The Landscaping Podcast

In this episode I speak with Amy Downie, a horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

I was excited to talk to Amy to learn about escarpment horticulture, which she's involved with, and it was as fascinating a chat as I had hoped!

She recently presented at a Botanic Gardens Conference in Singapore about escarpment horticulture, and her passion for her job is infectious, so she was a joy to speak with.

In this episode I speak with Shannon Blackbourn from Panacea Landscapes, a landscaping and maintenance business based in Canberra. 

Shannon has been involved in gardens at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show the past three years, coming 1st and 3rd in the Balcony Garden competition the last two years.

Shannon talks about how she's obtained some business/accounting advice recently to make sure she's ...

In this episode I speak with Daniel Taylor from Taylor'd Waterscapes, a waterscape and landscape construction company based on the Sunshine Coast.

Daniel initially started out working for several landscape companies before starting with Patrick from Waterscapes Australia and finding his passion in aquascaping, working with him for 4-5 years and then starting Taylor'd Waterscapes.

Danie has been to the USA as part ...

In this special edition episode, I speak with 20 different people involved in designing and building the show gardens at the 2025 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

It's a great episode to listen to to get a better understanding of the special meanings and inspiration behind some of the gardens, whether attending the show or not.

0:00 - Intro

3:16 - Trent Cornish - IMG

10:28 - Rob Cooper - Distinctive Garden...

In this episode I speak with Luke Smith, not only from Silverstone Gardening and the Australian Lawn and Garden Podcast, but he's also now the founder of Moqo App, an app for lawn mowing/maintenance contractors.

We talk about the origin of the app and what it does, as well as talking about what he's up to with his maintenance business, and  how his business course is going, now that it's almost been out for a yea...

In this episode I speak with Remi Willems, a gardener based in regional Victoria who spent 6 years working at Paul Bangay's Stonefields.

Remi has a great story of his first gardening memory, and also has plenty of insights into the high end maintenance he's work in his whole career.

He has great plans to coach people to do the same work he does, so it'll be great to following along with his career a...

In this episode I speak with Mike Andes, founder of Augusta Lawn Care. 

Mike started his business early, and has grown it significantly, to now have 100+ franchises in North America, as well as one in Melbourne.

Mike is big on systems within business, and also employs P4P in them, which is Pay for performance, where the employees receive a profit share based on performance.

Mike also talks about the CoPilot CRM he uses ...

In this episode I speak with Rob Cooper from Distinctive Gardens. Rob is a landscape designer based in South Australia, and only recently stopped doing construction within his business.

He's heading a South Australian team, alongside Yergan Landscape and Desert Flower Landscapes, to design and build a garden at this years MIFGS, so we talk plenty about that.

We also talk about Rob's process of communicating with c...

In this episode I answer some questions asked via Instagram.

It's the shortest episode I've ever done, but we'll be back to regular episodes next week.

If you're wanting to sign up to be on the mailing list for The Landscaping School, you can find the link here.

You can follow along with the projects we're currently working on via our Instagram page
@instyle_gardens
@thela...

In this episode I speak with two past guests in Paul Pritchard of Paul Pritchard Landscape Design (ep 69) and Adam Hompas from Adam Hompas Landscapes (ep 66).

Paul and Adam are both based in Melbourne, and since being on the podcast in Spring of 2022, they've teamed up to design and build 2 show gardens in the Boutique Garden category at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, and are going back again this year...

In this episode I answer some questions asked via Instagram.

I also make a major announcement towards the end of the episode!

If you're wanting to sign up to be on the mailing list for The Landscaping School, you can find the link here.

You can follow along with the projects we're currently working on via our Instagram page
@instyle_gardens
@thelandscapingpodcast

You can view ea...

In this episode I speak with Bridget Doyle from Bridget Doyle Landscape Design. Bridget is based in Northern Victoria, but was originally from the NSW Riverina so does a lot of work there, but works all around the neighbouring states.

Bridget started out working for companies that design not only residential gardens, but also commercial ones including early learning centres and aged care facilities, so she had a varied sta...

In this episode I answer some questions asked via Instagram.

There were so many that there'll be another Q and A episode next week.

If you're wanting to sign up to be on the mailing list for The Landscaping School, you can find the link here.

You can follow along with the projects we're currently working on via our Instagram page
@instyle_gardens
@thelandscapingpodcast

You ...

In this episode, I use a program from Google called NotebookLM to make a podcast reviewing episodes which I uploaded from the previous 10 episodes.

AI technology is phenomenal, but also has its flaws. The hosts (which are AI and don't actually exist) don't even mention three or four of the episodes I uploaded, even thought they seem to run out of content and repeat some of the same things four times.

I d...

In this episode I speak with Brendan Eccleston from Brisbane Landscaping Co, a design and construction company based in Brisbane.

Brendan had a great variety of experience prior to starting his business, which included owning a franchise for a lawn maintenance business, where he didn't make as much money as he'd have liked, but did learn a lot for his future businesses, one of which included a short lived partner...

In this episode I speak with Andrew Christopher Dunne, and garden designer from Ireland who also has a mentorship/course called The Garden Design Mentor, which he created after getting great feedback on the advice he was offering on Instagram.

In this episode he talks about how most people learn by doing, and the importance of putting yourself in your client's shoes, understanding their problems and doing more listeni...

In this episode I speak with Daniel O'Callaghan from Nature Build, a landscaping and water feature business based in Bendigo, Victoria.

Daniel started out working in heavy timber construction, so does some beautiful timber work, and he also developed a lot of other skills from working around other skilled tradesmen.

He discovered water features, so headed off to the US to learn from the best, and has honed h...

In this episode I speak with Emma Sage from Sage Journal, an online magazine for the garden industry, sharing stunning projects, education, gardening tips and how to's, recipes and everything else you'd expect to find in a gardening magazine.

Emma is based in Hawkes Bay in New Zealand and originally studied commercial law and marketing and has used her marketing knowledge to build the audience of the magazine.

In this episode I speak with Christian Douglas from Christian Douglas Design as well as The Back Yard Farm Company.

Christian started out in the UK, studying design and having a business partnership which also designed gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show, before leaving this business and moving to California and starting the current businesses.

He discovered a passion for permaculture, and started implementing som...