Art in the garden

As any genuine Canberra local under the age of nine will tell you, some of the best spots at the Australian National Gallery are on the outside, not the inside. I discovered recently that the Eucalypts in that place of beauty and sculpture are intentionally planted to cast shadows on the walls of the gallery. Fern Garden by Fiona Hall is a piece of landscape architecture that I always make a point of experiencing when I visit the gallery with children in tow. Hidden away behind a curlicued gate, it transports us into a secret little world that is both contemporary and layered in history with its references to Islamic courtyards and other traditional influences. I particularly love the swirling pebble paving which are placed to remind us of the flow of the regional watercourses from which they were sourced. The Dicksonia are ancient remnants which remind me of Where the wild things are and create a stark contrast between the contemporary and the primeval. The water fountains in summer are a cool retreat. Someone remarked to me that it doesn't quite hit the mark with what it is trying to achieve but I still believe it creates contemplation and reflection hidden away from the bustle of the gallery main and fulfils its functions as a piece of landscape art.

I have noticed an increasing trend for sculptors to collaborate with garden designers and include their installations either permanently or temporarily. Artists help us interpret, understand and protect our natural world with their interpretations of beauty and the past and present. Since I was able to take time out of the corporate world while my children were younger I have been struck by the impact of artists on my psyche and sense making. From my friend Judy reinterpreting the sacred lotus through screen print to a woman inspired by the Bayeux tapestry to create a 3-D history of Canberra tree plantings in paper mache, artists stop us momentarily and make us think, feel and experience something beyond our mundane and soulless corporate and consumerist culture.

I particularly love the work of the sculptor who makes giant pears out of horse shoes, Victoriana pineapple plants and creations from barbed wire.

Strelitzia

I've learned a lot from Holly Kerr Forsyth about the genesis of many of our introduced plants in Australia and why we have so many species from South Africa as the ships of the early settlers sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. Another eminent garden historian Richard Aitkin also explains a similar Brazilian connection and I'm looking forward to reading his book Botanical riches.

It all makes me feel logical about my fusion garden of Banksia roses, camellias from China and tough plants from South Africa especially when I realised that gardeners have mixed and matched plant species sourced from all over the world since they first arrived as non-indigenous occupiers of this land. I have strelitzia reginae about to bloom with 'birds of paradise' in my courtyard nestled under the eaves. They are really tough and love close plantings in the pot so I have also squeezed in some geraniums which cascade over the side. I realise that it probably would have been collected on the way here along with agapanthus and all sorts of other South African 'goodies' although strelitzia were introduced in 1733 to Kew Gardens in England. What I think is quite hilarious is that my strelitzia plants were purchased from Aldi after I spotted them in the catalogue a few years ago - never saw them  advertised again. You can get all sorts of odd things from Aldi - even strelitzia reginae.