Backyard cricket, an abundance of Aussie natives, and an oldddd rocking chair!
This fantastic garden is in the Challenge Achievable competition at this year’s Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. Nostalgia hits big with this garden entry, with the design concept focusing on summer holiday fun and being an Australian kid on a hot day.
Although it wasn’t a MIFGs winner, it definitely won over our larrikin hearts and souls! Let’s take a deep dive into the design concept, plant list, and how you can see it for yourself.
The Challenger Achievable Garden competition
The Challenger Achievable Garden competition at MIFGs is open to students and educational institutions, giving them the opportunity to showcase their design skills and horticultural knowledge.
For Abbas Ullah & Jason Hedley, their concept design was taken straight from the heart. Their competition garden, aptly named ‘Memories: Summer Holidays’, captures everything it means to be an Aussie kid on a hot December day.
Describing it as “Australia’s great outdoors meets your grandma’s backyard”, their garden includes every Aussie icon imaginable, from a Hills Hoist to a cuddly tree-swinging koala.
With a dry creekbed littered with stones and a huge branch of gum to the left of a small lawn, it’s perfect for a game of backyard cricket.
To the right, a corten steel-edged garden bed is filled to the brim with stout, shrubby plants. A beautiful wooden rocking chair sits on a mini deck behind a traditional metal Hills Hoist.
How many Aussie icons can you spot?
Apart from the cuddly stuffed koala and possum on the back fence, there’s way more to this garden than just symbols of Australian culture.
Abbas and Jason’s plant choices say ‘Aussie aussie aussie, oy oy oy!’ in spades, with almost all flowers, shrubs and trees being native to Australia.
From the list, there are all your favourites, including wattle, bottlebrush and the beautiful banksia!
- Nandina domestic ‘Lemon Lime’
- Callistemon salignus ‘Perth Pink’
- Correa alba
- Rhaphiolepis indica ‘Snow Maiden’
- Hibiscus spp.
- Casuarina glauca
- Westringia fruticosa
- Banksia praemorsa ‘High Noon’
- Acacia aphelia
- Helichrysum italicum ‘Silvio Spreading’
- Liriope mascara ‘Emerald Cascade’
- Miscanthus sinensis ‘Adagio’
- Lomandra conferta rubiginosa ‘Frosty Top’
- Lomandra conferta rubiginosa ‘Crackerjack’
- Banksia verticillate
- Citrus limon ‘Eureka’
- Eucalyptus vitrix
This is all the inspiration you need for building your own native garden at home, using plants that suit the Aussie climate best.
Visit this garden at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
If you want to see this garden up close and personal, then you’ve got a couple more days of MIFGs to enjoy!
Head to the Challenge Achievable garden section to view this wonderful design concept, and practice your shadow-batting (but not on the lawn, it’s for show only!).
