As you enter The Sheds precinct, the gardens are show stopping and like any garden, you immediately relax, breathe out and bask in the sun. For a moment, you forget where you are because the garden commands that of you, the sweet smells, the vibrant colours, the breeze rustling through the leaves giving you a sense of serenity.
Developing a landscape that inspires these emotions is not an easy task, they say it takes a village to raise a child and this sentiment also applies when creating an urban wonderland. Although in this case, not a village but an army of local specialists who all play an integral role ultimately resulting in enchanting gardens.
Robert Percy, Landscape Designer and co-owner of Aspley Nursery, is one of these local specialists who has played a pivotal role in creating the gardens at The Sheds.
“I believe landscape design is most successful when the best return is not only financial but emotional.”
With a career spanning over 40 years and this philosophy, it’s not surprising the design aspect of The Sheds' gardens are on-point.
“With The Sheds located on a busy road in an industrial estate, the landscape needed to provide an urban oasis in this otherwise busy environment,” Robert said.
“The developer, Wattle Run’s brief from the start was that they wanted an environment where the landscaping, the types of businesses and the buildings created a unique place for people to come and enjoy.”
Aspley Nursery supplied over 1800 plants, based on the landscape design created by Robert, meaning each and every plant was given the perfect place to grow into the established gardens we have today.
“It was a very considered process of selection and placement of every plant and in particular each tree, to provide a welcoming protective environment in the long term while providing visibility for the public and the businesses in The Shed's precinct,” Robert said.
“Creating the gardens was a wonderful opportunity to work with the creative team behind The Sheds during design, construction and beyond.
“I loved working with the landscape contractors, the design studio and builders as a team continually making revisions as we went along to improve the landscape and make it best it could be.”
Robert said the gardens work at The Sheds because of how well the different components all worked together, from the well thought out architectural design integrating the old sheds into new buildings, the hard landscape features and the gardens seamless connection.
“The Sheds unique architectural features meant coming up with ways for the landscape design to integrate with the buildings, such as using metal trainers on the large wooden arbour to give the vines something to grip onto.
“These metal trainers were a way to achieve harmony between the building and the landscaping by giving the vines a path to grow overhead and blend into the architecture,” he said.
With the well-established gardens now flourishing, Robert will move to Shed 3 and create more of the beautiful gardens we have come to love at The Sheds.
“Shed 3 will see a continuation of the landscape theme but I am considering using some new plants to slightly differentiate the new area.”
Shed 3 will be renovated this year providing more for people to eat, drink, shop and celebrate!