Happy Holidays!

Its that time of year yet again. 2015 has been a particularly busy year, especially in the Spring and Summer months, and I've been lucky enough to work with a wide array on interesting clients and landscape contractors.

In particular I'd like to thank The Garden Company, Essendon Landscapes, Hallmark, and Inspired for their tireless pursuit of perfection and their fantastic executions of our designs. They are all great people to work with, and I'd recommend them to anyone looking for a great finished result.

I'm looking forward to a fantastic year in 2016 - I'll be hitting the ground running design-wise, with some diverse projects, and in March I'll will be back at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (in collaboration with The Garden Company) with what we hope will be an eye-popping Showgarden; I haven't been involved in this wonderful event since 2011, so I'm aiming to come back with a bang - stay tuned for some peeks and hints over the coming weeks.

Finally, ghld is closing the year out with a great feature in Houzz:

Have a wonderful and safe holiday period, and I look forward to seeing you in 2016!

 

 

here comes summer!

We've had ridiculously hot weather here in Melbourne over the past few days - we'll be seeing a rollercoaster of hot and cold weather over the next month or so, so if you have a young garden, it's important to keep an eye on things:

- if hot temperatures are being forecast, give gardens a deep watering either the evening before or the morning of the hot day

- bulbs and some other annuals may behave erratically with the fluctuations in temperature - give them a good dose of Nitrosol or Seasol each week to help them along

- hot, windless days are ideal for treating weeds with the appropriate herbicide - give plants a watering the evening before, and spray first thing in the morning

And finally - this summer is going to be a hot one, so mulch your trees and shrubs with well-rotted manure (sheep is best, as it's less likely to interfere with soil pH), then a good deep soaking, then follow that up with a thick layer of mulch. Be sure to keep mulch away from stems and trucks.

 

baby, it's cold outside!

It's becoming increasingly clear that right about now in Melbourne, it's Inside Weather.

It's also a great time to snuggle under a blanket on the sofa, in front of the fire (if you're lucky enough to have one) and pass the grey days in a state of semi-hibernation, longing for warmer times.

The good news is that Spring is only a few months away - and with it comes all the excitement of the first flush of growth on the trees, bulbs popping their heads up, warmer weather - and a flurry of landscape activity in readiness for the summer!

So if you're thinking about any kind of landscape reimagining for your space this Summer, now's the time to start planning from your warm and comfy sofa - get ahead of the rest, and have something great to REALLY look forward to!

ghld for Landscape Victoria at MIFGS

This year, I've been given the honour of designing a dedicated area for Landscape Victoria, where MIFGS visitors can learn more about the processes involved in creating wonderful, liveable outdoor spaces.

It's a smallish area, and absolute confirmation that the smaller the area, the harder it is to design - you need to get so much more out of a small space - it needs to be functional, versatile, clean and simple, but with many complex roles to play.

To add to the pressure, this design will likely be reused for other industry events - so it will need to be transportable and modular as well.

So - I have my work cut out for me! Stay tuned to see the results.

MIFGS APPROACHES!

It's almost that time of year again - the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show always brings out the best in all the the outdoors has to offer.

This year, instead of showing my own garden, I am mentoring 2 student garden designers from the University of Melbourne Burnley campus, and using my past experience in showing at MIFGS to guide them through the process and create wonderful spaces for show patrons to enjoy. They really have no idea what they're in for, but with some good preparation and a few nudges from Yours Truly, they'll get the job done!

Stay tuned for any developments!