Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2013 by Penny Woodward

By Penny Woodward

Diggers' pumpkins, gourds and chillis

We are so lucky to have such a good garden show in Melbourne, and an unsurpassed site in the Carlton Gardens and the Exhibition Building. I was there for four of the five days and don’t think I have seen so many people in previous years. There were some wonderful display gardens, fabulous floral displays and interesting gardening related commercial stands.

I was so busy helping out on the Organic Gardener Magazine stand that I didn’t have much time to take photographs but some of my favourites follow. It was great to see more plants, and less hard surfaces. But I was sorry that there were less edible and useful plants incorporated in the designs, and not many commercial stands that were truly organic. The exceptions were Eco Organic Garden with their BFA certified products for pest and disease control and plant health and soil improving products. To see more about them go to the Eco Organic Garden website , the other was the Diggers site with their fabulous array of pumpkins and gourds, as well as chillis and garlic. See some of the photos above and below and to purchase seed or garlic go to the Diggers website

The gardens range from the small but fascinating and always inspiring student gardens in the Avenue of Achievable Gardens, to the bigger bells and whistles gardens that take months to plan, pull together and construct. Also, a new one for this year was that constructed by Swinburne students to publicise the Victorian School Garden Award. Anyway I think the pictures speak for themselves. These are my favourites, and mostly I didn’t agree with the judges as to which were the best.