Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A core part of the Garden City model is to create a street wide, tree-lined feel by requiring houses to be set well back from the street, visually co-opting residents’ front yards as public spaces. In Canberra the result was the famous ‘no front fence’ policy, where low, trimmed hedges were permitted, but not solid fences.
However, it’s not been uncommon for Canberrans to sneakily reclaim their front gardens by putting in plants that eventually provide a sense of separation from the street. They can do this because plants are different from bricks, growing and changing over time, and, under the stewardship of gardening, small shrubs and saplings become tall, substantial hedges.
In this lecture, Dr Julian Raxworthy explores the intersection between landscape design and garden maintenance, the subject of his book Overgrown: practices between landscape architecture and gardening.
Become a member of the Friends of the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/support-us/become-friend
A core part of the Garden City model is to create a street wide, tree-lined feel by requiring houses to be set well back from the street, visually co-opting residents’ front yards as public spaces. In Canberra the result was the famous ‘no front fence’ policy, where low, trimmed hedges were permitted, but not solid fences.
However, it’s not been uncommon for Canberrans to sneakily reclaim their front gardens by putting in plants that eventually provide a sense of separation from the street. They can do this because plants are different from bricks, growing and changing over time, and, under the stewardship of gardening, small shrubs and saplings become tall, substantial hedges.
In this lecture, Dr Julian Raxworthy explores the intersection between landscape design and garden maintenance, the subject of his book Overgrown: practices between landscape architecture and gardening.
Become a member of the Friends of the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/support-us/become-friend
