International award-winning garden on display at Ellerslie

A tornado rips through the Australian landscape destroying the environment and challenging people to think about sustainability in the award-winning international garden on display at this year’s Ellerslie International Flower Show.

Australian designers Rick Eckersley, Scott Leung and Myles Broad are bringing to Christchurch The Last Australian Garden, the team’s first international garden which won gold at the last Singapore Garden Festival.

The team from Melbourne-based Eckersley Garden Architecture drew on Rick’s rural Australian farming background where the environment controls life, to create the four-metre high garden which comments on the past, present and future of the Australian and global landscape.

Scott says in the garden a Dust Devil rips through the landscape, showing how the hardy indigenous plants survive the event, while introduced species are destroyed.

“This is our first fantasy garden and we really want visitors to Ellerslie to think about sustainability, and in particular, about their own environment when creating a garden.

“More thought needs to be given by homeowners to what grows in their area and how they can use these plants, and in different ways, to create inspiring landscapes. Often it is just about looking at the combination of plants and being more creative in what we do.”

The Last Australian Garden is quite sculptural in its design, using old rural farming materials, such as barbed wire and tins used for the harvest of raisins in the 1950s/60s, and rugged natural planting, contrasting with the pure, delicate forms of exotic plants.

“The scene is about environmental disruption, of how people have lived in harmony with this planet but lost their understanding of nature.”

In the Starlight Marquee, the garden offers a dramatic theatrical display with strobe lighting and sound to depict approaching thunderstorms.

While The Last Australian Garden was Eckersley Garden Architecture’s first international garden, the team are no strangers to creating award-winning gardens, being regular exhibitors and award winners at their local Melbourne Flower Show.

Ellerslie International Flower Show, North Hagley Park, 7 to 11 March 2012. Early Bird tickets available for $29 at www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz