JAMIE DURIE

GARDENING 2020

Feeling the earth move

In challenging times we so turn to nature as a source of relaxation, healing and sustenance. And where better to get in touch with that than in our own backyards. Here are some of the trends.

COMMUNITY GARDENS Smaller residential property sizes in new estates have left us with a little less space for entertaining and growing our own produce, so the push to share garden plots and connect with community as we did in the old days is becoming greater. The move to downsizing and reducing costs means we are thinking about how we create and share the urban food bowl, reduce transit time and costs, and maintain our health through good nutrition. Looming food security issues, viruses, droughts, floods, the focus on wellbeing and the organic revolution are all factors in this process. Let’s take the power back into our own hands and grow food for the family table, show our kids where it comes from and how to be self-sufficient.

COMMUNITY-MAINTAINED STREETSCAPES The City of Sydney Council will now let you claim (but not own) the verge in front of your property and you can create almost any garden you like there. This came to my attention while I was walking through the industrial Sydney suburb of Rosebery. There, residents have quietly lined their streets with eclectic, diverse and inspirational gardens that are so captivating you almost forget where you were going. Walking along their streetscape now feels like meandering through someone’s sanctuary. Check the criteria with your local council or go to cityofsydney. nsw.gov.au/ community/participation/gardening-on-the-footpath.

RESPONSIBLE BUSHFIRE MANAGEMENT While this may not be the sexiest trend, it’s certainly a vital one. Many of us back on to bushland or reserves, and if we have learnt anything from the events of this summer it’s about protection and preservation – about protecting our families, our homes and our natural environment. This essentially means removing all of the dry, dead matter, overgrown foliage, dry grasses or thatch, and ensuring our wildlife have corridors and safe habitats.

Clockwise from above: a rooftop garden at 9 Christie Street, South Brisbane; the kitchen garden at Chiswick restaurant, Woollahra; youngsters explore a community garden

Cultural burning: Traditional fire management applies cool, quick burns to the landscape. These low-intensity fires are also known as cultural burning, a practice that has several benefits. Burning in this way saves flora and fauna. Animals, including insects such as bees, beetles and ant colonies, have enough time to escape. Young trees can survive, and the fire keeps grass seeds intact for regrowth. The heat, which is much cooler than a hazard reduction burn, doesn’t ignite the oil in a tree’s bark. The technique is a tool for “gardening the environment”. Such fires are also self-extinguishing – the fire dies straight after it burns the grass. You can avoid weed killers too, as introduced species such as grasses are not fire-resistant and can be removed with fire instead of chemicals. You can tell if a fire was a cool burn when the burnt grass still has its previous shape. Source: Cool burns: Key to Aboriginal fire management – Creative Spirits, creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/land/aboriginal-fire-management

ROOFTOP AND BALCONY GARDENS The increase in high-density apartment living has spawned a need for more creative use of space. Today, we look for indoor-outdoor flow to increase usable space and set up our private oases as a respite from the urban environment. It’s our entertaining space; it’s also a way to project our own style into the outdoors, and to display it to our friends and families through both design and function. Outdoor kitchens and outdoor dining areas have become the norm, as we all expect to be able to cook outside and to dine alfresco. Feature pots and plants are used as sculptural elements, while vertical gardening makes better use of space by allowing plants to be grown on fences and walls. Balcony vegetable gardens service the kitchen, and of course we need a barbie in the mix to grill our goodies. PERMACULTURE DESIGN PRINCIPLES An awareness of the necessity to embrace more environmentally responsible gardening will become far more apparent in 2020, as a greater understanding of the drastic effects climate change is having on our planet occurs. This means ethical gardening practices are becoming far more accepted and employed. It’s important is to look to age-old practices that increase the sustainable nature of our food production. Permaculture is about working with the environment and not against it, which we seem to be have become quite good at over the past 200 years.

RESTAURANT GARDENS Commercially, restaurants are becoming more and more aware of using their own grown produce to ensure high quality, save on food and transport costs, reduce carbon emissions and offer specialised local produce menu options that provide environmentally responsible dining choices. We have become way more educated about food production and nutrition, and the right restaurants are responding to that awareness.

INDOOR MATERIALS MOVE OUTDOORS Innovative outdoor products are enhancing the connection between indoors and outdoors by replicating indoor materials, while still conforming to Australian standards for anything from slip ratings to waterproofing. A good example is the dramatic increase in the number of fabric options for the outdoors. This opens up the opportunity for more creative approaches to landscape design . Textiles for the outdoors have become far more sophisticated. We can choose thread that is saturation dyed, meaning its colour travels through the thread and is not just applied to the outside, only to fade within weeks. Anti-microbial additives can also be used to stop mould or fungi growing in the fabric. Open weaves allow water to flow through the material instead of being absorbed. More drainage means healthy, dry fabrics and no wet bums following a light rain.

PLANT SELECTION AND DROUGHT TOLERANCE The trend to using native plants in the garden to increase insect, bird life and biodiversity, and an enhanced desire to celebrate the “messy” aesthetic of Australian native flora, grows ever stronger. It can involve dense native foliage, for example Westringia fruticosa, clipped into formal hedging to “frame” garden beds in the landscape. With increasing concerns around water conservation, the need for drought-tolerant planting is becoming more urgent. One of the most water-dependant areas of the garden is turf, and 2020 will see a movement towards smaller lawns. These lawn areas will be replaced with drought-tolerant native plants surrounded at the base with permeable ground covers to reduce water evaporation.