Horticulture student takes out top garden show award
13 April 2005
Steven Vella relaxes in his award winning entry at the Melbourne Flower and Garden Show.
The stand by the Horticulture department of Kangan Batman TAFE attracted plenty of attention at the five day show.
Kangan Batman TAFE horticulture student Steven Vella won the Fleming's Student Design Competition at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show last weekend.
The 19 year old from St Albans wins a prize valued at $15,000 which includes two return airfares, accommodation and spending money to attend the Chelsea Flower Show in the UK.
Steven, who completed the Certificate IV in Horticulture at Kangan Batman TAFE, was one of four finalists (from Australia and New Zealand) selected to have their garden designs constructed at the flower and garden show. Steven's winning display was called Sunrise-Sunset and was based on an aboriginal story of 'Creation' from the Karraru Tribe.
Following the announcement of his win Steven appeared on the Postcards television show on Saturday night and the Garden Tap Show on channel 31, and was interviewed by the BBC for a talk show in London. The Age and Herald Sun have interviewed Steven as did the Brimbank Leader and Advocate papers. Don Burke and Jamie Durie also congratulated Steven on his design.
"It's unbelievable, I have had so many offers to design gardens that I have work for a couple of years!" said Steven. At this stage however he is considering his future options and will spend three months overseas on a "fact-finding" mission.
Travelling to London for the Chelsea Flower Show and to Europe, Steven will be looking at the different types of contemporary landscape design and come back to Australia with "a head full of ideas."
The Fleming's Student Design Competition has been running for six years and Kangan Batman students have won the award twice.
Displays attract attention
The staff from the Horticulture department set up two display areas - one for Kangan Batman and another for PLAN Australia (a partnership arrangement). Both sites were well received, with Burkes Backyard magazine taking photos of the site and the BBC also filming it.
The Kangan Batman stand was principally designed by horticulture staff member Travis Hodgson and constructed by Travis, Peter Vale and Horticulture coordinator Jeff Alcock.
Travis's design theme focused on "monocots" - strappy-leaved plants that give foliage contrast and make bold architectural statements in a garden. Setting off these plants were ochre-coloured planting boxes and a raised timber deck that were made by staff and students from the building section of B&NE. Towards the rear of the stand was a small water feature, which linked the display to the existing lake in the background.
"The MIFGS is a great opportunity to promote both the Horticulture department and the institute in general," said Jeff Alcock. With Melbourne's sublime autumn weather, over 125,000 visitors passed by the stands during the five days of the show.
Not restricted to market exposure within Australia, video footage of the Kangan Batman display will be shown on English TV in a BBC gardening program that compares the MIFGS with the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show. "The English film crew were impressed with the restricted, yet impressive plant palate used in the display, together with the fact that it was done on such a comparatively small budget," said Jeff.
In keeping with the institute's community-minded focus the staff from the Horticulture department also constructed a site for the charity PLAN which is a worldwide child relief organisation. The garden was designed by Jeff with the design brief for this site being to portray the resurgence of spirit and re-building of an Indonesian rural community following the Boxing Day tsunami.
This site featured bamboo screens and plants, lots of tropical foliage and a small vegetable garden containing Asian vegetables. The focal points were a market stall where, for a donation, visitors could sample tropical fruits and a life-size copy of a rice de-husker. This interesting device was made by staff member Peter Vale from a couple of photographs taken in Indonesia. Gardening guru Don Burke showed great interest in the de-husker and may even feature it in one of his TV programs or magazines.
