We came back from the 2022 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show recently buzzing with design inspiration, and a case of COVID! With over 103,000 people in attendance at this year's show, the first in three years due to the pandemic, it was perhaps no surprise that both Ludovic and myself came down with COVID-19 upon our return to Tasmania. We are both feeling much better now. However, we spent the best part of April catching up with work that we could not get done w

Do I need to convince you that Tasmanian native plants not only look good, but many of them taste great as well? Well do not just take my word: Trust the Feisty Tasmanian! We took a little road trip not too long ago to Tasmania's northern coast to visit Murnong, the garden of Rees and Col Campbell in Wynyard. This is not just any suburban garden. It is chockful of edible native plants from Tasmania. Rees is also known as 'The Feisty Tasmanian' and she shares a passion for edi

Our Tree Aeonium was the highlight of our display at Tamar NRM's Sustainable Living Festival 2021 at the Windsor Park Community Precinct. Note the emphasise on the past tense. Read on to find out how it fared ... Getting to the event itself took a little planning. Looking back now, I would say we were a little optimistic thinking that we could fit all our plants into our smallish Nissan Pathfinder. We left the packing of our Tree Aeonium until last. Given this aeonium was the

Do not worry, this is Gabrielle's (not Pandora's) box. If you are interested in growing your own vegies, then you may want to take a peek inside. By now, most of you have probably cottoned on that this is indeed a box for storing seed. Until recently, I have been storing our seeds in an old food safe in a cool, dry place in the house. This arrangement has worked quite well until now, with the seeds seemingly remaining viable. However, it was getting a little messy in this saf

Watching a webinar on biophilic design recently, a question popped up in my brain: "What exactly is a fractal?" Then a second question: "How is it relevant to building and landscape design?" The first time I can remember really attaching myself to the term 'fractal' was when watching an episode of Coast some years ago now. I was fascinated as the presenter explained that the more closely you measure a coastline, its length increases due to this phenomenon: fractal geometry. S

We have been in a process of reinvigoration recently. Find out how we are seeking to sustain our business and our planet too. Developing ourselves professionally Firstly, Ludovic has been quietly working behind the scenes to have his building design skills recognised here in Australia. He successfully completed the Diploma of Building Design and is now a Registered Building Designer in Tasmania. Well done Ludovic! To continue his professional development, Ludovic recently joi

When seeking garden design inspiration, sometimes the best place to look is indoors. Heading into town the other weekend, we were driving past City Park when I asked my partner to stop. There was a place I wanted to see that I had not visited for a while. Living on a bush block has its advantages, i.e. tranquillity, beauty, clean air and so on. However, sometimes I just want to see what else is out there in the big wide world. Well at least in the rest of Tasmania! ;) The Joh

It would be an understatement to say that many people are glad to see the back of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much disruption to our lives. Living in Tasmania however, we have mostly been able to escape the worst impacts of this virus (fingers crossed). This means we were fortunate enough to be able to travel around this beautiful state over the festive season, whilst other people around the globe had to stay mostly indoors. A healthy dose of nature is always re

I always listened to my teachers at school. However, I would be lying if I said that I followed their words exactly. Take for example, one of our latest garden designs in the northern suburbs of Melbourne where I put a slightly different twist on a 'woody meadow'. The 'woody meadow' is a local Australian take on the prairie meadow of the New Perennial movement. Think Piet Oudolf. No annuals here please! Instead, the woody meadow is a low-input naturalistic planting design su

We recently completed the construction of two garden beds on a bush block surrounded by beautiful forest here in northern Tasmania. We have already shown you some photos from the initial stages of this project. However, as you will see below, much has happened since that time! In this part of the world, if you want to eat what you grow then you need to protect your garden from other forest inhabitants. Possums, quolls, wallabies, pademelons and even feral deer live locally. T