Clean sweep at MIFGS for Strathbogie landscaper Liam Riley

AN INNOVATIVE, Bogie-inspired garden designed by Strathbogie landscaper Liam Riley made a huge splash at the 2024 Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, winning all five awards in the Landscape Design Show Garden Competition. The five-day event held at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building & Carlton Gardens is the biggest horticultural festival in the Southern Hemisphere according to Visit Victoria, attracting over 100,000 attendees annually. Mr Riley’s show garden, named “Through the Looking Glass”, was a collaboration with Melbourne’s Emmaline Bowman. “We were really emphasising what is beneath the soil, what’s in the water,” he told The Euroa Gazette. “As designers and landscapers, we’ve sort of nailed how to make things look good on the surface, but we're no good if the soil beneath us is not improved and looked at. “We've got soil profiles showing the different mediums there beneath the soil, and… glass windows at the front of our display that looked into the pond. “We had snails and yabbies and rock and logs, and all sorts of organic matter there.” The garden also featured haybales, a windmill and granite from Mr Riley’s farm in Strathbogie. “We've really tried to use our display with a backdrop of the Strathbogie Ranges,” he said. “The judges, at the end of judging, went back to our garden and just sat in it because… they just wanted to immerse themselves and soak it all in because they were just completely blown away with what we created.” Mr Riley and Ms Bowman’s clean sweep of the show garden awards included the gold medal and the City of Melbourne “best in show” award, among others. Their garden also nabbed a sixth award for "art in horticulture", awarded separately by the Australian Institute of Horticulture. “It's recognition for a whole lot of hard work over many years we've been landscaping and designing this style of landscape,” Mr Riley said. “It's great that we feel like we're on trend... hopefully we've started trends, not following trends.” He is the managing director of ID Landscaping and his collaborator, Ms Bowman, is the director and founder of STEM Landscape Architecture & Design. The two landscapers collaborate regularly. Mr Riley described his landscaping style as “naturalistic, native, indigenous plantings, trying to mimic mother nature”. “It's probably more porous, not as structured, and not full of concrete and hardscape materials,” he said. “We're focusing on softer materials and softer planting colours and palettes.” But the designer did not want all the credit. “It's a super team effort,” he said. “Landscaping is really a laborious trade and there's many skillful staff that have helped bring this to light.” Speaking to this masthead from the show on Sunday, Mr Riley said he was physically exhausted. “I tell you what I'm going to do over Easter, and that's flop,” he said. “Have a big sleep, I reckon.”

Clean sweep at MIFGS for Strathbogie landscaper Liam Riley

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