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How beautiful is central Melbourne?! With approximately 480 hectares of parks and gardens, streets lined with mature trees that provide canopy and well-planned spaces for children to play, dogs to run, families and friends to gather and have a picnic together… Now imagine the city without these green spaces and replace them with houses, blocks of flats, streets, fences and concrete.  Not a pleasant thought. 
Melbourne’s early planners were proficient in developing a city in harmony – balanced between places to live, places to work and places to play and relax.  And what a success it has been and how well those planners have served our iconic city. 
But today, as Melbourne’s growth corridors develop, we need to remind our planners of the importance of not only reserving a place for open public space but ensuring it is developed with trees and greenery and balance that space against the rest of the urban area. 
While many developers are working to ensure public open spaces are incorporated into new communities, I am shocked by the number of times I travel past a park with loads of play equipment and even a pergola and barbecue facilities – but hardly any trees. 
I believe we need everyone from the development chain on board to keep raising the bar for quality urban design and bring quality planting with quality trees back into the mix. 
It’s easy to put plants down the list of priorities, but our communities will feel the effects of sparsely planted landscapes in years to come. 
For example, it is well documented that areas with mature trees, highly planted open spaces and well-maintained reserves are low on crime, they are higher socio-economic areas, offer healthier, happier youth and so on, so this needs to be reflected in new urban communities. 
It’s not enough just to highlight an area and title it a public reserve but then neglect the responsibility to ensure it is planted properly with a vision for the future. 
We are reaching a critical period in urban development where blocks are getting smaller as affordability climbs ever further out of reach of many working Australians. 
The days of large, expansive backyards in metropolitan areas are fast coming to an end, so now more than ever before, developers must appraise the balance of green spaces that are well planted within their developments and drive the future of communities for residents who simply don’t have space for a garden of their own. 
 
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<img src="/images/stories/2012/10/somerfield.jpg">
For example, Fleming’s Nurseries and TLC Landscapes have just completed a public garden (pictured above) in the new residential community Somerfield in Melbourne’s east, which includes a wide selection of trees and shrubs offering colour, texture and visual appeal.
 This “installation garden” has been designed to showcase to developers and planners that garden spaces can be created with a focus on planting while still beautifully balanced with hard landscape value. 
The result is a garden that draws the eye straight away, offering a picnic shelter, sculpted rock walls and pebbled pathways that offset heavily planted garden beds and mature plantings, to illustrate how unique garden designs can be crafted within publicly accessible spaces. 
In a nutshell, better landscaping means we can create better communities that promote happier residents who in turn develop a true sense of place with their surroundings. 
Let’s all work together to bring the garden to the people, for communities that we will all be proud of in years to come.
Wes Fleming is the founder of <a href="https://www.flemings.com.au/default.asp" target="_blank">Fleming's Nurseries.</a>
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Wes Fleming

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