By James Wall.
After doing a couple of deliveries this morning, I realised that I was right near one of the gardens in this years Garden Designfest – a bi-annual event held by the Rotary Club to raise money for charity.
The idea of the event is for Landscape Designers to showcase particular gardens that they have designed and arranged to be built. It is a great for the sharing of ideas and results in the creation of trends. Most importantly, it showcases great ways to utilise plants.
The garden belonged to Mark Pedley, owner of Ingardens Landscaping. Existing trees on the property dating back to the 1930s dictated the design which includes simple curves which soften the area, along with a large bluestone entertaining area, a small lawn and a formal pond which was lovely and clean.
One of the flowering plants that was used frequently were the Lychnis, which Mark said go well for about 3 years or so. They certainly looked healthy right now, with their silvery foliage and pink flowers; also some were white.
The giant pruned balls of westringia did not look out of place, and complimented the rest of the plantings well. Another impressive background plant was the smokebush at the end of the garden. It has enjoyed Melbourne’s long cold winter and is at it’s peak.
The pond looked simple but elegant. It was exceptionally clean which Mark said was easy with the filtration system hidden in the garden which involves the process of running the water through the UV system.
In the smallish backyard, there were some impressive olive trees with commanding trunks. Also impressive was the row of Cupressis that were a very effective screening along the boundary, but also situated in a very narrow garden bed. Mark said the secret was to plant them much less than a metre apart. It was certainly a nice change from lily pillies, in which few varieties would have stayed this narrow.
All in all, this garden was a nice place to be and with a little more growth in the next few years, it will be even better, and owner Mark should be even prouder.