STUNNING AWARD WINNING BACKYARD BILLABONG

Fancy a billabong in your backyard? You’re in luck! You can simply follow the design created by Phillip Johnson, called Trailfinders Australian Garden, which recently won Best in Show at the 100th annual Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show (2013).

 

Billabongs, as they are known in Australia, are essentially backwater pools, created by flooded rivers. They inspired Johnson, well known in Australia as a pioneer of sustainable gardening, to design this “backyard” billabong garden, using solar pumps and filters, to create chemical-free swimming pool. Over 120 species of native Australian plants surrounded the water feature, including ferns and kangaroo paws.

 

Photo: Courtesy of Garden Drum

 

The experience was enhanced by natural sounds of the Aussie bush, including frog songs recorded at Johnson’s home in Yarra Glen, near Melbourne, playing in the background. You can listen to them here.

 

While it took Johnson, his nurseryman partner, Wes Fleming, and a team of 18 volunteers six weeks to build this elaborate backyard fantasy, which includes a gorgeous gorge surrounded by giant boulders and a series of small waterfalls tumbling into the large billabong, you needn’t fret.

 

Johnson suggested that home gardeners can produce a billabong more simply by collecting rainwater from their roofs, filtering, and channeling it into a hollow to form a pool. This is super-eco-friendly because it conserves water and deters flooding. He believes every house should have a rainwater conservation system, billabong or not, because it will do a lot to help offset our water usage.

Photo: Gardening Jules

 

While his garden featured Australian vegetation, Johnson hopes home gardeners will use local native plants that will attract native frogs, birds, and dragonflies. “If you had a little backyard, you could create this anywhere. You would be able to grow this in suburbia,” he said.

Photo: Courtesy of studio505

 

The focal point of the garden is a petalled wooden structure called the Waratah Studio, which Johnson designed and built in collaboration with studio505. It was conceived as a private retreat, like that of a treehouse, immersing one in the surrounding beauty of nature.

 

It is a geometrical abstraction of a blossoming waratah flower, an Australian species of proteus, that communes with the landscape, as light pierces the timber, casting dapplings on surfaces, both inside and out.

Photo: Courtesy of Anglomania

 

Gilding the billabong lily, a performance troupe of three British contortionists in lizard costumes and makeup, danced and posed in the garden. You might just be inspired to frolic similarly in yours, perhaps?

Illustration: Courtesy of Flemings

 

For more information about Trailfinders Garden, so you can create your own gorgeous backyard billabong, including a list of plants and materials used, history, video clips, and more, visit Flemings’ site.