OUTHOUSE had the great privilege last month to attend both the Australian Landscape Conference and the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (MIFGS) – what an incredible chance to exchange ideas and experiences with the industry’s best from Australia and overseas!
The conference featured insights from industry personalities such as the UK’s Fergus Garrett, who emphasised the importance of allowing biodiversity in our garden spaces – not just our backyards but our parks and public urban lands – and input from skilled horticulturalists such as Midori Shintani and Julian Raxworthy on the critical importance of maintenance and the attention of a gardener for the true success of a landscape.
We also had the opportunity to tour a group of contemporary gardens on the Mornington Peninsula, with appearances from some big names in the Victorian industry. The clipped and windswept forms of coastal planting would be very familiar to Sydneysiders from the eastern suburbs. A planting workshop hosted by Kinglake’s Antique Perennials nursery also gave us the chance to discuss planting schemes with their creators and maintainers: talented international plantspeople such as Fergus Garrett and the US’s Sean Hogan.
MIFGS provided a different angle, with a look into the current trends of the Australian design industry. Outdoor rooms continue to feature strongly as landscape elements, with 3D printing of concrete structures appearing as an innovation in construction.
