3rd December 2009

Ellerslie designer asks New Zealanders for help to create 2010 garden

Gold award-winning Ellerslie International Flower Show garden designer Carl Pickens is asking all New Zealanders a simple question: “What can we do to make the world a better place?”

The sustainable landscape architect and organic horticulturalist needs at least 2000 responses to his question by the end of January to help create his exhibition garden for the Ellerslie International Flower Show in March.

Details of the garden design are being kept under wraps until the Show, however, everyone who responses will find their answer “embedded in the design”, he says.

Carl wants all New Zealanders to go online at www.oneearthmatters.co.nz and take a few minutes responding to the Ellerslie Question.

“As a human race, we seem to be at a tipping point where if we continue the way we are, our very existence and experience of life on earth is under threat.

“To make the world a better place, the answers have to come from all of us; everyone has something to offer.”

Carl says with this in mind, he has been inspired to create a garden which invites everyone to share their ideas for building a better world.

The 2010 exhibition garden will be built using the same sustainable principles within a contemporary setting which won him gold at this year’s Show. Carl’s award-winning 2009 Ellerslie garden, Take Five, featured a rain garden, ecodeck, green walls and no-mow lawn, and showcased a range of ideas on sustainability.

• Ellerslie International Flower Show is New Zealand’s premier week-long Garden Party in Christchurch’s North Hagley Park from 10 to 14 March. The Show celebrates Christchurch’s Garden City heritage and the best of national and international garden design. Check out the website for further information www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz

For further information contact:
Ellerslie International Flower Show Communications Adviser
Jan McCarthy
03 941 6412 or 027 637 7912