What to do – High Rise and Horticulture
Presenter: Melissa King
Episode: 19
1st September 2007
The new generations style of living, shopping and great restaurants on your door stop – but how do you combine city living with a great garden.
It is easy look to the sky!
10 stories up – the wind hits a garden area from the bay on one side and the river on the other – plus its very exposed so as far as places to garden go it is a pretty tough location. Gardens in such an absurd location are proof that high rise living and horticulture can go hand in hand, its all about clever design and clever plant choice.
A lot of people that move into apartments these days are downsizing from leafy suburban gardens. When you think of the type of plants that would suit a location so high you would probably think of coastal loving plants or dry climate natives – but the brief was to create a garden with the look and feel of a lush garden.
To give you an idea of scale – the garden area is roughly ¼ acre – so big enough to play a game of backyard cricket. From a design point of view there are three main areas – the front terrace, which has an entertaining focus – a place where you could have great BBQ’s or a party in the sky. Then you move into a lawn area, which is ideal for just sitting and relaxing or playing with the kids. The third area is quite striking with a forest of Manchurian Pears and mounded garden beds which have been planted to provide textural interest.
Manchurian pears are a dominant part of the landscape and they have battled extremely well up there. Deciduous trees provide seasonal change with stark structure in the winter, leafy green foliage in spring and summer and of course great Autumn foliage.
The key to success here has been to mass plant a tough variety of plants. If it works then why not stick with it. Ancient cycads give the garden structural interest among petty white flowering hebes. And ground cover Junipers (J. confertus) provide evergreen cover throughout the year, dotted with daffodils for spring colour.
The plant rooms have been decked out with phormiums which provide year round foliage colour and conceal the extraction fans from the car park below.
Because it would get extremely windy there is no aerial spray irrigation. The lawn and garden beds are drip irrigated. But, beneath the garden in the sky is a water tank with 185,000 L capacity. It collects water from the roof and balconies to water the garden.
For more advice on gardening in challenging conditions do not forget to check out the gurus garden design, maintenance and advisory service.
It is spring and this weekend marks the first full weekend of open gardens in Australia’s open garden scheme. The season kicks off with some great gardens in Victoria including The Ford garden, formerly Fulling - one of Gordon Ford’s Masterpieces and the Adams Garden which is right next door and has some great ideas for small gardens. You will not want to miss these – so for more info check out Australia’s open garden scheme website.
www.opengarden.org.au
Episode: 19
1st September 2007
The new generations style of living, shopping and great restaurants on your door stop – but how do you combine city living with a great garden.
It is easy look to the sky!
10 stories up – the wind hits a garden area from the bay on one side and the river on the other – plus its very exposed so as far as places to garden go it is a pretty tough location. Gardens in such an absurd location are proof that high rise living and horticulture can go hand in hand, its all about clever design and clever plant choice.
A lot of people that move into apartments these days are downsizing from leafy suburban gardens. When you think of the type of plants that would suit a location so high you would probably think of coastal loving plants or dry climate natives – but the brief was to create a garden with the look and feel of a lush garden.
To give you an idea of scale – the garden area is roughly ¼ acre – so big enough to play a game of backyard cricket. From a design point of view there are three main areas – the front terrace, which has an entertaining focus – a place where you could have great BBQ’s or a party in the sky. Then you move into a lawn area, which is ideal for just sitting and relaxing or playing with the kids. The third area is quite striking with a forest of Manchurian Pears and mounded garden beds which have been planted to provide textural interest.
Manchurian pears are a dominant part of the landscape and they have battled extremely well up there. Deciduous trees provide seasonal change with stark structure in the winter, leafy green foliage in spring and summer and of course great Autumn foliage.
The key to success here has been to mass plant a tough variety of plants. If it works then why not stick with it. Ancient cycads give the garden structural interest among petty white flowering hebes. And ground cover Junipers (J. confertus) provide evergreen cover throughout the year, dotted with daffodils for spring colour.
The plant rooms have been decked out with phormiums which provide year round foliage colour and conceal the extraction fans from the car park below.
Because it would get extremely windy there is no aerial spray irrigation. The lawn and garden beds are drip irrigated. But, beneath the garden in the sky is a water tank with 185,000 L capacity. It collects water from the roof and balconies to water the garden.
For more advice on gardening in challenging conditions do not forget to check out the gurus garden design, maintenance and advisory service.
It is spring and this weekend marks the first full weekend of open gardens in Australia’s open garden scheme. The season kicks off with some great gardens in Victoria including The Ford garden, formerly Fulling - one of Gordon Ford’s Masterpieces and the Adams Garden which is right next door and has some great ideas for small gardens. You will not want to miss these – so for more info check out Australia’s open garden scheme website.
www.opengarden.org.au
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