Gardenridge director Don Thomson: designing and building gardens fulfills 'a creative spirit'

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Jul 16, 2021

Gardenridge director Don Thomson: designing and building gardens fulfills 'a creative spirit'

Award winning landscape company Gardenridge designs well-considered, well-built, and well-cared for gardens in Melbourne.

Patrick Redmond

Pop up Park, Melbourne
Gardenridge

Origami swans under a 100 year old Oak tree for the Brighton project
Gardenridge

Ivanhoe Project
Gardenridge

Gardenridge is a multi-faceted, award winning landscape company that offers professional services across design, construction and garden maintenance.

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Image: Balwyn Project. Source: Gardenridge

Established in Melbourne in 1989 by Don Thomson, Gardenridge has become a partner of Kay & Burton’s Concierge, a curated network of qualified professionals, skilled-and-reliable tradespeople and creative talent to meet all their client’s property-related needs.

WILLIAMS MEDIA spoke to Gardenridge Director Don Thomson about the business.

What was the inspiration for establishing Gardenridge in 1989?

My father loved his garden and I would shadow him as he toiled under the sun. I am sure this is where my connection with plants and all things outdoors began.

I became a father myself in 1987 at the ripe old age of 22 so there was a need to reinvent myself from poor student to household provider … and so Gardenridge was born.

Beyond this I am at heart ‘a creative spirit’ and designing and building gardens fulfilled this need.

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Image: Balwyn Project. Source: Gardenridge

What do you enjoy most about your profession?

I love that my office takes me outside and the connection to nature. I also love the creative outlet and the satisfaction that comes from designing, building and maintaining beautiful spaces.

I love that ‘what we offer’ enhances the quality of our clients’ life. We can create a quiet haven to retire from the busy world and recharge, and we can create active entertaining/play spaces that bring family and friends together.

I love that a well-considered, well-built and well cared for garden adds to the value of the home. It is a good investment on top of everything else!

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Image: Brighton project. Source: Gardenridge

How do you describe Gardenridge’s aesthetic?

Gardenridge designs and builds gardens that respect the client brief and consider context. This could mean a formal baroque style garden surrounding a Victorian period home in Toorak, or an organic native style garden on acreage at the back of Eltham.

If I was to put a name to a garden style that is attractive to us it might be ‘a relaxed formal garden with playful elements’ such as Churchill Street garden we designed and built in Mont Albert.

Gardenridge offers a complete service of design, construct and maintenance … how does this benefit your clients?

Our clients prefer that we manage the entire process of their garden from design to construction and then ongoing maintenance. This delivers the exact product that they wanted, within the budget and in a timely way.

The alternative, where a client engages a designer, and then a builder, and then a gardener, leads to confusion as the project moves through the separate businesses. There is often a diffusion of responsibility at the margins between the businesses and this leads to a more costly build, a slower build, and an inferior product.

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Image: Mont Albert Project. Source: Gardenridge

Looking to the future, Gardenridge is putting most of its energy into developing its high end Gardening Service which is how we became friends with Kay & Burton. This is the growth part of our business which is backed by a wealth of knowledge and experience across design and construction.

Adam Groves is the Garden Maintenance Manager and he has been given the job of running and developing this part of the business. He has been working in horticulture since he was a teenager which gives him a great depth of knowledge. In addition, he has great people skills which allows him to manage the various personalities across our gardening team, and to manage an ever-increasing portfolio of clients.

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Image: Gardenridge Garden Maintenance Manager, Adam Groves with Director, Don Thomson. Source: Gardenridge

How do you incorporate sustainable and environmentally friendly principles within your gardens?

As we grow the Gardening business we are implementing a more environmentally sensitive approach to business which includes: the use of electric equipment which eliminates the use of fossil fuels and runs quieter; the use of natural plant based herbicides and pesticides; the use of organic fertilisers rather than chemicals; sediment management during garden builds to protect drains and stormwater; sorting garden waste to reduce the pressure on our finite landfill sites; recycling timber, plastic pots, plants where possible. We believe strongly that everyone has a role to play in reducing their carbon footprint and addressing global warming.

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Image: Rope Pavilion at the Melbourne Flower and Garden show. Source: Gardenridge

Do you have a favourite job?

It is always hard to pick out a favourite project, it’s like choosing a favourite child. Each project is unique, requires a bespoke solution and delivers its own version of satisfaction.

Having said this, I particularly enjoyed the Black Street project which was opened for the Rotary Designfest in 2014.

This project was for a prominent house of the early 1900’s which had been renovated and extended, and the garden was reinvented to create a diversity of spaces, dotted with Innovative art installations and quiet sitting areas.

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Image: Brighton Project (8 Black Street) with origami rabbit resting on lawn … for the Rotary Open Garden Festival. Source: Gardenridge

The property is dominated by a beautiful old English Oak tree growing for more than a century in the front garden, which required careful management, including construction of special floating concrete slabs for the paving to allow air and moisture underneath. A large expanse of lush green lawn presents the pool house, providing an idyllic setting for alfresco dining, croquet or even a game of cricket. Large evergreen trees skirt the property boundary blocking fence lines and allowing the leafy borrowed landscape into the experience. Hedges frame many smaller spaces within the garden and borders are planted out with abundant perennials.

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Image: Brighton Project. Source: Gardenridge

What are your hobbies outside of gardening?

Don: I first became acquainted with the sport of rowing when I was at school. Scotch College runs a world class rowing program which has won it the coveted Head of the River an impressive 45 times since its inception in 1868. As I became a parent at a young age, I was unable to continue rowing after leaving school, with my focus firmly around family and work.

It would be 20 years before I got back in a boat, and it did not take long for the obsession to re-kindle. These days I still compete with the Powerhouse rowing club. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a bunch of talent that has allowed me to compete successfully overseas at the World Masters, and locally at National and State championships around the country. Beyond this, the sport keeps me super fit and gives me the energy required to run my business and to raise a family.

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Image: Don and his rowing teammates. Source: Don Thomson

Adam: In my spare time I love to play and teach my 4 kids all about gardening and nature. I take my older 3 to a new park/reserve or garden every weekend so their Mum can have a sleep in with our new daughter.