SERIES 35 | Episode 19

Every year, Melbourne hosts the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show – MIFGS. Over five days, more than 100,000 keen gardeners visit to celebrate their love of gardening and check out installations by florists, gardeners and landscapers – as well as the latest products and plants.

Millie and Tammy went along to see what was happening.

‘Saltbush’

Fiona Brockhoff and Phillip Withers

One of the medal-winning gardens is Saltbush, designed by Fiona Brockhoff and Phillip Withers. It highlights Victoria’s indigenous flora, featuring plants from the coastal salt to the inland bush.

One plant used here, but often overlooked in gardens and landscapes, is the humble coast saltbush (Atriplex cinerea). Another is the coast banksia.

Xanthorrhoea australis is also featured along the way, with plants rescued from a local quarry – part of an overall commitment to a zero-waste display.

‘New Nordic Notes’

Annika Zetterman and Kajsa Björne

The garden called New Nordic Notes brings a touch of Scandinavian nature to the show. Its designers, Annika Zetterman and Kajsa Björne were both raised in Sweden, so used familiar Swedish materials and plants, including birch trees, a lush understorey with wildflowers, with traditional Swedish heart motifs. They aimed to create a place to chill out and contemplate nature.

‘A Moment in Time’

Peter Donegan

Irish designer Peter Donegan tells a powerful story in his design, which features a light aircraft poised above the landscape. It tells the story of a veteran who tries to return home – or find a place he can call home. As the story is set in the 1980s, he used plants that were fashionable at the time, such as cypress and yarrow.

By leaving a number of imperfections in the garden, Peter wanted to convey the feeling that all is not quite right in the gardener’s life.

‘Seisei-Tei II’

Koji Ninomiya

Tammy explores the Japanese-inspired garden designed by Koji Ninomiya, who has won five gold medals at the acclaimed Chelsea Flower Show in UK. His garden is based on the principal that human beings must live together with nature, and that the West and East must also live together. To demonstrate this, he has fused the simple, nature-base aesthetic of a Japanese-style garden with colourful roses and flowers that reflect more English garden tastes.

The show garden includes a water feature with rocks, a gravel Zen garden, and borders with flowering shrubs and well as varied foliage.

‘Through the Looking Glass’

Emmaline Bowman and Liam Riley

Millie visits the garden that won Best In Show and a swag of other awards, Through the Looking Glass, designed by Emmaline Bowman and created by Liam Riley.

A former guest presenter on Gardening Australia, Emmaline has long been an advocate for using local plants to create wildlife-friendly gardens. She says if there’s a European plant that people like to use, there’s always an Australian equivalent that will be a better host for local insects and birds, and less likely to become a weed problem. Her stunning wildflower-packed cottage garden-style design includes chocolate lilies, native tobacco plants, daisies, as well as a complex water feature and huge rocks. “It’s all about concealed ecosystems,” she says. “Everything under your feet that creates a healthy ecosystem.” To show this better, the display contains a window into the pond and a window into the soil layer, revealing the layers, fungi, and critters below.

* Check before planting: this may be an environmental weed in your area

Filmed on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country | Carlton, Vic

Source: abc.net.au