Matt York – Pocket Profile

What can you tell us about your garden at the Show?

Our show garden this year is titled Alone, Together.

In collaboration with Beyond Blue, our garden will explore the increasing health and wellness concerns resulting from loneliness and social isolation. Using parkland and garden design as a vehicle for education and connection, our garden looks to present design principles that can promote a sense of belonging, to open dialogue surrounding loneliness, and to promote further research and opportunities in designing for health and wellness.

What are you most excited to see at the show this year?

I always love to see the range of plant selections and compositions in the different garden displays, I always take several ideas from the show to apply in our practice. I love the energy of the student design competition, and seeing how the gardens perform at night during the Gardens by Twilight event. With this season’s extensive rain it will be fascinating to see what is flowering and performing in April.

What is your favorite current industry trend?

Supply chain disruption has informed new thinking of how we plan and specify local products, which is a fantastic thing. Our footprint is vast when you consider all of the materials we use in construction, and our forward planning has lapsed in previous years. We should be sourcing and procuring local products and be conscious of our footprint in every design moment.

What sustainable practices have you seen highlighted in the industry at the moment?

I love the Urban Forest strategies being delivered by State and Local government’s across Victoria, with many council’s working to achieve 30% tree canopy targets by 2030. The impact on these targets in improving urban cooling, biodiversity, health and access to green open space is just incredible. Appreciation and awareness of the many roles and responsibilities our urban trees provide in our cities continues to grow with every year.

Fast Five

• Favourite Flower/Plant: Dicksonia antartica (soft tree fern). Incredible childhood memories from our family garden, beautiful shadowing in dappled light, beautiful to touch,  transplants well at maturity, and is also a great source of starch.
• Pineapple on a pizza? Absolutely and with fresh chilli.
• Gardening Gloves or Bare Hands: Bare hands everyday. Much like the potion of the ocean, there is much we don’t know about spending time in the soil.
• Favourite Season: Autumn: Seasonal colour, leaf drop, calm offshore winds.
• Foliage or Flora: Foliage to feed all the senses.