Our first show garden, and in fact, garden constructed from our design, as part of the emerging designers category (now Boutique Gardens) for Landscaping Victoria. The brief was to design a garden using the recently released 'Gardening for Bushfires' guidelines from the CFA. We designed a garden to reflect how nature recovers from bushfires, with various stages radiating out from the central burnt stump (sourced from my parents' property, affected by fires in 2006). Each successive circle shows a gradual progression in the density of planting, finishing in lush mature planting. The mirror reflected the garden, symbolising the cyclical nature of bushfires in the Australian landscape. Thanks to my aunt Dione for letting me borrow the title of her documentary and the amazing team at PTA Landscapes for the construction. We won!

Photography: Meg Geary