Disability advocate Dylan Alcott has designed a first-of-its-kind Celebrity Show Garden for the 2022 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.
The Tramlines Gardens are accessible, inclusive and attractive with native plants and shrubs from Victorian nurseries, including Kevin Heinze Grow, that provides horticultural therapy programs and jobs for young people with disability.
For wheelchair users, seating allows people to be part of the conversation while the garden considers vision impairment with sensory plantings for stimulating the senses by touch and smell. The garden features red and yellow flowers, yellow being the most visible colour for many of the vision impaired. Garden beds are placed at different heights to ensure gardening is easy for anyone who wants to participate, with a ramp to make it all accessible.
Different garden surfaces create an auditory and textural difference to indicate that users of the spaces are moving from one area to another. There is a gravel ring around a fire pit that gives an auditory trigger that you are nearing the fireplace.
The garden’s native plants will be auctioned online with all proceeds donated to the Dylan Alcott Foundation with expressions of interest for bidders now open.
The festival, which is the largest horticultural event in the southern hemisphere, also includes wine tastings, interactive workshops and a twilight program accompanied by music, food and wine, runs from March 30 to April 2.