Australian garden design

By Fiona Keating on March 21st 2011

I’m looking at the view from the 35^th floor of CityPoint in Ropemaker Street, which is the fifth tallest building in the City of London. It’s not often you get to look down on St Paul’s Cathedral and across North, South, West and East London. It’s a grey, misty day, so I’m hoping that my interview with Jim Fogarty will give me some colourful ideas for my Islington garden.

Fogarty is here to present the Australian Garden, which will be displaying unique and endangered plant species native to Australia for the very first time at the Chelsea Flower Show in June. The show is sponsored by Macquarie Group, an Australian finance group, whose UK offices are located at CityPoint.

I ask Fogarty first of all, with some reservations, I must admit, whether it’s at all possible to bring Australian designs to Islington gardens. Absolutely, he says. “For it to work in a small garden scenario, you need to make the inside/outside connection. You might also want to add some Australian artefacts or artwork.”

The designer hastens to add that the notion of Australian garden design is still quite new. “In the past, we’ve looked to English gardens or Mediterranean gardens.” However, one area that has grown on the London scene is using the garden as an extension of the home, which is where Australian design comes into its own. “One thing that’s popular is entertaining in gardens – drinks parties, barbecues, or outdoor eating – it’s multi-faceted,” explains Fogarty.

In Islington, there’s a variety of gardens, ranging of formal gardens to fairly small outdoor spaces. One of the major characteristics of antipodean design is the exuberance of colour. “There’s the red outback sand, the white salt pans, the beautiful blue, vast skies, the natural timbers, the rusted iron colours of the gorges, the bluey-green eucalypt foliage – the reds, vivid oranges, yellows – it’s a crescendo of colours.” Fogarty warms to his theme, saying that a lot of his inspiration comes from the Australian landscape, with its coastal beaches.

One quick way to adapt Australian design to Islington is to use feature walls which can be painted in an outback reddish colour, bringing warmth to the garden. “It’s not very expensive to do and can really change the look and really lift a garden,” suggests Fogarty.

The garden at the Chelsea Flower Show will feature over 2,000 Australian native plants including the Queensland Bottle Tree, 25 varieties of Grevillea and the distinctive Firewheel Tree. Other plants include rare and threatened species such as the Buchan Blue Wattle, Gorge Gum, Fragrant Saltbush and the Hairy Darling-pea.

Most of all, advises Fogarty, keep playing with different hues, and use the exotic Australian plants that are becoming more widely available in London. And keep an open mind on what works in your garden. “Gardening is an ongoing education,” says Fogarty. “That’s what inspires me. I’m always learning.”

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