Test Garden Open Day – August

Natalie Simmons

Natalie Simmons is the Head Gardener for the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation, which includes responsibility for the Test Garden at Fed Square as well as the planned 18,000 square metre urban garden, Laak Boorndap. With a love of naturalistic planting design, Nat is all about helping to create and nurture beautiful public gardens that are inspired by nature. She has extensive experience travelling to international gardens and working in public gardens, including the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne), Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, and most recently as the Head Horticulturist at Melbourne Grammar School.

Bonnie Traynor

Bonnie works as a Horticulturist for the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation in the Test Garden and Fed Square grounds, and has a wealth of experience in maintaining large high-profile public spaces. As a nature lover, she is passionate about creating and improving green spaces for the community with a focus on plant nutrition and soil health. Her favourite past time is hiking in the bush and connecting with nature.

The Melbourne Arts Precinct Plant Trials is a three-year research project conducted at Burnley, led by Associate Professor Claire Farrell and Dr Dean Schrieke, that evaluates the plant species and mixes best suited to thrive in Laak Boorndap – the new 18,000 square metre urban garden that is being developed as part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation.

Each month, we hold a small in-conversation event focused on gardening and planting design.

You can hear from gardeners, designers and horticulturists about the garden’s naturalistic planting. We also invite plant-loving writers and creatives to share their experience with us.

The talk may be followed by a hands-on workshop demonstrating artist-led practice with plants, such as cyanotype and botanical printing, and practical workshops, including propagation techniques and planting for your own garden.

Registration for our Test Garden Open Days is free and spaces usually book out fast. Make sure you’re following @laak.boorndap on Instagram to hear when we open registrations.