Drew Burns garden.
Drew Burns credits his childhood spent playing in the sand dunes and remnant woodland at the back of his house in Rye with his close connection to nature and plants. “Growing up we weren’t really inside much, other than to watch The Simpsons at 6pm,” he laughs.
It seemed a natural fit for Drew when he started working to do something involving gardens, but he detoured from his passion and did a Bachelor of Business and then went into marketing. “I lasted a year in marketing. I felt disconnected from the outside world. I’ve just always been really interested in plants.”
Drew Burns.
It was at Melbourne University’s Burnley campus studying urban horticulture that things really fell into place for Drew. “There’s such a rich history at Burnley. Since 1891 it’s been the place for education and research in horticulture. A lot of famous garden designers came out of there, including Edna Walling and Ellis Stones. They were pioneers of Australian native garden design and the use of rock in their gardens.”
At 28, Drew completed his master’s in urban horticulture last year and now works full-time in green infrastructure, building, designing and specifying green roofs and green walls. As a side project, last October Drew started his own company in residential garden design. He then entered one of his designs in a competition for newcomers to the garden design industry, hosted by the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. Five entrants were selected to create a small balcony garden – 1.2 square metres x 2.3 square metres – that will be part of the garden show at the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens from March 29-April 2.
Drew is thrilled to have been selected and has begun gathering materials for his garden, titled Junk. “My ethos is about sustainability, and to inspire people to move away from designing gardens using European plants and push in the direction of natives and indigenous plants.”
In keeping with his ethos, Drew is using recycled, reused and repurposed materials such as breeze blocks and red bricks to create his balcony garden. “I’ve included a green wall into my design on the right side of the balcony. It flows down on to a garden bed that’s embedded in the floor, so it looks like the plants are spilling down on to the floor and growing across the balcony.”
Drew will have 10 days to build his balcony garden before the show opens on March 29. You can follow him on his Instagram page @poa_landscapedesign
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