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The entrance portico is built. Activity in the Gardens is becoming quite frenetic. |
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It's Friday 23rd March and the temperature reached 39 degrees C. We ploughed on regardless. First year landscape apprentice Zac King (left) and Burbank Plumbing's Warwick Clark (Wozza), felt the heat enough to strip off. One of the few times in her life that Frances wished she was a fella! That night it poured, for the first time in ages Melbourne had decent rain. We were rapt. It settled the paths, watered the plants that had been delivered and the strong wind was a good test of the built structures. |
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Day 6Frances's son Tom came onsite to help and got lumbered with the job of shoveling large river pebbles onto the rain gardens all afternoon. Anna Thirkell-Johnston from Bulleen Art & Garden helped shovel metres of mulch, and she and Frances began the big task of placing plants. |
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Day 7SGA staffer Ann Kostos joins Anna and Frances to continue the task of placing plants. Meanwhile, SGA CEO Mary Trigger is acting as courier, driving all over Melbourne, bringing in additional plants, as we find we don't have quite enough! |
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Day 8It's Monday and the show starts Wednesday, so activity really steps up a pace. Elaine Shallue from SGA joins Ann, Anna and Frances to continue planting, and the landscapers come back on site to finish construction and painting. |
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Landscape apprentice Steve Pitts wields a paintbrush! |
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The sculpture, on loan from Victorian Sculpture Society member Lisa Jane Miller is placed in the garden. |
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The zany furniture goes in. |
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The crazy lights. |
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The spiders move in. Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan excitedly brings in the interior furnishings and the decal stickers commissioned from Scotchline, to carefully place these elements. The spiders adorn the fake bathroom, which displays the greywater systems. |
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Frances fills her car with the orbs and brings them in. We enjoy placing them in the garden! |
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Day 9Day 9 is filled with last minute clean up and finishing off. We finish by midday, just in time for Better Homes & Gardens to photograph it! |
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OPENING DAYWe did it! |
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The rain gardens are an initiative of Melbourne Water, which, along with Sustainability Victoria, are major sponsors of the display garden. For more information on rain gardens, visit Melbourne Water for an explanatory pdf of the technical details: Click here to download the pdf. |
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The plants in the rain garden are Lomandra confertifolia subsp. rubiginosa 'Floral Cascade' and were kindly supplied by Moores Flowers Plant Nursery, a feature nursery.. See also our information sheet on the Lomandra genus. The main boulevard plantings are especially eye-catching. That's SGA CEO Mary Trigger on the right in the background, with SGA's Elaine Shallue. |
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The rustic seat is on loan from landscape contractor and SGA board member Brian Rankin's own garden! The pots are on loan from Bulleen Art & Garden. |
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The garden's designer, a tired but very happy SGA staffer Frances Saunders, poses with the Premier's Waterwise Garden Award. |
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Please note: a full list and images of plants used in our garden is currently being put together and will be uploaded soon. Sorry for any inconvenience.
And finally... a big Thank You!
We would like to thank the following people and businesses for donating their time, labour and materials in making this award-winning garden come to life:
Dean Speldewinde, Hardart Landscapes, phone: 0410 452 308
Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan, Blankcanvas Interiors, www.blankcanvasint.com, phone: 0403 274 384
Yarrabee Castlemaine Slate
Outdoor Timber
Moores Flowers Plant Nursery, phone: (03) 5964 4494
Bulleen Art & Garden, phone: (03) 9850 5155 www.baag.com.au
Australian Native Landscapes
Bayside Community Nursery, phone: (03) 9583 8408
Keelbundoora Nursery, phone: (03) 9479 2871
Victorian Indigenous Nursery Cooperative, phone: (03) 9482 1710
Home of Landscaping & Design, phone: (03) 9737 0851