Gardening Australia resource

Useful general resource covering Australian native plants. 

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/native.htm

Research on Material [Plywood] for 'escape pods'

[Plywood] 

Possible Material for 'escape pods'

Product Comparisons

Research on Pricing

Hoop Pine Plywood

Available Dimensions

Austral Plywood has the largest range of panel sizes and thicknesses. The standard dimensions generally available are:

Length                

2400 and 2700mm

Width

1200mm

Thickness

Thicknesses range from 1.5mm to 32mm, with thicknesses exceeding 32mm available on request.

Indigenous Plants - some useful resources

The Royal Botanical Garden Melbourne website provide some valuable information on indigenous plants:
http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/

The Education section in particular contains some useful fact sheets:
http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/education/teacher-resources




The Australian Garden in Cranbourne is worth visiting for some authentic Australian landscaping design.
http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/australian-garden/australian-garden-features/plants-and-landscape

The Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-operative has an online database of indigenous plants, which is very informative and useful for selecting the right plants for particular conditions.
http://www.vinc.net.au/

Musical Installations

Bertoia Sound Sculptures

The Bertoia Sound Sculpture exerts a metallic, reverberating 'clang'. As Indigenous Australian music is more timber percussive, something similar to these sculptures could be created but with timber heads instead of metal heads to make a more 'woody' sound.

An alternative material to use could be Bamboo. Bamboo is a readily available material, abundant in numbers. 

Bill's Backyard

After all this research into gardens, I overlooked a very close site which is another example of a healing garden. My very own backyard...

My semi-retired father has spent much of his time recently on gardening! He says the act of planting and looking after the plants is relaxing and calming.

Here are the results so far!

The garden is an absolute chaos...but this sense of chaos gives it a fun character, full of curiosity and discoveries. It has a rather mannerist quality to it. Hidden around the garden are statues of animals, gnomes and miscellaneous objects and a couple of water features. There is no sense of planning in the garden at all...just intuition of where objects should go.

When I asked him why he preferred to use free standing pots in the concreted area of the backyard, my dad responded that he didn't want the space to feel too rigid. Potted plants are moveable and provide the flexibility for change to occur. 

Should the healing garden at Monash Medical centre have this attribute of flexibility?

St Vincent's Hospital Visit

Last Tuesday, we visited the garden at St Vincent's hospital.
There were two areas, one with a sloped landscape with lots of grass for seating and sunshine and the other which was shady with scattered blocks of concrete for seating with a gravel landscape. 


From our observation, it seemed like the former area was a lot more occupied. This supports our finding that over designing a garden space is less attractive than one that is more natural and fluid. 

The sloped landscape area

The gravel + concrete seating area.

Aboriginal Art Installations

There is a series of Aboriginal Art installations along Birrarung Wilam (Yarra) by Aboriginal Artists - Vicki Couzens, Treahna Hamm and Lee Darroch. These serve as inspiration and examples of possible forms of art installation that can be included in the healing garden.

 Lee Darroch and Paul Doornbusch in front of 'possum cloak' speaker panel designed by Lee, audio system designed by Paul.

more information on the sound installation project:

http://www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/web/biogs/gallery/P000595g.htm

Here are some other art installations that I found interesting:

'Possum Skin Cloak' Glass Panels in Oxfam Office by Maree Clarke (left) & Lee Darroch (right)

'Spirit of the Land' commissioned by the Monash City Council by Maree Clarke, MeganCadd & Vicki Cousens

'Stone Wall' in South West Victoria by Vicki Couzens & Carmel Wallace 

This artwork's simplicity and connection with the land creates a sense of spirituality, which reminds me of the qualities that had attracted me to Land Art.

Buoyancy - Healing Garden Visit

Buoyancy is a government funded service that provides free drug and alcohol counselling and therapeutic activities in Richmond. Tucked away in the busy inner suburb of Richmond, a healing garden has been developed over time inside the courtyard of the complex to offer their staff and clients a calm and natural environment where they can relax and reconnect with nature. There are water features that masks the noise of traffic, interactive musical decorations to play with, an edible garden to grow fresh herbs, bird houses to invite wildlife into the space and armchairs for relaxing in the sun. 


For more information, go to:
http://www.buoyancy.org.au/
http://www.buoyancyconversations.com/

Living Green Walls

Greenery can transform a ordinary brutalist looking concrete wall into a visually pleasing living vertical gardens. here are some examples:

However, these large scale green walls can have costly irrigation installation and maintenance systems. There are alternative options for small scale vertical gardens that are cost effective and just as aesthetically pleasing and perhaps even more interesting.

There are several blank walls in the hospital courtyard that can be transformed into similar looking vertical gardens, planted with indigenous medicinal plants.