I think that if we want to get new people excited about gardens and gardening, as designers we need to take a garden to where they are, rather than expecting they’re going to come looking for us. So instead of designing and building a Melbourne show garden this year, the team and I decided to do something a little different. Working with our interior funk sisters over at Melbourne’s interior design retail heaven, The Family Love Tree in Prahran, we’ve taken their shop window to the next level.
Palm Springs by Phillip Withers at The Family Love Tree, Prahran
We’ve been working with The Family Love Tree for a while now and finding that the more garden we can work in to compliment their great interior design style, the more customers love it and start asking about plants and gardens. We’ve had a wall garden inside before that got a lot of conversations started, but now we’ve taken it out front with a big bold new window display garden that will stop people as they walk by, and then bring them inside where there’s a second garden to take over their interest.
Inside Palm Springs garden at The Family Love Tree, Prahran in Melbourne
Our pop-up indoor gardens reflect an understated but elegant design aesthetic found in mid-century ‘Palm Springs’ architecture style. This was one of the first architecture styles that made the garden that was close around the house feel part of the home – a place to entertain outside and enjoy. To bring it into this century, we’ve combined it with a little pattern funk, some pastel pop, and added a dash of modern spice.
The result is a minimalist but also natural indoor garden, bringing in a Coachella Valley California desert chic. Imagine it in the evening light, with the last rays of the sun playing over the succulents sitting like living sculptures in front of a backdrop of palms to give that sense of cooler green oasis. A place to party with a cold American ale!
We’re finding it’s a great way to connect with a local community that’s into design, and also with people who can now see how a perfect partnership between garden design and interior design will really make their home a place they’ll love.
A great partnership – with Katie Graham of The Family Love Tree
Many thanks to the following businesses that collaborated in this indoor garden – Avoca Landscape Construction, Haymes Paint, Plantmark (plants) and Cubic Products (brick supply).
‘Palm Springs‘ – now showing at The Family Love Tree, 508 Malvern St, Prahran (south-east Melbourne) until 10 April 2016.
Phillip Withers Landscape Design – Phillip Withers, Emmaline Bowman and Daniel Foot-Connolly
