For gardening expert Helen Chesnut, the season was ushered in with Janmuary seed purchases at local garden centres, and the first orders arriving by mail
For gardening expert Helen Chesnut, the season was ushered in with Janmuary seed purchases at local garden centres, and the first orders arriving by mail
âA moment in natureâ: gardening trends that will define the future
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By Megan Backhouse
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How our gardens
could be, as opposed to how most of them actually are, has always been the main focus of the biennial Australian Landscape Conference, and last monthâs event was no different.
With more than 16 talks over two days, much ground was covered and, unlike in previous years, at least half of it was Australian. Fleur Flanery, who acquired the conference from Warwick and Sue Forge in 2019, had increased the number of local speakers.
Tuesday 29 December 2020
For 20 years, Dan Pearson has been working on a project that is the apotheosis of his approach to gardening and design. The Tokachi Millennium Forest on Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido, covers nearly 1,000 acres. In 2000, Dan was asked to collaborate with Japanese landscape architect Fumiaki Takano to develop the area. With a brief to introduce spaces that had more intimacy in them, Dan started working on a plan that now includes woodland areas, a perennial meadow garden, productive gardens and landforms. ‘The plan was about revealing the place, about steering nature and being influenced by its aesthetics and systems,’ he explains. ‘Close observation of nature and respect for the landscape is very much a part of Japanese culture and philosophy, so these gardens are all about editing, manipulating and enhancing nature.’