Smack bang in the middle of Melbourne – in a car park that’s ringed by bitumen and overlooks railway lines – is a new garden that is so soft and whimsical it could almost be floating.
Stand close, and you feel like you are somewhere remote and wild instead of in a city full of concrete, cars and commuters. This garden has lots of flowers and plenty of textures and looks like one immersive space even though it comprises two separate beds and a roundabout.
This test garden has lots of colours, plenty of textures and a city backdrop.Credit: Sarah Pannell
It has exactly the sort of brimming-with-plants mood that many of us are wanting for our own backyards.
Lucky then that this garden, open to the public 24 hours a day, will be thoroughly discussed and dissected. It has its own web page and a university research partner. Workshops will focus on it and public conversations will be devoted to it. Already the first of a monthly series of open days has been held at the space, with both horticulturalists and designers in the line-up of speakers.
The garden comprises two beds and a roundabout at the back of Federation Square.Credit: Sarah Pannell
The Laak Boorndap Test Garden will remain at the back of Federation Square for the next two to three years, presenting the perfect opportunity for domestic gardeners to glean ideas for their own plots. No detail about the plants, how they are faring and the way they look will be considered too small to examine – in public.
The space has been established to demonstrate the naturalistic style planned for Laak Boorndap – the 18,000-square-metre outdoor component of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, due to open in 2028. While some aspects of this garden – including the relatively shallow profile of its beds and the carefully composed substrate in which the plants are growing – relate specifically to the final garden, which will essentially be on rooftop, many of the ideas here could be applied to a range of domestic spaces.
The garden demonstrates the naturalistic style planned for the outdoor component of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, due to open in 2028.Credit: Sarah Pannell
The test garden, which is designed by Hassell in partnership with Super Bloom, James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett and which has the University of Melbourne’s Burnley campus as a research partner, highlights how gardens can include a complex tapestry of plants that are tough in the face of climate change, look beautiful and attract bees, birds and other pollinators.
Jac Semmler, director of Super Bloom, says it offers “brilliant lessons” in how home gardeners might take a more diverse and experimental approach, including by incorporating lesser-known Australian plants, such as Ptilotus macrocephalus, which is currently flaunting its fluffy cream flowers throughout the garden, and Podolepis jaceoides, which is throwing its yellow blooms into the mix.
The garden has its own web page and a university research partner.Credit: Sarah Pannell
Visit the garden now, and you will also see Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Wahlenbergia stricta, Themeda triandra and many other currently flowering Australian plants interspersed with the magenta blooms of Cistanthe grandiflora, the purple ones of Allium “Millenium”, the sculptural rosettes of Agave “Blue Flame”, the fine silver-grey foliage of Artemisia “Sea Foam” and other exotic fare.
There are more than 70 different plants used in this garden, including perennials, annuals, succulents, bulbs and shrubs. Handily for those wanting to try some of this at home, the entire plant list has been put online.
Interstate gardeners will also be able to follow how these plants progress, through the regular updates on plants in season that will be posted on Instagram.
And what anyone keeping tabs will notice is how much everything keeps changing. Different layers will come to the fore at different times and there will be constant shifts in tone. Semmler says that instead of there being “just a summer peak followed by a winter plateau” this garden will have something in flower all year long.
While there is narrow gravel pathway through the two test beds, this garden is, as Semmler puts it, “all about plants”, which is both beautiful for people and good for biodiversity.
The dynamic nature of the space does, however, necessitate a dynamic approach to tending it, and those who visit regularly will also see how this space, which will have its own gardener, is managed.
Heads up: it won’t be with a once-a-year slashing. The cutting back and editing of self-seeders will depend on when the different plants flower and go into dormancy. While Semmler says the garden will require “minimal management”, this management will occur at specific times and will require someone with the horticultural skills to keep the complex mix of plants in balance and regenerating.
But don’t let this put you off trying it at home. Gardening shouldn’t be seen as a boring maintenance task. It can be a pleasure.
Go to fedsquare.com/events/test-garden for more information about this garden’s upcoming events.
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