Parks & Gardens: A Stroll through the City Botanic Gardens

January 31, 2016 Amalie Wright

Cycling through the City Botanic Gardens, 1896.

Last week I was delighted to take a group of conference visitors on a tour through Brisbane's City Botanic Gardens.

I'd read a book about the first curator, Walter Hill, and picked up a few interesting facts about the gardens over the years, but this was a great opportunity to delve in more detail into what the Queensland Heritage Register describes as "the most significant, non-Aboriginal cultural landscape in Queensland, having a continuous horticultural history since 1828, without any significant loss of land area or change in use over that time."

Click to read more about the history of the gardens.

Event - Treasure Island →

January 31, 2016 Amalie Wright

The State Library of Queensland is hosting the Asia Pacific Architecture Forum this March. Lucky for me, I am one of two local designers who've been invited to rummage through the library's collection of Queensland ephemera, select a couple of pieces and respond in some way.

I've always loved this photo of a diving competition held at the disused Morningside quarry, and it's got me thinking.

Click to read more about the Forum and associated events.

Studio 217 in Mezzanine Magazine

January 11, 2016 Amalie Wright

We are excited to see Studio 217 in the company of some fantastic projects in the current issue of Mezzanine magazine.

U is for Utility

October 11, 2015 Amalie Wright

Typographic design by Nicole Arnett Phillips

As I write I’m sitting in my butterfly chair at the front of Craigston watching people come and go for Open House. (Over 140 through the studio this year – double last year’s numbers!)

Over the road people are streaming around the old Windmill and the Spring Hill Service Reservoirs. Both of these structures were built as pieces of public infrastructure. They had a clear purpose: providing a municipal utility for the emerging city.

Too often public utilities seem to be constructed with the focus firmly on the utility, and not the public. It wasn’t always thus...

H is for Hive

April 10, 2015 Amalie Wright

No bee, no me

We need bees in order to eat. Without pollination by bees our global food supply would reduce by about a third, leaving us without many of the fruit, vegetable, nut, seed and grain crops that sustain us.

It goes without saying that without bees we’d also be without honey, and that would make for a very unhappy Pooh Bear.

Happy bees

It’s easy to make your garden a welcoming smorgasbord for neighbourhood bees, both the European Honey Bee and Australian Native Bees.

1. Don’t use chemicals to control attacks by insurgent insect mobs.

2. Grow a range of plants that flower throughout the year, so there’s always food available.

Native bees like: Buddleja, Callistemon, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Lavender, Melaleuca (Honey Myrtle), Westringia (Coastal Rosemary) and Daisies.

Honey bees in our part of the world also enjoy subtropical species such as Coriander, Basil, Guava, Macadamia, Carambola, Lemon-Scented Myrtle, and Lime.

Learn more by downloading (for free) the excellent Bee Friendly: A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators from the Australian Government’s Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation

3. Grow plants with a variety of different flower shapes and forms.

4. Let flowering plants flower as long as they want, particularly heading into winter.

5. Consider raising bees yourself!

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”

— A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Grow your own

Home-grown honey is a thing of beauty and delight.

I’ve got a mate who’s been keeping bees since before it became Brooklyn-hipster-cool.

He keeps his hives out on another mate’s property near Samford, but you can also raise honey bees in your backyard or on a rooftop.

Make sure your hives are positioned so the flight path doesn’t intersect with your daily activities, unless you feel like a mouthful of angry bee every time you walk outside.

In Brisbane, expert help is available from Bee One Third.

Urban apiarist Jack Wilson Stone can get you started, train you to maintain your hives, and give you tips to help harvest the good stuff.

I had the huge pleasure of sharing a stage with Jack last year, and a more helpful, knowledgeable and cheery chap you are unlikely to meet.

Find out more about Bee One Third’s services, courses and upcoming events on their website. For live updates on swarm relocation and other cool stuff, follow the Instagram feed.

Native bees

Native bees won’t keep you awash in honey but don’t overlook them on account of that. With over 1,500 species, Australia’s native bees are critical for pollinating native flora.

The native Social Stingless Bee (Tetragonula carbonaria, previously called Trigona carbonaria) is also used for pollination of crops such as macadamias, mangoes, watermelons and lychees in Queensland.

The Blue Banded Bee (Amegilla cingulata) specialises in the excitingly named Buzz Pollination, needed for crops such as tomatoes.

You can set yourself up with a native bee hive from Bee Yourself. Versions are available depending on whether you wish to try and harvest some honey, or you’re mainly interested in pollination.

Continue the buzz

Few things get a fixie-riding, cold-drip-drinking, full-sleeve-wearing hipster as excited as a mason jar of local provenance honey.

In Brisbane get your Hood Honey from Biome, Sourced Grocer, Merriweather, Primal Pantry and The Gunshop, amongst others.

Eat it while bee-ing inspired by these 3 TED Talks:

Dennis van Engelsdorp: A plea for bees

Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing

Noah Wilson-Rich: Every city needs healthy honey bees

The Year That Was

December 13, 2014 Amalie Wright

In the blink of an eye we've arrived at the end of another year. Thank-you so much for spending some of your valuable reading time with our little tales.

If you'd like to revisit any particular faves, here's a complete list of the 2014 articles. Click on either the picture or the heading to read.

We're looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks for the 2015 season.

Love and holiday wishes from Landscapology to you!