How to bring our communities into Equilibrium

By Luke Gibbons in Gardens, Our planet on 2 April 2012

Equilibrium by night

The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show was held last week (March 28-April 1) with the savewater!® Equilibrium display receiving Gold in the Show Garden category.

The tranquil setting of the Carlton Gardens the night before as the garden judges pottered around was a far cry to the days leading up to the event.  As you can hear in the background of the following videos, there was a great deal of sawing, hammering, clammering, sifting, shovelling, planting and mulching that brings this show to one of the top 5 in the world.

This year the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show played host to Equilibrium, a garden that communicates how the humble home gardens of the future will be designed to help manage water resources.

There are three gardens within the exhibit:

  1. The traditional back yard, with lots of concrete and other hard surfaces. The majority of the water that falls on this garden flows straight into stormwater.Standard backyard
  2. The garden of the future, complete with a billabong! Water plays an integral part in this garden, flowing off the roof, into the rainwater tank.  When the tank overflows, the water moves through streams into a billabong.  From here the plants of the garden can soak up the water.  In a prolonged dry period, like in natural billabongs, the water will dry out and form a stony bed before the rains eventually return. When the billabong overflows, the water exits the property and joins water in public parks and gardens.Equilibrium - the garden of the future
  3. The third garden represents the community spaces, where water flows through these raingardens, providing green spaces, mitigating floods and cleansing the water before it returns to our rivers and oceans.Community spaces - public parks & gardens

The Equlibrium garden incorporates amazing design, with a couple of elements similar to Donna Niebling’s garden from near Seymour which we featured on the ripple effect last year.

The Equilibrium exhibit was put together by Phillip Johnson Landscapes and savewater!® on behalf of City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, Melbourne Water and the Victoria Government Department of Sustainability & Environment.

Let us know if you dropped by the Equilibrium site and what you thought. If you couldn’t make it to the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show this year, find out more about Equilibrium at www.savewater.com.au/equilibrium