Soothing sounds

From naturalistic billabongs and babbling brooks to reflective ponds and gentle cascades, water played a starring role in many of this year’s gardens.

SLEEK AND SOPHISTICATED

Two large, raised rectangular ponds added a calming symmetry to the Husqvarna Garden – An Urban Sanctuary (above), a formal garden that won a bronze award for landscape designer Charlie Albone of Inspired Exteriors. Inner rectangles of black powder-coated aluminium were sheeted with water that was dyed black to maximise the reflective quality. The outer casing was powder-coated aluminium, painted to create the effect of oxidised copper. “The tones of the copper work well with the tapestry of perennial plantings,” says Charlie.

TROPICAL TRICKLE

Landscape designer Christian Jenkins from Landscape Design Group transplanted a slice of the tropics to Melbourne with his Nature & Nurture garden for Beyond Blue. The concept used meditation huts suspended over lagoons in a rainforest setting. Water trickled through naturalistic features made from layered Castlemaine slate (right), which was also used as stepping stones (left). Plantings included soft tree ferns ( Dicksonia antarctica), bird’s nest ferns ( Asplenium) and cycads.