My Award-winning Display Garden at the Queensland Garden Expo 2018

Awards

20 July

I’m proud and humbled to announce that I won the People's Choice award for Best Landscape Display at the Queensland Garden Expo 2018!

The Design Brief

I teamed up with Liam Guthrie Stonework & Landscaping to create a display garden in the Reflection Gardens category. My theme for the display was coastal native, celebrating Australian coastal plants and natural materials like timber, stone, and metal. The event organisers also wanted to see a 'splash of purple' in the display gardens, which I achieved with a beautiful specimen of Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Duo' (False/Native Sarsaparilla).

The Design Concept

The challenge was to demonstrate what could be achieved in a small space (6m wide x 3m deep). I created the design concept including a meandering path of natural stone steppers through decomposed granite to a circular firepit area surrounded by a dry stack sandstone wall including a moon gate feature and seating. The hard landscaping was balanced by a harmonious and uncomplicated plant palette of coastal native Australian plants creating a restful experience. The space was split into two areas of equal proportion to increase depth and reduce emphasis on the width of the space. Timber screens were used at the back of the display to further enhance the sense of depth.

The completed display garden viewed from the front

Costa visited and gave a tour of our display garden to Expo attendees

I even had a visit from Costa of Gardening Australia. He gave a tour of my display garden for the Expo attendees.

The feedback on the garden we had from the Expo attendees was wonderful. So many people told us they thought it was beautiful. Some wanted to take it home with them! They cast their vote for their favourite Reflection Garden display and when the results were tallied on Sunday at the end of the Expo, ours was selected as the winner. A big "thank you" to all the people who voted for our display!