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Garden name

The Australian Garden presented by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Designer

Jim Fogarty

Awards

Gold

Photo

The Australian Garden presented by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Description of garden

This garden represents the story of the journey of water around various types of areas in Australia, including dry outback desert and sub-tropical coast. Starting at the waterhole, a source of life for people, plants and animals in the outback, the first area of the garden is planted with annual desert plants like brachycomes, Scaevola aemula 'Fan dancer', Swainsona greyana. Salt sculptures by Edwina Kearney and Mark Stoner represent saltpan areas.

A water feature shaped like a boomerang is electric blue like the Australian sky, behind which is a multi-stemmed snow gum Eucalyptus pauciflora with blue hues on the bark. From here the water moves into a gorge area where it cascades down, and this area is planted with the ancient Macrozamia communis, a cycad, tough and able to withstand the temperatures found in these sheltered positions. The water then drains away and flows under the ground to aquifers where it will begin its journey again.

Moving back towards the coastal area of the garden is the lawn, which is often found around most homesteads which cools down the outback environment and keeps the levels of dust down near the home. The coastal area itself is planted with Westringia fruticosa and Leucophyta brownii (also known as Cushion Bush) which people may not have seen at Chelsea before.

Inspiration / influences

This garden is named after the Australian Garden, a new horticultural venture by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, which also tells the story of water through the landscape of Australia.

List of plants in the garden

Brachycome species - Australian daisies

Scaevola aemula 'Fan dancer'

Swainsona greyana - Australia horse poison

Eucalyptus pauciflora - Snow gum

Macrozamia communis - Burrawong

Westringia fruticosa - Australian rosemary

Leucophyta brownii - Cushion Bush)

Grevillea robusta - Silky oak

Grevillea lanigera - Woolly Grevillea

Also

Hailing from Melbourne, Jim Fogarty's first job was as a sniper in the territorial army until he retrained as a garden landscaper. He then ended up presenting a weekly gardening show, before going back into designing and becoming one of Australia's best landscape designers.

In 2004, Jim was the designer of 'Australian Inspiration', the garden known for its Eucalypt log walls, which was the first time an all-Australian team travelled from Australia to exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, winning a Silver-Gilt Flora Show Garden Award.

Links

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show photographs

TV schedule - Chelsea Flower Show

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Archive: Meet the 2010 garden designers